A Feminist Interpretation of The Position Of Women in Paul's Church, In Light Of 1 Cor 11:2-16.
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Date
2005
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Tangaza University College
Abstract
I propose to dedicate this thesis as a monument to womenfolk in their struggle and
aspiration for equality. I am stuck and moved by the plight of many women in the world
together with the condition of young girls who face a bleak future on account of their
sexual identity. I am prone to ask why they have to encounter mammoth impediments
and undergo unparalleled suffering unlike their male counterparts. The women of this
world need the atmosphere and opportunity to experience their humanity without undue
discrimination and exploitation because of their gender. Thus this paper will aim at
nurturing their efforts to uplift their status.
Paul has been vehemently vilified as a male chauvinist whose writings have
helped to orchestrate and hold firmly in place the patriarchic interests. More so excerpts
of his writings have been singled out as contributing to the undermining of the woman
and her position in society. I will try to exonerate Paul of this condemnation by showing
that he was a product of his times. What he projects was an accepted norm of the day.
Feminist theologians hold that these writings are used against women to perpetuate
female subordination in the church. Many hold him responsible for negating the freedom
won for women by Christ and to relegating them to a subservient position.'
I will aspire to undo the negative impact that the Bible has orchestrated in the
marginalization and stigmatization of women in the church and society at large. I intend to neutralize elements and voices of chauvinism which are based on fear, aim at
discrediting women in order to maintain the status quo.
It is my humble plea and prayer that women will hold fast and march on
relentlessly till they are accorded their rightful place in society. Without this the human
community will remain unaccomplished so long as the crucial women element is left out
of its projects. So long as women are marginalized, so long as little girls are made to feel
like second class citizens in comparison to their fellow boys, than society will be doing
itself a major disservice. Though the strides made in political, social, medical, industrial
spheres have been great and monumental. the inequality, the disparity between the gains
and position of women and men is invariable, and hence need for amendment.
The endowments, the giftedness. the nature imbued in women are rare gems that
the human society stands in need of The society will not fully benefit from the richness
that womanhood is enshrined with if women continue to be kept at the fringe of society
and as second-class citizens playing second fiddle to man. Their God given right and
sense of full personhood God gave to them should be allowed to flourish without being
encumbered by man-made obstacles, such as man-made fears and projections. Here in the
Third Millennium, it is high time that women took and assumed their rightful place in
society without feeling as if they were trespassing. They need not apologize for the fact
of being created distinct yet equal and mutually co-dependent with men.
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Keywords
Feminist, Women Position, Paul's Church, 1 Cor 11:2-16