Most religions, by their nature, are in a constant process of change.
The understanding of, and position of women in world religions has been
part of these changes. This essay will seek to examine the conflicting
views found in religion that on one hand affirms the equality of men and
women as human persons while on the other hand views women as subordinate
to men both socially and in their being (ontologically). This conflict
will be examined by reference to two religions of differing backgrounds;
Hinduism and Christianity.
Nature of world religions
Many world religions are viewed as ‘patriarchal’ religions. This understanding of world religions can refer to various elements of religious behaviour; projection of male concerns and male imagery, lines of descendancy based on male succession or the organisation of sex roles.
Myth and religion act to provide a charter for society. They can be seen as an attempt to explain and justify the existence of humanity and society. Part of this search involves the choosing of sex roles that will direct the behavioural patterns between the sexes. These resultant roles can be seen as a product of various factors, such as the surrounding environment, the subsistence activities necessary to ensure survival, and basic physical and emotional needs of both sexes.
The resultant sociological patterns can best be described as containing strong elements of male domination. Several reasons have been suggested as to why such domination arises. Sanday suggests that male domination arises when the preexistent conditions of an outer orientation (pursuing the power “out there”) and a separation of the sexes exist, and a situation of severe stress emerges, such as war, that brings a sense of strong male bonding and power. Eli Sagan suggests that societies will pass through a natural stage of development from a kinship and confederation base to a centralised monarchy. A hierarchal social system is created with a powerful king who demands loyalty from his subjects, and a religious orientation based on a sacrificial system. Young identifies the rise of kingdoms through warfare as a central tenet to male domination. Such activities lead to increased male authoritarianism, exclusive spheres, and increased separation anxiety.
With these ideas on why such domination seems to arise, I will turn to an examining the origins and historical movements of various religions. This will give an insight into the rise of particular attitudes within these religions. Young identifies two groupings of religions that characterise their beginnings. These are classed as ethnic religions and universal religions.
Ethnic religions have their basis in a social structure based around kinship relationships. Religion helps preserve a sense of separate ethnic identity, and aids in protection against migration and the threat of cultural assimilation. This grouping includes the religions of Judaism, Hinduism and Confucianism.
Out of ethnic religions grew Universal religions . As a society moves
from an ethnic to a universal identity, due to outside stresses, a cultural
reformation takes place. Part of this reformation includes religious reform.
These reforms are so extensive that they are regarded as creating a new
religion. A charismatic leader initiates these changes that seek to return
society back to its original social and cosmic order. Membership comes
through association, not birth. This group includes Islam, Christianity
and Buddhism.
We now turn to an examination of the historical changes in the position
of women within a particular branch of an ethnic religion and a universal
religion.
Hinduism - an ethnic religion
Hinduism as an ethnic religion had developed strong patriarchal tendencies due to factors such as subsistence lifestyle and constant warfare before the the writing of the earliest Hindu text by Indo-Europeans in India. This text, the Rg-Veda (dated around 1500 B.C.E.) gives an insight into the changing understanding of the nature of women, their role in salvation, and their role in society.
While early Brahmanical religion as portrayed in the Rg-Veda inherited male dominance, Indian settlement brought about an improvement in the status of women. The role of wife and mother became directly related to the preservation of the social and cosmic order. Their belief structure was centred around the family unit, with deities being primarily receptive to these family units. Despite the male being the patriarchal head of the household, it was the wife that was the necessary ingredient for the presence of deities. She was to be directly involved in the religious rituals. Such elements were deemed necessary for the fulfilment of Brahmanical goals. The life affirming nature taught through the Rg-Veda gave women both a sense of equality and importance in the religious life of the Hindu community.
The position of Hindu women began to decline as the Brahmanas expanded
their religion. The increasing number and complexity of hymns and rituals
demanded followers undertake long periods of education to enable proper
understanding and usage of such tools. This necessitated a need to remove
the role of education out of the family home and into the hands of teachers.
While Brahman boys were encouraged to undertake this Vedic education, such
an path became optional and often impractical for girls.
