Patriachy and Christianity

Patriarchy and Christianity

Patriarchy literally means "rule of fathers”, from the Greek πατριάρχης (patriarkhēs), "father" or "chief of a race, patriarch”. Historically, the term patriarchy was used to refer to autocratic rule by the male head of a family. However, in modern times, it more generally refers to social systems in which power is primarily held by adult men.

Patriarchy is a social system in which the male acts as the primary authority figure central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination. Many patriarchal societies are also patrilineal, meaning that property and title are inherited by the male lineage. The female equivalent is matriarchy.

Historically, patriarchy has manifested itself in the social, legal, political, and economic organization of a range of different cultures. Patriarchy also has a strong influence on modern civilization, although many cultures have moved towards a more egalitarian (classless) social system over the past century.

Patriarchy is based on a system of power relations which are hierarchical and unequal where men control women’s production, reproduction and sexuality. It imposes masculinity and femininity character stereotypes in society which strengthen the unfair power relations between men and women. The nature of control and subjugation of women varies from one society to the other as it differs due to the differences in class, caste, religion, region, ethnicity and the socio-cultural practices. Patriarchy within a particular caste or class also differs in terms of their religious and regional variations. Similarly subordination of women in developed countries is different from what it is in developing countries. While subordination of women may differ in terms of its nature, certain characteristics such as control over women’s sexuality and her reproductive power cuts across class, caste, ethnicity, religions and regions and is common to all patriarchies. This control has developed historically and is institutionalized and legitimized by several ideologies, social practices and institutions such as family, religion, caste, education, media, law, state and society.

 

Patriarchy – a societal construction

Patriarchal societies propagate the ideology of motherhood which restrict women’s mobility and burdens them with the responsibilities to nurture and rear children. The biological factor to bear children is linked to the social position of women’s responsibilities of motherhood: nurturing, educating and raising children by devoting themselves to family. The traditionalist view accepts patriarchy as biologically determined and as the biological functions of men and women are different, the social roles and tasks assigned for women are also different. Sigmund Freud views that for women ‘anatomy is destiny’ and it is women’s biology which primarily determine their psychology and hence their abilities and roles. The traditional notion of ‘public - private division’ which located politics in the public sphere and family and personal relationships in private sphere as non-political, believed that sexual inequality is natural and not political. While the political sphere was preserved for men the private sphere was reserved for women as housewives and mothers who were excluded from politics. The dismantling of these theories enables us to acknowledge that patriarchy is man-made and has developed historically by the socio-economic and political processes in society.

Structures of Patriarchy

The first lessons of patriarchy are learnt in the family where the head of the family is a man/ father. Man is considered the head of the family and controls women’s sexuality, labour or production, reproduction and mobility. In a patriarchal family the birth of male child is preferred to that of a female. The former is considered as the inheritor of the family over the latter.

Family plays an important role in creating a hierarchical system as it not only mirrors the order in the state and educates its children but also creates and constantly reinforces that order. Family is therefore important for socializing the next generation in patriarchal values. The boys learn to be dominating and aggressive and girls learn to be caring, loving and submissive. These stereotypes of masculinity and femininity are not only social constructs but also have been internalized by both men and women. While the pressure to earn and look after the family is more on the man, the women are supposed to do the menial jobs and take care of their children and even other members of the family. It is because of these gender stereotypes that women are at a disadvantage and are vulnerable to violence and other kinds of discriminations and injustices. Systemic deprivation and violence against women: rape, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, female foeticide, infanticide, witch killing, sati, dowry deaths, wife-beating, high level of female illiteracy, malnutrition, undernourishment and continued sense of insecurity keeps women bound to home, economically exploited, socially suppressed and politically passive.

Patriarchal constructions of knowledge perpetuate patriarchal ideology and this is reflected in educational institutions, knowledge system and media which reinforce male dominance. More subtle expressions of patriarchy was through symbolism giving messages of inferiority of women through legends highlighting the self-sacrificing, modest, pure image of women and through ritual practice which emphasized the dominant role of women as a faithful wife and devout mother.

