No Battle Between the Sexes – Part 4
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)
Jesus is reigning on high as Lord of all. Women and men are called to take this Good News to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). At Pentecost the Holy Spirit fell on all the men and women who were gathered empowering them to carry out this task (Acts 2:17-18). The Holy Spirit also gifted women and men alike to serve in the Church and the world (I Corinthians 12:4-14).
Mutuality, not patriarchy was God’s plan. Throughout the Bible and history we see that women and men serve Christ together. In our first post (4-4-19) we looked at the story of creation in the Bible. Humans were created male and female as equals, with an equal image of God. They were to serve with mutual respect and authority and rule the earth together (Gen. 1:28).
In the second post (4-11-19) we followed what happened to humans in history. Complementarians try to make a case citing traditionthat women are to be in subordination to men. What actually happened was that after Adam and Eve fell, men sought to maintain power and control over women. In spite of the fact that God clearly commissioned Adam and Eve as equal partners in the garden, throughout history women have been treated like second class citizens as men seek illegitimate rule over them. God is the ruler over His children equally, but men began to interpose themselves in a hierarchy of leadership.
In the last post (4-18-19) we looked at the complementarians’ attempt to justify their position of the eternal subordination of women to men theologically. But the Bible does not contain a single verse that says that men are superior to women. Complementarian theology is weak at best and as we have demonstrated it falls short of the standard in God’s Word and His working throughout history.
This week we will focus on the philosophicalaspects of the complementarian view that women were only created to serve men. Once complementarians began to interpret the Bible in a way that supports their theology, consequences followed. Without using proper exegesis to come to the truth, one would expect to find errors in other areas of their thinking and this is indeed the case.
Philosophical inquiry includes getting answers to questions in four areas: epistemology (knowledge), ontology or metaphysics (being), teleology (purpose) and ethics (values and practice). To have a balanced worldview, all four aspects of philosophy should be consistent with each other. If one part of a worldview system is not in balance with the others, the philosophy is inconsistent.
God created in an orderly fashion. He also made human beings in His image. Most Christians agree that part of the image of God is to be able to think and reflect in an orderly manner. There should be a unity between ontology and ethics in order to have a consistent worldview.
When the complementarians say that women “are equal in being (ontology) but different in roles (ethics)”, they are essentially inconsistent in their philosophy. This is important because complementarians have said that a woman’s subordination is both necessary and permanent. If a woman’s role status is essential, then it must be part of her nature (being). This is a false dichotomy.
Gnostic errors in the past have tried to separate the physical from the spiritual, but orthodox Christians recognize the essential onenessin our being. Christians have traditionally understood that humans are holistic beings. The Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is/are One. A human is also one complete being. Women are complete in every way as equal children of God. As a human reflecting the Image of God and gifted by the Holy Spirit for service, there is no false division of her person so that men can justify subordinating her. Men came up with this idea to justify their hierarchical thinking.
Another reason that many just accept the idea that women must be in necessary and permanentsubordination to men is that they are following what other scholars have said. Christians in our day just accept the complementarian views of Drs. Grudem, Ware, and Piper without looking further. Untrained Christians do not know how to counter the complementarians’ duplicitous arguments even when they sense that something is wrong. It is our hope that these posts will enlighten those who want to know the truth.
One wonderful example of a man who had a hierarchical view but changed his mind when faced with the evidence is the popular writer, Dr. C. S. Lewis. Dr. Lewis promoted a hierarchical view of gender in his early works such as in the Space Trilogy – Perelandra, That Hideous Strength,andOut of the Silent Planet .Following Thomas Aquinas and other philosophers, Lewis believed women were created (essentially) to be in subordination to men. Characters in Lewis’s early novels reflect his view of the superiority of male over female.
Lewis was a traditionalist and just accepted the hierarchical view. He lived in the post-Victorian age when women had few opportunities outside of the home. He was also a college professor at Oxford University at a time when women were not granted degrees for their work. During a space of thirty years, Lewis gradually changed his thoughts on gender after his marriage to Joy Davidman and his friendship with Dorothy L. Sayers. He also had several outstanding female students in his classes. By the time he wrote The Chronicles of Narnia (1949–1956), Lewis was treating the characters in his stories as equals. (Remember King Peter, Queen Susan, King Edmund, and Queen Lucy?) Dr. Lewis had learned first-hand that women could equal men intellectually.
What changed Lewis’s philosophy? C. S. Lewis came to realize that “Christian responsibility is dispersed horizontally in terms of appropriate talents, rather than vertically downward through a hierarchy based on class, gender, or religious status.”[1]Another way to say this is that C. S. Lewis came closer to the view of mutuality of service based on gifts, rather than on the hierarchy of the complementarians. Dr. C. S. Lewis actually came to the true Biblical, historical, theological, and philosophical position. Dr. Van Leeuwen demonstrated that the more mature C. S. Lewis would not have wanted a “Sword Between the Sexes”.
Women are meant to work with men in God’s kingdom. Women are equally empowered and given authority for kingdom work by the Holy Spirit. In modern patriarchal churches, women have been stripped of their opportunities as God’s image bearers to serve even in leadership positions. When there is an unbalanced view of the scriptures, men, women, and society all lose. While men spend more time making sure they get to be in charge rather than studying Scripture, history, genuine theology, and consistent philosophy they miss out on the whole of God’s beautiful plan of redemption. Without the help of the other 50% of the “so great a cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) the Gospel is not reaching as many as it could.
These posts (“No Battle Between the Sexes”) are meant to expose the erroneous thinking of the complementarians so that Christians will “Renew Their Thinking” as the name of our blog suggests. It is possible to “be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Ephesians 4:23) even as Dr. C. S. Lewis was.
Our posts so far have demonstrated that the hierarchical thinking of complementarians is Biblically inconclusive, historically inaccurate, theologically incoherent, and philosophically inconsistent. In next week’s post (Part 5) we will explore the dangerous and tragic consequences of continuing to hold a view of women’s supposed inferiority. The subordination of women is ethically irresponsible.
[1]Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen, A Sword Between the Sexes: C. S. Lewis and the Gender Debates (Grand Rapids, M: Brazos Press, 2010) page 257.
