The State and the Church: who ruled/rules?

[AGS]

Hi

I made me some thoughts about the History of the Church and found the following:

Towards the end of the 4th century Christanity was granted to be the state religion by the price of accepting the doctrine of the Trinity as binding. The Trinity is clearly a patriarchic concept (persons are male). It supports a patriarchy where men hold authority over women. This is also backed up by the Bible. In the state-to-church relation the state should become the male part and the Church, respectively the religious Believers should become the female part. The Holy Spirit seems to be a compromise solution, but the power of the Church was always limited by the power of the Emperor.

What do you think?

And who ruled in the past, and who rules today?

Andreas

[Richard Amiel McGough]

Hi

I made me some thoughts about the History of the Church and found the following:

Towards the end of the 4th century Christanity was granted to be the state religion by the price of accepting the doctrine of the Trinity as binding. The Trinity is clearly a patriarchic concept (persons are male). It supports a patriarchy where men hold authority over women. This is also backed up by the Bible. In the state-to-church relation the state should become the male part and the Church, respectively the religious Believers should become the female part. The Holy Spirit seems to be a compromise solution, but the power of the Church was always limited by the power of the Emperor.

What do you think?

And who ruled in the past, and who rules today?

Andreas

The sexism you describe is accurate, but I don't see how the doctrine of the Trinity adds to it. With or without that doctrine we would have a male God (Father) and a male high priest/savior Jesus (whether or not he was considered divine). The sexism of the Bible is the same with or without the Trinity.

[AGS]

685

Isn't the trinity a manifestation of patriarchism?

Can't it be that w/o the trinity the belief might have changed into something that escaped from the authority of the Emperor?

[Richard Amiel McGough]

685

Isn't the trinity a manifestation of patriarchism?

Can't it be that w/o the trinity the belief might have changed into something that escaped from the authority of the Emperor?

The Trinity is a manifestation of an attempt to unify apparently contradictory verses in the Bible that seem to indicate the following:


There is one God.
The Father is God
The Son is God
The Spirit is God
The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all distinct Persons

The staunchly male aspect of the Trinity coheres with the male image of God presented throughout the Bible. That is the root of both Biblical patriarchy and the maleness of the Trinity (though not the Trinity itself).

Some folks, such as myself when I was a Christian, saw a lot of feminine characteristics in the Spirit. This helped balance the image God with both male and female aspects. If Christians had interpreted Scripture this way the Trinity would have weakened rather than strengthen patriarchy. But as explained in my previous post, I think the sexism of the Bible would be the same with or without the Trinity, though the thoroughly male Trinity does strengthen it.

[AGS]

Didn't we forget Mary? Why is she not enough to weaken patriarchy?

[Richard Amiel McGough]

Didn't we forget Mary? Why is she not enough to weaken patriarchy?
Mary is easy to forget since she doesn't figure prominently in the Gospel. She is not even mentioned by Paul at all except one possible tangential reference when he mentioned that Christ was "born of a woman."

The exaltation of Mary as a perpetual virgin looks like a product of patriarchy to me. How would her existence weaken it?

The Catholics exalt her to a very high status but that hasn't lessened the patriarchal nature of Catholicism one bit.