Review article
https://doi.org/10.5559/di.20.1.12
INSTITUTIONALISED CHRISTIANITY AND THE QUESTION OF GENDER HIERARCHY
Nadja FURLAN
; Science and Research Centre, Koper
Abstract
The paper develops, from a feminist point of view, the issues
of emergence and presence of patriarchal principles, gender
hierarchy and unequal distribution of power between the
genders within Christianity. First of all, it poses the question
as to whether patriarchal supremacy is proper to and
ordained by the Christian tradition or has developed and
strengthened throughout the process of the
institutionalisation of Christianity. The western world, shaped
under the influence of Christianity, has been recording an
increased number of critical questions concerning the issue
of gender hierarchy within individual Christian Churches, the
Catholic Church in particular. The patriarchal character of
the Church order is called into question and put under a
microscope. With the help of a scientific methodology that
employs the hermeneutic key of feminist theology the paper
endeavours to trace the origins of patriarchal androcentrism
and unequal appreciation of the two genders. The results of
the discussion corroborate the hypothesis that during the
process of institutionalisation the Catholic Church adopted
the patriarchal denotation of the culture in which it
developed, and confirm the theory that Christianity in its
doctrine sets a strong imperative of gender equality,
grounded both in the person of Jesus Christ and his attitude
towards women as well as in the Bible.
Keywords
gender hierarchy; gender equality and the Bible; institutionalisation of Christianity; patriarchalisation of Church and Christianity; feminist theology
Hrčak ID:
65360
URI
Publication date:
17.3.2011.
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