REVISION: Developments in Christian Thought - "GENDER AND SOCIETY"

Revision notes for A-level Religious Studies (OCR)

Seven pages

DCT – SOCIETY

GENDER + SOCIETY

Key terms:

• Feminism
• Gender biology
• Gender identification
• Gender expression
• Socialisation
• Patriarchal society
• Gender dysphoria
• Misogyny

EFFECTS OF CHANGING VIEWS ON GENDER + GENDER ROLES IN CHRISTIANITY

• Roles of men + women in family and society:
• Hermeneutics
• Genesis 1
• Both genders reflect nature of God
• Genesis 2: “no suitable helper”
• Implied inferiority
• ‘Helper’ depends on translation
• Genesis 3: Eve tempted by serpent
• Women weaker will than men
• Men shouldn’t let women take lead in decision-making
• Ephesians 5: “Wives, submit yourselves"
• Husbands must love their wives like their own bodies
• Paul
• Cultural norms of 1st century Rome
• Patriarchal society
• Comparisons to Church + Christ’s relationship
• 1 Peter 3: ‘weaker sex’
• 1 Timothy 2: women must learn in silence + never assume authority over man
• ‘Head’ in Greek also translates to source of life
• ‘MULIERIS DIGNITATEM’
• JOHN PAUL II
• Response to rise of feminism
• Virgin Mary recognised as theotokos
• Gender roles
• Mariage is mutual relationship of equals
• Genesis 2
• Women shouldn’t take on male roles
• “Feminine originality”
• Motherhood + parenthood
• “The woman’s part”
• Cultural shift in attitudes to women
• Rejects feminist criticisms (eg de Beauvir + Frieden)
• motherhood demeaning to women
• MARY THE MODEL OF MOTHERHOOD
• Special value God place on motherhood
• MYSTERY OF GENERATION
• Mystery inherent in Trinity
• ‘sincere gift of self’
• Man +woman ‘one flesh’
• MUTUALITY
• “Special debt to the woman”
• ACTIVE MOTHERHOOD
• Different types of family:
• "Intact families
• Blended family relationships
• CATECHISM OF CATHOLIC CHURCH: “does not tolerate ‘trial marriages’”

Christian responses to contemporary secular views about roles of men + women in family and society

Conservative Protestant Christian responses

• Biblical theology is timeless
• Gender roles:
• Purely biological, not product of culture
• Foucault
• KATY RUDY
• Gender roles illustrate power the ‘Right’ in American politics + society
• Mistrust of socially liberal ideologies
• Feminism cause of family breakdowns
• Men + women created equal but different
• Complementarianism
• Motherhood + parenthood:
• Woman’s role ‘domestic haven’
• Christian home place of refuge, love, peace
• Eve = ‘mother of all living’
• Paul: husband must provide for family
• Different types of family:
• Critical of feminism, cohabitation + same-sex relationships
• Feminism has led to eroticisation
• Foucault
• Couples expect too much from relationships
• Christianity values permanency
• Relationships too private + egocentric
• Christian family should look outwards
• Same-sex parents not truly Christian