How the Church Has Been Good for Women... and Other Ways It Is “Essential”
“…the feminist paradigm has quite successfully framed Christianity and the Church as misogynist, patriarchal, and harmful for women…. reframes pagan religions and cultures as being pro-woman, at least until Christianity gained prominence. This narrative, however, doesn’t match the historical realities.” - Breakpoint
If you want to understand how the judeo-christian perspective of women differed from pagan societies, just pick up Herodotus. He goes into great detail about how women were treated both in Greece and in the surrounding cultures.
A couple citations you can check:
1.93 - on the Lydians
1.135 - on the Persians
1.196, 1.199 - on the Babylonians
1.216 - on the Massagetai
4.104 - on the Agathyrsoi
4.172 - on the Nasamones
4.180 - on the Auseans
It’s probably an error to speak of “feminism” as if it’s monolithic, as there are all kinds of different types of feminism. Most of us would actually probably fall almost into the Susan B. Anthony bin where we’d argue that women ought to be allowed to vote, hold property, and hold a job in the same way men can. Most of us would not fall into the classification that endorses abortion up to birth.
So perhaps we ought to say that Biblical Christianity is the most pro-woman thing going. Obviously there are any number of feminists of different types that would disagree with us, but even the disagreement opens us up the discussion and the possibility of persuasion.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Discussion