The mechanism of control is operated through three different levels. The first device was when patriarchy was established as an ideology and women had internalized through stridharma to live up to the ideal notion of womanhood constructed by the ideologues of the society. The second device was laws, customs and rituals prescribed by the brahminical social code which reinforced the ideological control over women through the idealization of chastity and wife fidelity as highest duty of women. The third was the state itself which supported the patriarchal control over women and thus patriarchy could be established firmly not as an ideology but as an actuality. Therefore gender relations are organized within the structural frame work of family, religion, class, caste, community, tribe and state.

Patriarchy and religion

Patriarchal constructions of social practices are legitimized by religion and religious institution as most

religious practices regard male authority as superior and the laws and norms regarding family, marriage, divorce and inheritance are linked to patriarchal control over property biased against women. A person’s legal identity with regard to marriage, divorce and inheritance are determined by his or her religion, which laid down duties for men and women and their relationship. Most religions endorse patriarchal values and all major religions have been interpreted and controlled by men of upper caste and class. The imposition of parda, restrictions on leaving the domestic space, separation between public and private are all gender specific and men are not subject to similar constraints. Thus the mobility of women is controlled. They have no right to decide whether they want to be mothers, when they want to be, the number of children they want to have, whether they can use contraception or terminate a pregnancy and so on and so forth. Male dominated institutions like church and state also lay down rules regarding women’s reproductive capacity.

Caste and gender are closely related and the sexuality of women is directly linked to the question of purity of race. The caste system and caste endogamy retained control over the labour and sexuality of women. Caste not only determines social division of labour but also sexual division of labour. Ideologically concepts of caste purity of women to maintain patrilineal succession justified subordination of women. The establishment of private property and the need to have caste purity required subordination of women and strict control over their mobility and sexuality. Female sexuality was channeled into legitimate motherhood within a controlled structure of reproduction to ensure patrilineal succession.

Women in Hebrew Culture

 This Christian teaching was not only fundamental in the Ancient Greek and Roman world, but also in the Hebrew culture prevalent at that time. The Rabbinic Oral Law (now recorded in the Talmud and Midrash) not only barred women from speaking in public and reading the Law (Torah), but women were also forbidden from testifying in court. As one Rabbinic teaching put it: “It is shameful” to hear a woman’s voice in public (Berakhoth 24A). Another Rabbinic teaching asserted: “Let the words of the Law (Torah) be burned rather than be committed to a woman…If a man teaches his daughter the Law, it is as though he taught her lechery” (Sotah 3.4)

 For this reason synagogue worship was meant to consist only of male participants. Women, if present, were to be passive listeners, separated from the men by a “michetza” (partition). These women were never to raise their voices. Only the men were to do the singing or chanting. It was only by the late 18 th Century in Reformed synagogues that Jewish women were permitted to sing.

Patriarchal Christianity and Liberation

The Christian church from the beginning was understood as a community of liberation from slavery and oppression, drawing on the ancient theme of Israel as an exodus community from slavery in Egypt and a journey to enter into the Promised Land. Baptism was at first embraced as the sacrament of conversion and transformation through which one entered this community of liberation that overcame all social hierarchies of ethnicity, class and gender, a baptism into the Christ-nature in whom there is no more Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female. But this vision of a community of discipleship of equals was quickly spiritualized and the concrete reference to changing social hierarchies denied.

Soon the patriarchal voice was reinstated in the household codes: Wives obey your husbands, children your parents, slaves your masters, a reiterated demand for obedience of subjects to their lords in New Testament texts that itself witnesses to the fact that many Christians understood baptism and entry into the church as really overcoming these relationships of domination socially, as well as spiritually.

Bible verses that are often used to justify patriarchy, the male superiority and female submission are a misinterpreted view of the male role. Eve (Gen chs 2-3), is often misinterpreted, particularly by Christians, to be disobedient to patriarchal God and man, and to many a generalized symbol of womanhood that must be submissive and subject to discipline, somehow ignore the responsibility of Adam in the scene.

