John Calvin on the Status and Role of Women in Church and Society
Churches that find their theological origin in the Calvinist Reformation seem to experience difficulty establishing theological clarity on the role that modern women should play within the church. The question that the modern Calvinist tradition faces and that this contribution addresses is whether...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2017]
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| In: |
The journal of theological studies
Year: 2017, Volume: 68, Issue: 1, Pages: 178-211 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Calvin, Jean 1509-1564
/ Woman
/ Gender composition
/ Exegesis
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| IxTheo Classification: | HA Bible KAG Church history 1500-1648; Reformation; humanism; Renaissance KDD Protestant Church NBE Anthropology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Churches that find their theological origin in the Calvinist Reformation seem to experience difficulty establishing theological clarity on the role that modern women should play within the church. The question that the modern Calvinist tradition faces and that this contribution addresses is whether greater openness to gender equality in the church will amount to a serious subversion of the essence of Calvinist theology. After providing an overview of the state of current scholarly discourse, this essay analyses Calvin’s view on the created status of women, husband-wife relations, and the role he ascribes to women in the church and in the public sphere. Thereafter it evaluates the consistency of Calvin’s exegesis and the compatibility of his doctrine on gender with the basic tenets of his theology. The finding is that Calvin’s exegesis on the status of women is forced and that he alters the meaning of texts, specifically the creation account, to fit his theological position. His patriarchal understanding of gender relations also creates tension with other aspects of his theology, such as his two kingdoms doctrine, the imago Dei, and the original goodness of creation. His position on women therefore provides a mixed and often inconsistent picture, rather than an authentic example of his theological project. As a result, Calvinist churches might be forced to move beyond Calvin himself to develop a doctrine on gender that fits within the Calvinist theological corpus. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4607 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of theological studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jts/flw201 |