An eduactional gap between the sexes emerged and continued to widen. As education became the exclusive activity of males, the nature of true enlightenment (molka) changed. The higher pathway to enlightenment became knowledge based. This pathway automatically excluding women. The Brahmanic view of women began to change. No longer were they essential and equal partners in a families religious life. They were regarded as ignorant, and seen as impure during times of menstruation and childbirth. As, a result, male children became the preferable offspring. In an attempt to maintain some female social status, chastity and purity became a substitute for knowledge for the upper castes. Young suggests that the situation had turned around to the extent that a lack of learning counted positively for a married woman.
This deterioration in female status continued. On top of being ignorant, the ascetic perspective of the Aranyakas and Upanishads defined women as symbols of rebirth. They were prohibited from taking up an ascetic lifestyle, and were totally incapable of achieving enlightenment. The Hindu life cycle had come to be almost completely different for the sexes. The woman's life was divided into three phases; maidenhood, marriage, and either self-immolation or widowhood. The cycle revolves around rebirth and has little room for enlightenment. The male life cycle included studentship, householdship, forest dwelling and renunciation. Ideally, enlightenment is gained through this cycle. Only one phase is shared between the sexes.
Some improvement took place under Gandhi. Women were encouraged to undertake
education and partake a limited role in public life alongside their husbands.
However, there exist some contradictions in these modern advancements.
Legislative gains often had unpleasant side effect. This can be seen in
the Women’s Right to Property Act .While upper class women made gains under
this act, lower caste women lost their customary property rights.
Christianity - a universal religion.
Christianity began as a reform movement out of Judaism. This reform
had such wide implications that it was rapidly changed from being viewed
as a Jewish sect to a new religion. It was a movement from a ethnic based
religious system to one that was socially inclusive. This can be seen in
much of the teaching of Christianity’s founder, Jesus. He stood at odds
with the accepted values and institutions of both Jewish and Roman
societies, and his message was one that overturned the existing systems
of social discrimination. Those who were oppressed had the opportunity
to be first in the kingdom of God. While women were not overtly identified
as one of these oppressed groups, women, such as the woman of Samaria were
often used to portray such groups.
Subordination and Equivalence
The tension between equivalence and subordination have been present since the early days of Christianity.
Subordination theologies are derived from a claim that a patriarchal social order is the natural and divinely created order. Ruether claims that such concepts arises from a male oriented concept of the doctrine of God;
“Starting with the basic assumption that the male
is the normative human person and,
therefore, also the normative image of God, all
symbols, from God language and
Christology to church and ministry, are shaped
by the pervasive pattern of the male as
centre, and the female as subordinate and auxiliary”
Ruether argues that these patriarchal images of God set up a type of dualism that “divide what essentially belong together and sets them over against each other in hierarchically arranged orders of good and evil, domination and subordination”. However, it does not appear that male dominance automatically correlates to the existence of supreme male deities as suggested by Sandy. Young indicates that when this analysis is extended, there is no correlation between the gender of deities and a particular sexual domination within a society. It is possible for strong female deities to exist within a social context of male domination.
There is a strong sense of misogyny that can be traced back to the ascetic movement from the third century. Augustine taught that all sexual desire is sinful. The only way women could possibly redeem themselves was through sexual purity. Virgins were upheld as an Godly example, but women were hated. A popular formula was struck upon; “Sin came through a woman, but salvation through a virgin”.
Eve was viewed as responsible for the entry of sin into humanity. Her desire to act independently led to a destruction of paradise. Therefore, any attempt by women to go against their God ordained position, even under situations of violence or severe hardship was seen as constituting rebellion against God. Her subordinate role in society and her inferior humanity are part of God’s divine punishment. It is an attempt to stop independent thinking women from again leading others into sin. With the male as the norm, and the female as the author of sin, the female finds herself in a position moral, ontological and intellectual inferiority.
A theology of equivalence comes from an understanding of the Genesis account of creation where men and women are equal possessors of the image of God.
“So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Male and female are members of an equal partnership, and stewards of creation. Any loss of this equivalence through sin is seen as being restored in the new order proclaimed by Christ.
“There is no longer . . . male or female; for all are one in Christ Jesus.”
