This Book Endorses Feminist Critiques of Gender, Yet
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This book endorses feminist critiques of gender, yet upholds the insight of traditional Christianity that sex, commitment, and parenthood are fulfilling human rela- tions. Their unity is a positive ideal, though not an absolute norm. Women and men should enjoy equal personal respect and social power, which excludes patri- archy. In reply to some feminist critics of oppressive gender and sex norms, as well as to some communitarian propo- nents of Christian morality, Cahill argues that effective intercultural criticism of injustice requires a modest defense of moral objectivity. The book thus adopts a critical realism as its moral foundation, drawing on Aristotle and Aquinas. Moral judgment should be based on reasonable, practical, prudent, and cross-culturally nuanced reflection on human experience, regarding which the body anchors many common aspects. The approach is combined with a New Testament model of community, centered on solidarity, compassion, and inclusion of the economically or socially margin- alized. 1• SEX, GENDER, AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS NEW STUDIES IN CHRISTIAN ETHICS General editor. Robín Gill Editorial board: Stephen R. L. Clark, Antony Ο. Dyson, Stanley Hauerwas and Robin W. Lovin In recent years the study of Christian ethics has become an integral part of mainstream theological studies. The reasons for this are not hard to detect. It has become a more widely held view that Christian ethics is actually central to Christian theology as a whole. Theologians increasingly have had to ask what contemporary relevance their discipline has in a context where religious belief is on the wane, and whether Christian ethics (that is, an ethics based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ) has anything to say in a multi-faceted and complex secular society. There is now no shortage of books on most substantive moral issues, written from a wide variety of theological positions. However, what is lacking are books within Christian ethics which are taken at all seriously by those engaged in the wider secular debate. Too few are methodologically substantial; too few have an informed knowledge of parallel discussions in philosophy or the social sciences. This series attempts to remedy the situation. The aims of New Studies in Christian Ethics will therefore be twofold. First, to engage centrally with the secular moral debate at the highest possible intellectual level; second, to demonstrate that Christian ethics can make a distinctive contribution to this debate — either in moral substance, or in terms of underlying moral justifications. It is hoped that the series as a whole will make a substantial contribution to the discipline. Α list of titles in the series is provided at the end of the book SEX, GENDER, AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS LISA SOWLE CAHILL Professor of Christian Ethics, Boston College CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 1oo11-4211, USA io Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia © Cambridge University Press 1996 First published 1996 Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data Cahill, Lisa Sowle. Sex, gender, and Christian ethics / Lisa Sowle Cahill. p. cm. — (New Studies in Christian Ethics) ISBN 0 521 44011 4 hardback; o 521 57848 5 Paperback 1. Sex — Religious aspects — Christianity. 2. Sex role — Religious aspects — Christianity. 3. Christian ethics. 4. Feminist ethics. i. Title. ii. Series. ΒΤ7o8.ο283 1gg6 241'.66—dc2o 95-48156 CI? ISBN 0521 44011 4 hardback ISBN O 521 57848 5 Paperback ®1-708 C283 1996 CE In memory of Theodore J. Mackin 1922-1994 and André Guindon, O.Μ.Ι. 1933-1993 I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with modesty. (τ Tim. 2:12-15) [T]here is in man an inclination to things that pertain to him .. according to that nature which he has in common with other animals: and in virtue of this inclination, those things are said to belong to the natural law, which nature has taught to all animals, such as sexual intercourse, education of offspring and so forth. (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica 1-11.94.2) An ecological—feminist theology of nature must rethink the whole Western theological tradition of the hierarchical chain of being and chain of command. (Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sexism and Cod-Talk. Toward a Feminist Theology (Boston: Beacon Press, 1983), 85) Sexuality must not be thought of as a kind of natural given which power tries to hold in check. ... It is the name that can be given to a historical construct. (Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Volume I, trans. Robert Hurley (New York: Random House, 1978), 105). It should be clear