Buddhism
The role of women in 3 Buddhist schools.
The Buddha was ambiguous about women.
- Theravada Buddhism
- Mahayana Buddhism, the status and roles of women are recognized more favorably
- In the Vajrayana or Tantric school of Buddhism bisexual rituals are a central means of advancing spirituality and achieving enlightenment. The female symbolizes wisdom and emptiness, while the male represents compassion and the conventional form. Therefore, there is a true equality between these male and female symbols.
Modern Christianity
Over the past two millennia the role of women in Christianity has been shaped by a general worldview dominated by patriarchy and its institutions.
- This has been due to the interpretations of male scholars of the bible to a more patriarchic view.
- The critique of patriarchy and the traditional portrayals of women’s roles emerged not only from the modern expansion of women’s education, civil rights, voting privileges, and economic opportunities.
Separatism:
The Free Churches
The Roman
Catholic Position
This radical tradition does not see the state as one of the orders of God’s creation. Rather it sees the state as a threat to the church, in some cases portraying the state as the “devil.”
- These radical Christians call for a separation of the Christian community from the secular state. This position later took the form of Donatism, named after its 4th century leader, Donatus.
- refusing to pay taxes, hold civil office, serve in the military, and to take any oaths to civil authority. Many “separatists” had to pay for their resistance with death, torture, or imprisonment.
The Status And Roles Of Women
While the Roman Catholic position regarding the state has been complex and not uniform, it has held to three primary principles:
- 1) The ecclesial authority is distinct from the civil authority, each free to carry out its special mission.
- 2) For the well-being of humans and society there must be harmony between the church & state.
- 3) In matters pertaining to both institutions, the power of the civil authority must be subordinate to the guardianship of the spiritual authority.
Today, the R. C. Church affirms religious liberty, while also spelling out the responsibilities and the limits of the state in relation to religious practice.
The Modern
Secular State
Islam
- Status and roles of women ambiguous in most world-historical religions, .
- Often, the status of women has been considered inferior
- Many activities prohibited in hierarchical, institutionalized societies
Hinduism
- Separation of the church and state can be used by the State to restrict religious freedoms or influence religion for its own secular purposes.
- Some restrictions are legitimate, such as ensuring neutral treatment of religion in a pluralistic society and to prevent unwarranted influence over the state. (the Constitution).
- In the 20th c. secular states, such as the Soviet Union, Albania, and France, restricted as much as possible the influence of religion in the life of the nation, often driven by resentment of the authority and privileges enjoyed by one religion in the state.
1. The man’s right to pick a girl, as young as eleven, for his wife.
2. Purdah (veil or curtain), isolation women in seclusion. Sexually polluted/ menstruation and childbirth.
3. Widows must undergo tonsure, must dress differently from women, and are denied inheritance rights.
Widows are to throw themselves on their husbands funeral pyre (Salti),
The place of women in Islam has a complex history and is frequently distorted in the West.
- Many parts of the Qur’an imply egalitarianism.
- Common spiritual obligations are addressed equally to both sexes.
- As Islam spread to other lands in the Middle East, where patriarchy and misogynist attitudes were already entrenched, Islamic laws and customs reflected these practices.
- Wadud-Muhsin points out the importance of interpretations of the Qur’an.
- A new reading may bring to light the error of reading patriarchy into depictions of God and also traditional notions of women’s inferior status.
Religion and State
- Since Constantine became a Christian (312 A.D.), the relationship between religion and state has been complicated.
- Many religions are suspicious of the state because so often it demands an allegiance that challenges or conflicts with religious values of loyalties (Mennonites and Anabaptists).
- Others make no separation between religion and state = theocracy (Islam and Christian Reconstructionism)
“Culture Wars”
The “Two Kingdoms”
- Prominent in the teaching of Martin Luther. God who uses both the church and state to accomplish his purposes.
- Can lead to complacency regarding the state’s authority. Ex. Germany during the 20th c. with Hitler.
- For most persons today, Luther’s argument from scripture for the Divine right of government, and his distinction between private and public morality is not only a dubious but also dangerous doctrine.
- 1777 Jefferson wrote that no one should be forced to support religion, but free to practice.
- In 1786 incorporated by the Virginia General Assembly into the Act for Establishing Religious Freedom.
- In 1787 the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified by Congress.
- a long and contentious discussion and debate in the U. S., over the interpretation of the two clauses of the First Amendment.
- In 1802, Jefferson wrote that the establishment clause entailed “building a wall of separation between Church and State.” The opposed insisted that such a wall wrongly entails a complete disconnection resulting in a secular state. The minority religious groups in America argued that the U.S. courts have not been neutral and have prohibited these groups from the “free exercise of religion.”
Ch15 "Contemporary Challenges to Traditional Religion"