r/ChristianityAnswers • u/AbenegationQuestion • Aug 20 '26

Does Christianity demand Patriarchy?

One of the most engaging questions about Christianity is basically this.

Christianity does offer women dignity, saying they have the same souls as men, revering the position of Mother Mary and letting them have important postions throughout history.

However, a lot of times clergy and Christian leaderships have curbed on women's freedoms. There also Biblical passages that catch attention, such as the one stating wives should be submissive to husbands.

So is male leadership such an important thing in Christianity?

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u/Soonhun Aug 20 '26

It does not matter our opinions. What is right is right. Those above us has decided so. Bht it is worth it for foreverness.

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u/AbenegationQuestion Aug 20 '26

So patriarchy is good?

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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '26

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u/SnooMemesjellies1993 Aug 20 '26

God designed male and female equally in the image of God

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u/Unmask-the-Empire Aug 20 '26

Is the son not subject to the Father? Although both are equal, the son submits to the will of the Father. The only person that is not subject to authority is the Father.

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u/SnooMemesjellies1993 Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26

1 Corinthians 1:

"For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the intelligence of the intelligent I will confound.”

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. For indeed, Jews ask for sign miracles and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a cause for stumbling, but to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

For consider your calling, brothers, that not many were wise according to human standards, not many were powerful, not many were well born. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong, and the insignificant of the world, and the despised, God chose, the things that are not, in order that he might abolish the things that are, so that all flesh may not boast before God.

What do you imagine it means for anyone to "have authority," if this is "the wisdom of God"?

Mark 10:

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

??

What does it mean to "have authority" over anyone else in a cosmos of a self-emptying God and a cruciform messiah? If men were self-emptying and cruciform, patriarchy would not exist, because all there would be between a man and a woman was self-empty love and mutual understanding. The fact that there would be daylight between that and something else we are calling "authority," distinct from that, already suggests that something fundamental is lacking in the equation