The Patriarchy has been the ruling norm for society for a long time. It has controlled lives and kept humanity from realizing its full potential. The system of having men be in the space of power has limited humanity in its growth and prevented it from reaching the potential God has ordained humanity to achieve. What if we no longer held male as the dominant humanity to be achieved and saw all of humanity as a prized creation of God? What if we could get past a cis-gendered white maleness to an understanding of full humanity and inclusion of all peoples as equal partners in God’s creation? If patriarchy was not the dominant understanding or norm of life, humanity would flourish in a way God’s kingdom was made to be. To dismantle the current system and see humanity as it was designed to be, we will look at how society understands dominance and understand that in the biblical context, the male was never meant to dominate humanity. When we shift our understanding from a male centric biblical understanding to a humanity centric, we start on the path to all humanity being seen as a productive members of society and over half of society not being controlled for the betterment of the man. To do this, we need to swing the pendulum and see how the female is as important to creation and biblical narrative as the male, and then possibly swing the pendulum to the point of a female centric biblical view. I will argue in this paper that the biblical narrative shows us that the female is as important or more important than the male and show that it takes all of humanity to make God’s kingdom a reality. Man will be a more complete man when we understand the centrality of humanity as God created and not man as the ruling, domineering power in the world.
Humanity is a word that brings a mental picture to mind. When we hear humanity, we see the picture of what humanity is in our minds. What do you see as you read, humanity? Dr. Natalia Marandiuc stated when one speaks of humanity it is seen in our minds as white male humanity.[1] Which a profound statement that all people, would see humanity as white and male. This is the understanding of the society I live in in the United States, where if one is not white or male, you are deemed a second class, if not lower human being. But is this what God intended when creating humanity? The understanding of a male centric society is something those in power put in place to maintain power and keep themselves in that place. The Bible was put together in a way to highlight the male centric understanding and keep those who were deemed as second-class humans in a place of submission. Rosemary Radford Ruether wrote,
“Marxism teaches that all religion is an instrument the ruling class uses to justify its own power and to pacify the oppressed. This makes religion not the means of redemption but the means of enslavement. The very nature of religious knowledge is seen as promoting alienation rather than integration of the human person.”[2]
This tells us that religion was used to keep people in line rather than see them as equal parts of creation. We were taught to see the world in a way that maintained the status quo and kept cis white males in power. We see this in all places in society even today after so many years of fighting for equal rights for woman and people of color. We are still fighting through Black Lives Matter and now for rights for those in the LGBTQIA2S+ community. We still hold to the old understandings that cis white males are the model to acheive in humanity. Our society teaches this, as does our religion. James H. Cone asks, “Is it possible to strip the gospel as it has been interpreted of its “whiteness,” so that its real message will become a live option for radical advocates of black consciousness?”[3] To reinterpret this quote in light of all oppressed groups, I would say is it possible to strip the gospel of its “whiteness,” so that the real message of the gospel will become a radical advocate of all humanity. The white male should not be the central human of society. We do not see the richness of God’s creation in this centrality, and we lose so much beauty by not seeing the total inclusion of all peoples as a beloved diverse humanity Cone continues:
Is this not why God became a man in Jesus Christ so that man might become what he is? Is not this at least part of what St. Paul had in mind when he said, “For freedom, Christ has set us free” (Gal. 5:1)? As long as man is slave to another power, he is not free to serve God with mature responsibility. He is not free to become what he is – human.[4]
Again, we need to expand Cone’s understanding from black man to all of humanity and see that as long as one is held down by another power, no one is free to be what God created us to be. Humanity is not male. Humanity is all genders and the beauty in the diversity of creation. To maintain that cis white male is the only true human is to deny God’s creation and the beauty therein.
