Feminism: The Truly Christian Stance

I’ll be the first to argue against the concept of original sin. For starters, there’s no concept of original sin in Judaism even to this day. And secondly, the concept wouldn’t arise until the 2nd century struggle against Gnosticism, the term itself not being officially coined until St. Augustine in the 4th or 5th century. I also believe that the doctrine of original sin leads to all sorts of nonsense beliefs, such as the immaculate conception - the completely unnecessary belief that Mary must have been conceived without sin in order to be able to carry Jesus later in life. Not only is there no basis for that in early Christian tradition or scripture, but it also points out a rather large flaw in the narrative of salvation, namely that it makes clear that anyone could have been conceived without sin if God so wished it, thus negating the need for Christ. In short: Not a fan.

However, that all being said, I do find the Christian reading of the story of Adam and Eve in the Eden to be an interesting one, and I do think that we can use that very same reading to dismantle certain patriarchal norms that have found themselves so heavily embedded into Christian psyches.

To recap, the Christian reading of the Garden of Eden story goes something like this:

Adam and Eve were created in a garden which was the perfect abode for humanity as imagined by God. They were meant to live in peace and harmony with God and all creation. However, because they were tempted by the talking serpent (who is never explicitly stated to be Satan), they fell from grace and sin and death entered the world. Additionally, as a consequence of their disobedience to God, they were punished. For Adam, the punishment is that he must toil in pain to produce food. For Eve, the punishment is pain in childbirth and subordination to her husband. For them both, they are exiled from Eden and told they will eventually return to dust.

Already, from a historian’s viewpoint, this tale is obviously an attempt at explaining why childbirth hurts despite being necessary to the continuation of the species as well as why farming is so inherently awful. Stories like these are called “etiologies”. They attempt to explain why the current manner of things came into existence. We see similar stories in cultures across the world, including the famous African folktale which attempts to explain why mosquitoes buzz in people’s ears by saying they are asking if we’re still angry about something a mosquito did a long time ago. As we know today, etiologies are essentially never reflective of the actual truth. And I would argue that people in the past also knew that, but enjoyed telling the stories regardless.

Now, historical reliability aside, I want to turn to an interesting aspect of this story. The astute observer may have noticed that Eve receives more punishments than Adam. Each is exiled from Eden and destined for death, so that’s two curses each. Adam is cursed to toil for food, so that’s a total of three for him. But Eve is cursed to painful childbirth and subordination to her husband, bringing her total to four curses, and curses that I would argue are harsher than Adam’s.

Of course, this, too, is an etiology for the state of the ancient world. “Why do men run the world?” one may ask. And the answer would be, “Because God made it thus.” - a perfect excuse for stripping women of rights and maintaining male hegemony. I mean, you wouldn’t want to upset God, would you? Then it’s best to keep listening to your husband or father and quit trying to be an equal. This is the native reading of the story, the reading you get if you read the plain meaning of the text. However, I think a Christian reading of that story actually undermines male hegemony despite what many traditionalist Christians would have you believe.

See, if the Eden story is the fall, the introduction of sin and disharmony to mankind and the punishment for going against god, then it would follow that what was happening in the garden prior was exactly as God wanted it to be. This means that male dominance over women is a consequence of the fall rather than a natural state of the world, or even God’s desired state of things. To the Christian who wishes to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven, who wishes to see things returned to the pre-fall state that God originally envisioned, who sees Christ as the one through whom all things will be restored, male dominance is a symptom of sin and something which must be overcome. To continue to engage with patriarchy is to insist that Christ has not changed your heart and has failed to point you back toward the state of sinlessness.

A Christian reading of Genesis would tell us that male supremacy is a symptom of the very same curses which brought death into the world, the very same curses that Christ is supposed to liberate us from. Now, there is not much we can do about farming being toilsome work, nor much we can do to stop childbirth from being a traumatic process, but we absolutely have control over whether we maintain the patriarchy born from the fall, that insidious symptom of sin which insists that not all the children of God are made with the same value.

If you want to take Genesis seriously as a Christian, then that means taking women seriously. It also means giving them a seat at the table.