Thursday, March 6, 2008 at 1:01am
And God created women
Column: A Heretic in Babylon
In logia 114, the last saying in The Gospel of Thomas, Simon Peter says to Jesus, "Let Mary (Magdalene) leave us, because females are not worthy of life." Whoa, hold on there, partner. Ever heard of sexism? Unfortunately, Jesus' response to Peter doesn't sound very politically correct either, "I myself will guide her so that she will become male, so that in spirit she will resemble you males."
This passage in Thomas has several levels of meaning. First, it points up the (mythological) contest between Simon Peter and Mary Magdalene that can be found in a number of early Gnostic-Christian texts, such as Thomas, The Gospel of Mary (Magdalene), The Gospel of Philip and the Pistis Sophia. In each instance where Peter attacks Mary, the reader is meant to understand that such attacks were veiled references to the early battles between the "orthodox" Church of Rome (represented by Peter) and "Gnostic" Christianity (represented by Mary Magdalene). Each time Peter verbally attacks Mary, the author is actually ridiculing the Church of Rome for denying women positions of power and influence in the Church, even as it continues to deny them today.
The passage from Thomas also tells us something about the spiritual status of women in ancient times. The ancient patriarchs of the Greco-Roman world, which included Judeo-Christianity, believed in a hierarchy of beings in the universe, to which they often referred as the "Great Chain of Being." This hierarchy of beings began with the highest deity, continued down through lesser divine beings and angels, down to human heroes, then to average men, then to women, and finally down to demons and nature spirits. Women, in this system of thought, were not just inferior to men, they represented an inferior life-form! The early Church father Tertullian, for example, believed that even women's souls were, by nature, inferior to those of men.
Tertullian was hardly alone in that perception. The first of the two creation stories in the biblical book of Genesis represents this point of view in the Judeo-Christian tradition. "Eve" (Hebrew for "woman" or "womb of man"), we learn, was not part of God's original plan of creation. She was merely an afterthought, a favor to Adam (Hebrew for "man"), because he was lonely and needed a helpmate. Worse still, when God did get around to creating woman, he didn't create her out of the same substance, the earth, as he had Adam, but out of man himself. That God used one of Adam's ribs to create Eve suggested that, not only was woman an inferior creature, but that she would always be dependent upon, and subordinate to, her husband.
Thus, when Jesus tells Peter that he will make Mary equal to "males," he means that if women participate in the gnosis, or true spiritual knowledge, that he brings, women can become the spiritual equals of men. Gnostic Christians, unlike the orthodox, accepted women as leaders and teachers in their churches, and encouraged women to seek spiritual advancement. The Church of Rome, beginning with the apostle Paul, believed just the opposite. Since women were inferior creatures, they should be kept spiritually ignorant.
No wonder so many women today are involved with groups that encourage the divine feminine. Even the goddess movements, which seem like an anachronism, are efforts by women to offset the ancient patriarchal image of women as temptresses, impediments to men's spirituality, and inferior creatures under a male God's heaven.
While I support the feminist agenda in overturning all this patriarchal nonsense, I also see an inherent danger in the woman-as-divine concept. By abruptly elevating women from inferior beings to goddesses leaves out the essential middle step: women as fully equal, and fully human, beings.
For all of that, the women's movement is still a very good thing. Not only has it been good for women, but also for men. Hard as it is to believe, women have convinced many of us that we have, if not exactly a feminine side to our nature, at least a soft side — a truth we (due to testosterone poisoning of the brain, no doubt) have successfully repressed for millennia.
Even more surprising is the fact that the men's movement has produced a huge shift in male attitudes toward women. Doing our own work, we have come to see just how destructive patriarchalism has been, to women, to our Mother, the Earth, and to ourselves. Because of our own transformation, we are now able to champion women in their efforts to empower themselves.
This brings us back to the issue of the divine feminine. In men's work, we spend a lot of time getting in touch with the dark side of our nature — moving out of denial. We come to realize that we can't move forward unless we deal with our shadow. We come to recognize that our shadow is part of who we are, and will always be with us. Knowing that, we can do work to claim it, wrestle it and finally come to terms with it. It is this kind of work that seems to be lacking in many groups of women seeking the divine part of themselves. Divinity is fine, but that's only half of who we are.
In a recent article on the divine feminine in the magazine What Is Enlightenment, Elizabeth Debold writes, "Aphrodite, after all, is not just the goddess of love but is capable of ruthless vengeance and jealous destructiveness, particularly toward other women." And I might add that the Hindu goddess Kali, devourer of all things, wears a necklace of human skulls and has blood dripping from her fangs. That image is just as much a part of the feminine archetype as the horrific warrior image is for the male archetype. Men and women are both divine and diabolical. We have both natures within us at all times. When we choose to deny one or the other side of ourselves, our lives don't work all that well.
Perhaps it is necessary for many women to seek divinity within themselves before they can find their true humanity. But let them not ignore their shadow, as men have done for all too long. Real men love and adore women, not because they are goddesses, but because they represent the other half of our humanity.
