In his Republic, Plato accordingly presented a utopian vision of the ideal state in which truth, morality, and intellect should be valued over emotion.

Moreover, as irrational beings, women may not always know what they really want, and so it is the man's domain to decide for them. If women, by Plato's terms, are those men who fell prey to their irrational, emotional side, and are therefore incapable of reason, it syllogistically follows that women are incapable of making rational choices. This theory maintains that women not only follow men, but are less than perfect men, returned to earthly life in order to perfect themselves. Kasubhai further elaborates on Plato's creationism and its effect of subordinating women to men: 4 By placing women on the same level as animals, Plato revealed an underlying view of women as not fully human. Moreover, Plato only briefly discussed the creation of women in conjunction with the creation of birds, mammals, reptiles, and fish. In contrast, a man who failed to master his irrational, emotional proclivities was considered incapable of reason and would be reborn as a woman. However, the soul of a man who conquered his emotions and developed his intellect would be blessed after his death and reborn as a man. 1Ĭomprised of only males, the first community of souls enjoyed equality with one another. According to Platonic creationism, all souls were originally implanted in male bodies and given volition, sensation, and emotion. From his theory on the creation of humankind, Plato provided a philosophical foundation for gender inequality that was implicitly adopted by the Jewish and Christian thinkers that followed him. GENDER IN EARLY JUDEO-CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHYĪ discussion of Judeo-Christian philosophy would not be complete without an understanding of the views of the ancient Greek philosophers. Finally, Part III applies Loyalist philosophy and presents a model of women's roles in the family, church, and greater society.

In addition, this section critiques the approaches of the various schools and concludes that the Loyalist School is the most defensible branch of Christian Feminism. Second, Part II of this paper sets forth the five schools of Christian Feminism and discusses their methods of Biblical interpretation. This paper seeks to address such challenges from traditional feminists by first, examining the roots of female subordination from early Judeo-Christian philosophies, and second, surveying the emerging branches of Christian Feminism which purport to reconcile Biblical texts with the goals of gender equality.īy way of introduction, Part I of this paper provides a brief overview on the role of gender in traditional Judeo-Christian thought. Although philosophers from Plato to Rousseau expounded on the natural inferiority of the female gender, Judeo-Christian doctrine has perhaps received the most criticism from feminist thinkers as providing an ideological justification for gender inequality. The history of Western legal thought has often been blamed for laying the philosophical foundations of gender subordination. American Journal of Biblical Theology Gender in Judeo-Christian Tradition:Ī Critique on Christian Feminist Philosophies

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