Holy Misogyny Why the Sex and Gender Conflicts in the Early Church Still Matter

by Deconick, April D.

• ISBN13: 9780826405616
• ISBN10: 0826405614
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-09-22
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

In Holy Misogyny, bible scholar April DeConick wants real answers to the questions that are rarely whispered from the pulpits of the contemporary Christian churches. Why is God male? Why are women associated with sin? Why can't women be priests? Drawing on her extensive knowledge of the early Christian literature, she seeks to understand the conflicts over sex and gender in the early church - what they were and what was at stake. She explains how these ancient conflicts have shaped contemporary Christianity and its promotion of male exclusivity and superiority in terms of God, church leadership, and the bed. DeConick's detective work uncovers old aspects of Christianity before later doctrines and dogmas were imposed upon the churches, and the earlier teachings about the female were distorted. Holy Misogyny shows how the female was systematically erased from the Christian tradition, and why. She concludes that the distortion and erasure of the female is the result of ancient misogyny made divine writ, a holy misogyny that remains with us today.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A lady god?	p. ix
Where did God the mother go?	p. 1
The Jewish spirit	p. 1
The Angel Sophia	p. 4
A Hebrew goddess	p. 7
Digging in: Box 1.1 Who is it?	p. 9
The recovery of God's wife	p. 12
Why was the spirit neutered?	p. 15
Introducing Jesus' true mother	p. 15
Digging in: Box 2.1 Jesus' birth?	p. 16
Carried up Mount Tabor	p. 19
In the name of the mother spirit	p. 21
Born from the womb of water	p. 23
Digging in: Box 2.2 Entering a womb?	p. 26
Milking the breasts of God	p. 27
The mother's erasure	p. 31
Digging in: Box 2.3 Is this the Trinity?	p. 34
God's gender crisis	p. 36
Did Jesus think sex is a sin?	p. 39
A double message	p. 39
Sex limits	p. 41
Sex according to Jesus	p. 43
A women's advocate	p. 46.
Digging in: Box 3.1 Why a woman at the well?	p. 50
Did Paul silence women?	p. 53
The burgeoning of chastity	p. 53
To veil or not to veil	p. 57
Digging in: Box 4.1 A woman leader?	p. 60
Vanishing women	p. 63
Digging in: Box 4.2 A female bishop?	p. 68
Digging in: Box 4.3 A female-led eucharist?	p. 71
Is marriage a sin?	p. 75
Rereading Genesis	p. 76
Digging in: Box 5.1 A male woman?	p. 80
Digging in: Box 5.2 Co-apostles?	p. 82
The Devil made me do it	p. 85
In defiance of the Creator	p. 87
It's the end of the world	p. 90
Is marriage salvation?	p. 95
Sacred sex	p. 95
Digging in: Box 6.1 Chemistry?	p. 100
The law is a joke	p. 103
Soul collectors	p. 106
Once a woman, always a woman?	p. 111
The Church is a household	p. 112
Brides of Christ	p. 116
Digging in: Box 7.1 What woman?	p. 118
The Devil's gateway	p. 121
How do we solve a problem like Maria?	p. 129
Mary caught in the crossfire	p. 131
The male Mary	p. 135
Diggingin: Box 8.1 Teaching the Apostles?	p. 136
The sexual Mary	p. 138
The Apostolic Mary	p. 143
Because the Bible tells us so?	p. 147
Further reading	p. 155
Notes	p. 161
Index	p. 177
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