that when I invoke the term "sex," I am not referring to some innate or ahistorically given set of biological or instinctual predispositions, but to a set of practices, techniques, behavior, language, signs that are already, from the very outset social, i.e., they presuppose or are emergent with reference to the Other. (Linda Singer, Erotic Welfare: Sexual Theory and Politics in the Age of Epidemic (New York and London: Routledge, 1993), 34). [T]he gospel allows no rule against the following, in and of themselves: masturbation, nonvaginal heterosexual intercourse, bestiality, polygamy, homosexual acts, or erotic art and litera- ture. The Christian is free to be repelled by any or all of these and may continue to practice her or his own purity code in relation to them. What we are not free to do is impose our codes on others. (William Countryman, Dirt, Greed & Sex: Sexual Ethics in the New Testament and Their Implications for Today (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988), 243-44) Contents General editor's preface page xi Acknowledgments xiv τ Sex, gender, and the problem of moral argument τ 2 Feminism and foundations 14 3 Particular experiences, shared goods 46 4 "The body" — in context 73 An interlude and a proposal ιo8 5 Sex, gender, and early Christianity 121 6 Sex, marriage, and family in Christian tradition 166 7 The new birth technologies and public moral argument 217 Concluding reflections 255 Notes 258 Index 317 i x General editor's preface This is the ninth book in the series New Studies in Christian Ethics. It faces some of the most difficult areas within the discipline — those concerned with sex and gender in modern society. The difficulties are twofold. The first is caused by the fact that post-industrial societies tend to acquire dragons but lose bound- aries. The modern dragons of sex and gender have increasingly taken the form of patriarchy, sexism, homophobia, and hypocrisy. All of these are to be attacked in secular society. But the sexual and gender boundaries of post-industrial societies are harder to identify. Personal autonomy and mutual consent are almost the only criteria now commonly accepted in governing our sexual behaviour. Even sexual equality — or perhaps more accurately gender equality — may become increasingly difficult to defend intellectually once egalitarianism in other economic and social areas is no longer presumed as self-evident. The second difficulty is created by the churches themselves. All too readily they become the dragons of post-industrial societies, exhibiting in ample measure the patriarchy, sexism, homophobia, and even hypocrisy that these societies so despise. Far from being moral beacons in a confused world, churches all too often become identified with the most despised features of moral behaviour in many societies today. Even the sexual and gender virtues that Christians apparently profess — faithfulness, altruistic live, and oneness in Christ — seem all too fragile in practice. In our better moments, those of us who identify ourselves as Christians are only too aware that we have almost x i xíi General editor's preface as much to learn from as to teach our secular colleagues on issues of sex and gender. The great merit of Lisa Cahill's new book is that it is fully aware of both of these difficulties. It listens patiently to the cultural, societies today. And it presents a lucid and critical account of Christim ethics which takes fully into account the frailties of the past and present chuches. Lisa Cahill makes it clear that she is writing from a specifi- cally Catholic context, albeit one which is responsive to fem- inism, postmodernism, and the claims of other Christian traditions. She claims that there is indeed no "neutral" language or vantage-point, no truly "secular" realm in which public moral discourse can take place at all. At the same time, she is concerned to investigate what common moral ground may be discovered to unite cultures and religious traditions. She is convinced that at least some fundamental moral experi- ences and values are shared by virtually all human commu- nities, and hence adopts a critical realism in ethics. There is, I believe, a real need for a sustained and serious work of Christian ethics in this area. The ethics of sexuality and gender are at present in a considerable state of disarray, both within Christianity and without. There is a real need for new and creative thought here. Further, I doubt if many non-Catholic Christian ethicists at present have the communal resources to make such a contribution. Yet, whilst she wishes to argue from firmly within the Catholic tradition — particularly in relation to what she regards as the essential connections between sex, love, and procreation — she is very aware of the criticisms that traditionalist Catholic stances have faced.