— — —
Richard Hooperis a former Lutheran pastor and author of "The Crucifixion of Mary Magdalene," "The Gospel of the Unknown Jesus" and "Jesus, Buddha, Krishna and Lao Tzu: The Parallel Sayings." His email is {email Richard@sanctuarypublications.com}Richard@sanctuarypublications.com{/email}. © Copyright 2008 by Richard Hooper.
This passage in Thomas has several levels of meaning. First, it points up the (mythological) contest between Simon Peter and Mary Magdalene that can be found in a number of early Gnostic-Christian texts, such as Thomas, The Gospel of Mary (Magdalene), The Gospel of Philip and the Pistis Sophia. In each instance where Peter attacks Mary, the reader is meant to understand that such attacks were veiled references to the early battles between the "orthodox" Church of Rome (represented by Peter) and "Gnostic" Christianity (represented by Mary Magdalene). Each time Peter verbally attacks Mary, the author is actually ridiculing the Church of Rome for denying women positions of power and influence in the Church, even as it continues to deny them today.
The passage from Thomas also tells us something about the spiritual status of women in ancient times. The ancient patriarchs of the Greco-Roman world, which included Judeo-Christianity, believed in a hierarchy of beings in the universe, to which they often referred as the "Great Chain of Being." This hierarchy of beings began with the highest deity, continued down through lesser divine beings and angels, down to human heroes, then to average men, then to women, and finally down to demons and nature spirits. Women, in this system of thought, were not just inferior to men, they represented an inferior life-form! The early Church father Tertullian, for example, believed that even women's souls were, by nature, inferior to those of men.
Tertullian was hardly alone in that perception. The first of the two creation stories in the biblical book of Genesis represents this point of view in the Judeo-Christian tradition. "Eve" (Hebrew for "woman" or "womb of man"), we learn, was not part of God's original plan of creation. She was merely an afterthought, a favor to Adam (Hebrew for "man"), because he was lonely and needed a helpmate. Worse still, when God did get around to creating woman, he didn't create her out of the same substance, the earth, as he had Adam, but out of man himself. That God used one of Adam's ribs to create Eve suggested that, not only was woman an inferior creature, but that she would always be dependent upon, and subordinate to, her husband.
Thus, when Jesus tells Peter that he will make Mary equal to "males," he means that if women participate in the gnosis, or true spiritual knowledge, that he brings, women can become the spiritual equals of men. Gnostic Christians, unlike the orthodox, accepted women as leaders and teachers in their churches, and encouraged women to seek spiritual advancement. The Church of Rome, beginning with the apostle Paul, believed just the opposite. Since women were inferior creatures, they should be kept spiritually ignorant.
No wonder so many women today are involved with groups that encourage the divine feminine. Even the goddess movements, which seem like an anachronism, are efforts by women to offset the ancient patriarchal image of women as temptresses, impediments to men's spirituality, and inferior creatures under a male God's heaven.
While I support the feminist agenda in overturning all this patriarchal nonsense, I also see an inherent danger in the woman-as-divine concept. By abruptly elevating women from inferior beings to goddesses leaves out the essential middle step: women as fully equal, and fully human, beings.
For all of that, the women's movement is still a very good thing. Not only has it been good for women, but also for men. Hard as it is to believe, women have convinced many of us that we have, if not exactly a feminine side to our nature, at least a soft side — a truth we (due to testosterone poisoning of the brain, no doubt) have successfully repressed for millennia.
Even more surprising is the fact that the men's movement has produced a huge shift in male attitudes toward women. Doing our own work, we have come to see just how destructive patriarchalism has been, to women, to our Mother, the Earth, and to ourselves. Because of our own transformation, we are now able to champion women in their efforts to empower themselves.
This brings us back to the issue of the divine feminine. In men's work, we spend a lot of time getting in touch with the dark side of our nature — moving out of denial. We come to realize that we can't move forward unless we deal with our shadow. We come to recognize that our shadow is part of who we are, and will always be with us. Knowing that, we can do work to claim it, wrestle it and finally come to terms with it. It is this kind of work that seems to be lacking in many groups of women seeking the divine part of themselves. Divinity is fine, but that's only half of who we are.
In a recent article on the divine feminine in the magazine What Is Enlightenment, Elizabeth Debold writes, "Aphrodite, after all, is not just the goddess of love but is capable of ruthless vengeance and jealous destructiveness, particularly toward other women." And I might add that the Hindu goddess Kali, devourer of all things, wears a necklace of human skulls and has blood dripping from her fangs. That image is just as much a part of the feminine archetype as the horrific warrior image is for the male archetype. Men and women are both divine and diabolical. We have both natures within us at all times. When we choose to deny one or the other side of ourselves, our lives don't work all that well.
Perhaps it is necessary for many women to seek divinity within themselves before they can find their true humanity. But let them not ignore their shadow, as men have done for all too long. Real men love and adore women, not because they are goddesses, but because they represent the other half of our humanity.
— — —
Richard Hooperis a former Lutheran pastor and author of "The Crucifixion of Mary Magdalene," "The Gospel of the Unknown Jesus" and "Jesus, Buddha, Krishna and Lao Tzu: The Parallel Sayings." His email is {email Richard@sanctuarypublications.com}Richard@sanctuarypublications.com{/email}. © Copyright 2008 by Richard Hooper.