Christian attitude and the human dignity of women

Abstract

My aim, in this article, is to focus on the human dignity and human rights of women from a classical Reformed perspective. The role women should play in the church and society will also be discussed. The central theoretical argument of this investigation is that Christians, in their calling to manifest the attitude of Christ, should always take the human dignity of women to heart and should be the champions of women’s rights in church and society. Christians should therefore be involved in the normalisation of the position of women in both church and society. In this article, the Bible is interpreted from the perspective of classical Reformed hermeneutics. This investigation brings a deductive way of reasoning into play, thereby contradicting the inductive way of reasoning found in biblicism up until now. This inductive way of reasoning entails using the passages proclaiming the prohibition of the ordination of women in particular offices in the church as the sole evidence for the answer to the question. This text, however, approaches the passages in question from the broad perspective of the total anthropology of Scripture. In order to do this, the article investigates the socio-historical role of women in biblical times. Secondly, the topic of women’s rights according to the biblical message is addressed from the hermeneutical presupposition that Scripture reveals the ongoing work of God, the renewal of all things in Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in a revelation-historical way. The revelation-historical (salvation-historical) information relevant to the topic is examined and eventually the result is applied to the current position of women in churches and in society.