Toward Eve’s Exodus: Un-misrecognizing androcentric reproductive labor ideology in Christian right rhetoric and Genesis 1–3
In an American context of reproductive injustice, the Christian right legitimizes a coercive pronatalist policy agenda by appeal to the theological belief that ‘human life begins at fertilization,’ which they ground in the biblical narrative of Genesis 1-3. Drawing upon interdisciplinary resources a...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2022
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| In: |
Body and religion
Year: 2022, Volume: 6, Issue: 2, Pages: 169-195 |
| Further subjects: | B
Hebrew Bible
B socio-narratology B Feminist Hermeneutics B reproductive labor B Anthropology B Christianity B Religion in relation to other subjects B Reproduction B Procreation B Feminist Theory B Ideology B Judaism B Genesis 1–3 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | In an American context of reproductive injustice, the Christian right legitimizes a coercive pronatalist policy agenda by appeal to the theological belief that ‘human life begins at fertilization,’ which they ground in the biblical narrative of Genesis 1-3. Drawing upon interdisciplinary resources and utilizing an innovative feminist methodology, this article demonstrates that, while the story of pro/creation in Gen. 1-3 does not directly support ‘life at fertilization’ theology, it does provide a de facto undergirding for that conceptualization via its highly androcentric ideology of reproduction. Through symbolic, mythical narration of how ‘life’ comes to be, Gen. 1-3 constructs a central fiction of the Father God’s paternal reproductive omni-potence, which is built upon God’s colonization of agents with the capacity for maternal gestation labor and his violent destruction of those agents’ collective autonomy and capacity for reproductive anti-labor. In its ancient religious context, this rhetoric championed God’s patriarchal, patrilineal world-building project, which served those establishing and reinforcing a society that generated power and wealth for dominant men. As a story deeply socialized through lived religion over time, it operates now as a contemporary social fact that the Christian right exploits to construct its own, more extreme fiction of paternal omnipotence. Illumination of the Gen. 1-3 narrative’s oppressive constructions of women as reproductive laborers/anti-laborers - symbolized by Eve and other agents - enables feminist religio-cultural narrative intervention. A new story of life’s pro/creation is needed in both religious and secular settings to liberate ‘Eve’ and advance the movement for reproductive health, rights, and justice. |
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| ISSN: | 2057-5831 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Body and religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1558/bar.26668 |