Any scriptural curse on women is not viewed as divine punishment for sin, but as a statement of the distorted natural order created by human sinfulness. When the Christian faith is entered into by baptism, this distorted nature is reversed. All are equal in the sight of God and eligible to play a role in the leadership of the church. The role of women in leadership affirmed by the apostle Peter’s quoting of the Jewish text, declaring that God will raise both women and men into roles of prophecy. It is male dominance that has become the sin.
While this sense of human equality is so entrenched in our western psyche,
it was regarded as an abominable suggestion in many other culture. Great
thinkers such as the Greek philosopher Aristotle would be horrified at
any suggestion of all people being created as equal.
Early Historical Movements.
The tension between these two views can be traced throughout early church history. Woman played important roles in the life of Jesus. He had women disciples (though none were in the head group of twelve), and women were the first to witness his resurrection. Members in the early stage understood that all were equal before God. This can be seen in Paul’s reciting of an existing baptismal confession which announces that there is no distinction between male and female in the sight of God. Human equivalence in the image of God has been restored. Women were encouraged to undertake important roles in the young church, such as that of travelling evangelist or local church leader.
Despite this, Paul struggled with the theological tension between creational subordination and an eschatological equivalence. His rabbinic background emphasised a creation order that oppressed women both socially and ontologically. The resultant uncertainty led to a theology that left itself open to these two opposing principles.
Ruether identifies the development of two separate and opposing branches of Christianity that claim Pauline authority around 85 - 135 C.E. The first group can be characterised as charismatic, prophetic, egalitarian and often ascetic. They gave women full equality and encouraged leadership inside and outside of the church. Examples of this movement include Montanism, Gnosticism (to an extent) and the Acts of Paul and Thecla. Such movements were often condemned as heretical by the wider church.
The second group moved Christianity into an institutional structure, which was based on the patriarchal family structure found in the rabbinic tradition. I would suggest that these changes can take even subtle forms. A possible basis for this comes from the historian Luke. In his first account of the Christ’s ascension into heaven he clearly gives the message that the role of apostle was to be given to all followers. While the eleven disciples are specifically mentioned, they are not singled out. Women were fully included in Jesus’ commission. However, when the story is retold in his second book around 85 C.E. ,Jesus is specifically addressing his eleven disciples, and appoints a specific leader. Thus we find a narrowing of the role of women. Fiorenza argues that this move from egalitarian to a patriarchal pattern of make dominance was an attempt to accommodate Roman Culture within Christianity.
This structure was based on a patriarchal understanding of Pauline theology.
It is suggested that certain interpolations into the Pauline text stretch
the already existent dualism, possibly as an attempt to refute the ‘radical’
version of Pauline Christianity. The success of these groups had the effect
of “defining the final strata of the New Testament which provide the lens
through which the entire New Testament would subsequently be read.” Thus,
traditional Christian views can be traced to these “expressions of post-Pauline
patriarchalising Christianity which is in conflict with the heirs of .
. . earlier egalitarian teaching.” Here we find a departure from the original
radical teachings of the religions founder. His message of equivalence
gradually returns to previous models of patriarchalism and subordination.
Conclusion
I have attempted to demonstrate that the position of women as understood by religion has varied over time. As Ethnic religions develop over time, the ‘traditional’ understanding of women also developed. Thaper finds that in the “process of handing down a tradition from one generation to another, it is bound to change. What is regarded as tradition today may . . . only have been invented four or five generations ago.” Our example of Brahmanic Hinduism demonstrated how the position of and understanding of women degenerated over time. The example of Christianity demonstrated how women were active in the initial stages of universal religions. However, the radical new teachings of the charismatic founder are diluted over time to the stage where previous patterns of male dominance again become the norm. The reasons for this pattern in both ethnic and universal religions also vary over time.
Part of the dilemma in attempting to understand this conflict is that we carry with us our own social conditioning to the issue. It is virtually impossible to reach a value free historiography in the interpretation of the various texts. We can read these texts through either a patriarchal understanding or a liberational viewpoint. Even our views on sexuality are moulded by our social conditioning. The question still stands; Do men and women share equivalence? I believe that we are so polluted by our history and social conditioning that question has become impossible to answer.