There's an interesting discussion of gender differences (partly from an evolutionary biological perspective) here. It's interesting - the idea that men have a higher standard deviation in most traits explaining why women do better at things such as GCSEs where the distribution is squashed down at the top end (a decent proportion get A*, there is no A****, more get A*s than Fs) and why men do better when it is squashed up at the bottom end (e.g. wages, where there is no upper bound but there is often a minimum wage).
The whole thing reminds me that I have yet to come across a good theology of gender. Anyone got any ideas?
Some of the basics are clear - male and female are different but of equal value. There's something called "headship" which men have in marriage, but the exact nature of that is disputed. Men and women are mutually dependent upon one another.
But so many of the details are obscure. I think the Bible doesn't spend a lot of time on it, partly because stereotyping doesn't work. Maybe that's the answer - that each situation needs to be worked out individually, on the basis of some very broad principles and wisdom.
Any ideas? Helpful books on theology of gender?
2 comments:
I've read this one and thought it did a good job of explaining why various different people disagree:
Men and women in the church, by Sarah Sumner
I have, of course, discussed the issue of women in ministry quite a bit here.
But I'm aware that we're essentially trying to build on an incomplete theology of gender.
Post a Comment