Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2009 / The Year of St. Paul: St. Paul's Enlightened View of Women
The Year of St. Paul: St. Paul's Enlightened View of Women
by Fr. Richard J. Cassidy special to The Michigan Catholic
Published March 20, 2009
Editor's note: This is the third in a five-part periodic series on the Year of St. Paul.
To his shame, George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), renowned as a playwright, yet highly erroneous as a Biblical scholar, preposterously characterized St. Paul as "the eternal enemy of Woman."
Shaw formulated such a mis-characterization on the basis of certain Pauline texts that he read in isolation from their context within Paul's writings. Further, Shaw neglected to consider the positive references regarding Paul's collaborative ministry with women that are also found within his letters.
In the space available, it is not possible to treat all of the texts in which Paul speaks about women. Yet, by concentrating upon Galatians 3:28 as the key text for disclosing Paul's fundamental perspective, it is possible to grasp immediately that Paul's view of women is not negative, but rather highly enlightened.
In writing to the Christians of Galatia, Paul has used his first two chapters to assert, through various arguments, that the dominance of Jew over Gentile is now overcome because of Jesus Christ. Now, in Galatians 3:28, he elaborates that, because of the new creation wrought by Jesus Christ, two other forms of "domination'" are also overcome: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
If the domination modality of male over female has ended as a consequence of the new creation achieved by Jesus Christ, what replaces this mode of interacting? According to Paul's writings, the replacement is a thoroughgoing mutuality between women and men.
In regard to marriage Paul encourages mutuality between wives and husbands in chapter seven of First Corinthians. In the matter of marital sexuality, in the case of marriage with unbelievers, and in the matter of spousal salvation, Paul attributes to wives a worth and dignity fully that of their husbands. I Corinthians 7:16 is just one example of Paul's pathbreaking approach. Here Paul attributes the same saving role to both wives and husbands: "Wife, how do you know whether you will save your husband? Husband, how do you know whether you will save your wife?"
To be sure, there are texts within First Corinthians (and in Paul's other letters) in which the apostle's words seem at first glance to place women in a subordinate position. For example in I Cor 11:5-16, Paul argues strenuously that women should wear veils when they prophesy at worship assemblies. Yet who has encouraged and authorized women to undertake such a prophetic role in the first place? Paul himself is the one who has brought women to such prominence at Corinth!
In addition to his teachings affirming women, Paul also collaborated with many women as his journey unfolded. Lydia of Philippi and Phoebe of Cenchreae were just two of Paul's valued co-workers. In addition, the married couple of Priscilla and Aquila, shared Paul's trade of tentmaking and, more importantly, his passion for evangelizing.
In our own day, there has been no more gifted interpreter of Paul's perspective that women and men share a deep mutuality than Pope John Paul II. In an important section of his classic work, "The Theology of the Body," this pope brilliantly analyzes Paul's exposition in Ephesians 5:21-33 regarding the sacrificial love of spouses as imaging Christ's sacrificial love for the Church.
When all of the misinterpretations are set aside, what thus emerges is that, in the second half of the first Christian century, Paul was, in effect, the most significant promoter of women! (George Bernard Shaw's view is inverted!) Because he was so remarkably ahead of his contemporaries in this regard, the question now presents itself: From whence did Paul derive his enlightened perspective?
Paul possessed brilliant intellectual gifts and had the benefit of the best in Greek and Jewish education. Yet none of these influences was the source for his enlightened perspective regarding women.
No, Paul's fundamental enlightenment occurred on the road to Damascus at the time of his conversion. He learned of the great worth of women after he responded, "Who are you, Lord?" Intensely, at that moment, Paul began to view all things according to the manner in which Jesus Christ, his Lord, views all things.
Fr. Richard J. Cassidy is a professor of sacred Scripture at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit, and author of "Paul In Chains: Roman Imprisonment and the Letters of St. Paul."
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