Patriarchy, Women and Jesus

There is no recorded instance where Jesus disgraces, belittles, reproaches, or categorizes a woman. They interpret the recorded treatment and attitude Jesus showed to women as evidence that the Founder of Christianity treated women with great dignity and respect.

Until the latter part of the twentieth century, only the names of very few women who contributed to the formation of Christianity in its earliest years were widely known: Mary, the mother of Jesus; Mary Magdalene, disciple of Jesus and the first witness to the resurrection; and Mary and Martha, the sisters who offered him hospitality in Bethany.

Paul and patriarchy

Many feminists have accused notions such as a male God, male prophets, and the man-centered stories in the Bible of contributing to a patriarchy. Though many women disciples and servants are recorded in the Pauline epistles, there have been occasions in which women have been degraded and forced into a second-class status. For example, women were told to keep silent in the churches for "it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church".

Greek civilization accorded an extremely low status to women, not allowing them to have any meaningful social life in public, or in the presence of men, even in private. Women had little or no social value. As Sophocles wrote: “Silence is an adornment to women”; Euripides asserted: “Silence and delicacy are most beautiful in women and remaining quiet within the house”. Aristotle declared: “Silence gives grace to women”. Homer wrote: “Speech shall be for men”. Euripides wrote: “Women, specious curse to man”. Aeschylus wrote: “Evil of mind is they and cunning of purpose, with impure hearts”. Aristophanes wrote: “For women are a shameless set, the vilest of creatures going”. Homer wrote: “One cannot trust women!”

Paul puts women minor to men in Eph.5:22-24 may be looked into as an affirmation of Platonic teaching of women-“A woman's virtue, if you wish to know about that, may also be easily described: her duty is to order her house, and keep what is indoors, and obey her husband." Men who abuse often use Ephesians 5:22, taken out of context, to justify their behavior, but the passage (v. 21-33) refers to the mutual submission of husband and wife out of love for Christ. Husbands should love their wives as they love their own body, as Christ loves the Church. Following the pattern of Christ means that patterns of domination and submission are being transformed in the mutuality of love, faithful care and sharing of burdens. ‘Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ’ (Ephesians 5.21).

A Legacy of Liberty - an abstract

By the Lord Jesus granting women a previously unknown respect and status He not only broke with the anti-female culture of His era, but He set a high standard for His followers to emulate. Because of the teachings and actions of our Lord Jesus Christ over the centuries Christianity has progressively achieved for women greater respect, dignity, honor and protection. The actions and teachings of Jesus raised the status of women to new heights, to the consternation and dismay of both His friends and enemies. By word and deed Christ went against the ancient accepted practices that stereotyped women as socially, intellectually and spiritually inferior. It is to Christianity that we owe marriage as a mutual partnership, the rejection of polygamy, and the promotion of monogamy and marital faithfulness as the cultural ideal- must also be remembered. In granting women respect, dignity and protection, Christianity broke with the prevalent anti-female prejudices of the Ancient world, of pagan cultures and Eastern religions. All the freedoms and advantages which women enjoy today are as a result of the teachings and example of Jesus Christ and the progressive work through the centuries – of the Church, though it desires discussions. However, if present anti-Christian trends continue one could see a return to the previous pagan abuses of women. Those advocating pornography, sexual permissiveness, homosexual “marriages”, legalized prostitution, lowered age of consent and the decriminalization of adultery are not offering us progress but only a return to pre-Christian paganisms.

Conclusion

Rejection of patriarchy as the order of creation for society, also obviously means rejecting it as the appropriate order for the church. If the church in its essential nature is a community of liberation from patriarchy then it should most particularly witness to an alternative pattern of relationship between its members based on a discipleship of equals and mutual empowerment. It can witness to an alternative relationship of humans to each other and to the rest of creation in the larger society only if it witnesses to such alternative relations in its own basic processes of life, and ministry in its sacraments, educational work, administration and mission to society. A church which claims to be the sacrament of liberation for society while it representing the worse patterns of oppression internally is compounds sinful distortion with hypocrisy and is simply unbelievable.