10-21-2010

"There is a deep vein of androcentrism and phallocentrism in Christian ideologies where a male human-divine figure (Jesus), acting on the wishes of a male creator God, offers hope and promise of a better world, along with truth, wisdom, and salvation for both women and men."

Nye, Malory. "Religion: The Basics." New York: Routledge. 2008.

In this passage, Nye argues that Christianity is inherently androcentric, in that it hinges upon both a male creator and male prophet/salvation/avatar figure. He argues that ultimately this lack of a female presence contributes to the oppression of Christian women, as men are always in hierarchical positions of power, while women are subservient. Even in Catholicism, he argues, women are without a realistic female model of Mary, as she is a virgin and represents an untouchable level of chastity.

However, I wonder if this is accurate--after all, Christ was a virgin for life, unlike Mary, who did bear children later. In fact, Christ is only man in the sense of sex--he really carries out no male gender-roles, and he has no sexuality. In fact, he broke many gender-rules. This is what makes him divine--it is only his flesh and phallus that makes him a man. So, in a sense, Christ was almost the first gender-bender, and though we cannot deny that the Church has placed women into a domestic role, we must also recognize that the androcentrism we see in the New Testament is really caused by the momentum of its presence in the Old.