To see this from a feminist view, Laurel Schneider wrote, “If, in a world of embodied differences, one body is not to be elevated above all others, then the image of incarnate God cannot reduce to a single reference or single body.”[5] We cannot see male as the perfect part of humanity simply because Jesus was a male. Or because we were taught that Adam was male when the word in Hebrew, we transliterate as Adam means human, and although it is a masculine word does not mean the first human was male. This is seen in the difference of words for human (אָדָ֛ם)[6] and the word for male (זָכָ֥ר) [7] and female (וּנְקֵבָ֖ה) [8]. Humanity is not just male. Humanity is all those created by God to have a part in being, “in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth,51 and over all the creatures that move on the earth.” (Gen. 1:26)[9] All humanity is made in the likeness of God, in the image of God. Does that mean we cannot see the image of God without all of humanity? Meaning I am not the complete image of God without every other person created by God. Thus, we do not see the beauty of the kingdom and God without the diversity of all creation, and to say that the male white human is the best part of humanity is saying we understand God better than God understands God’s self. Elizabeth Johnson reminds us, “God is spirit and so, beyond identification with either male or female sex.”[10] Johnson continues later:
the Bible allows us to speak of maternal traits of God (Visser’t Hooft); to transform our over masculinized culture, we need to relate to the feminine traits of God (O’Hanlon); although we have forgotten this, the God of revelation has feminine traits such as tenderness (Congar); God is not simply male but has maternal traits (Kung). In this way of speaking God remains Father but in a way tempered by the ideal feminine, so that believers need not fear or rebel against a crushing paternalism.[11]
Johson shows us that God is neither male or female and speaks of God in a way that does not deny the feminine aspects of God and moves us into a new understanding. Johnson starts her view and explanation of the Trinity from the Spirit, the feminine aspects of God. As the “Spirit is the creator and the giver of life.”[12] We need all aspects of humanity to see the divine beauty and mystery. We cannot just focus on the male and expect to actually see the image of God.
Sojourner Truth said, “I can’t read, but I can hear. I have heard the bible and have learned that Eve caused man to sin. Well, if woman upset the world, do give her a chance to set it right side up again.”[13] A freed slave who was outspoken about woman and black rights shows us that God and woman brought Jesus here to bring us all to the understanding of our lives in God, she said later, “Man, where is your part?”[14] Women are as strong as men and have as much, if not more to add to society. We cannot continue to say that male humanity is the dominate humanity and we need to help people see a diverse picture of humanity when they hear the word humanity.
This truly comes down to a change in the understanding we have as a society. We need to give up what we have learned and see the biblical message as one of inclusion and not power for a small specific part of humanity. Ruether wrote, “Jesus thus rejects not only the use of religion to sanctify dominant hierarchies but also the temptation to use prophetic language simply to justify the revenge of the oppressed.”[15] Ruether here reminds us that Jesus is for the oppressed. When we turn Jesus around and make his life to be about the dominant power or use his words and teachings to keep powers in place that dominate and subject people to a place of powerlessness or non-equality, well that is using God for your own purposes and is not the real message of love that God shares and spreads. Ruether continues:
The baptismal formula in Paul’s letter to the Galatians extends this theme into a vision of a new social order in which all relations of sex, race, and class of human divisiveness will be overcome in Christ. Baptism anticipates this new society in the Church in which there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free. In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus speaks of the reign of God’s Shalom simply as “God’s will done on earth.”[16]
Paul shows us, in Galatians 3:28, and as Ruether points out that all clarifications of human divisiveness are done away within God’s kingdom. Baptism negates all categories, all labels, all identifiers that would presume to separate us. Baptism makes us all equal. Sex, race, class, status, none of these things has bearing on our part in the kingdom of God. When we as humans say that one part of humanity is of a greater worth than another, we usurp the place of God and claim we understand God’s creation better than God does, or the we know what God’s intention more clearly than God does. There are many feminine images for God and for us to say that male is the central part of humanity is not fully understanding the Imago Dei. We are changing the Imago Dei to fit the model for keeping cis white maleness in power, I insist that for the beauty of humanity to be expressed, seen, and understood we need to drop a male central humanity and see the feminine aspects as equal parts.
Nothing separates us from God, not our race, our sex/gender, not our social status and we as humans need to understand that these things also do not make us less human or less of a human. When we can see all of humanity as the image of God and know that each one of us is a part of the whole of the image of God, then we will come to understand and see the beauty of creation. When we can see that I am not more of a human because I am a cis white male than anyone else we will understand the love of God and we will start the shift from male centered humanity to see all humanity as the beauty that God created. This is the start to fulfilling the kingdom and seeing all humanity as human. When we all finally hear the word humanity and don’t see a cis white male, but the beauty of diversity of all humanity. A person who is not Jew nor Greek, Slave nor Free, Male and Female. Humanity!
[1] Stated in class HTH711 – Theology & Social Justice on 11/29/2023
[2] Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology. P 17
[3] Cone, James H. Black Theology and Black Power. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. P. 33
[4] Ibid p 39
[5] Kamistsuka, Margaret D. ed. The Embrace of Eros: Bodies, Desires, and Sexuality in Christianity. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. P. 242
[6] Accordance Bible Software
[7] Accordance Bible Software
[8] Accordance Bible Software
[9] Accordance Bible Software
[10] Johnson, Elizabeth A. She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. Crossroads Publishing. P. 5
[11] Ibid p 49
[12] Ibid p. 131
[13] Sojourner Truth Ain’t I a Woman Speech.
[14] Sojourner Truth Ain’t I a Woman Speech.
[15] Ruether. P. 29
[16] Ruether. P. 26
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