Comments on: Speaking of Faith: Days of Awe http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/09/speaking-of-faith-days-of-awe.html Calling Patriarchy As We See It Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:51:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: travis http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/09/speaking-of-faith-days-of-awe.html/comment-page-1#comment-729 travis Sun, 22 Feb 2009 05:53:31 +0000 http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/09/speaking-of-faith-days-of-awe.html#comment-729 In earlier eras of church history, the church was seen as a woman to whom celibate priests were married. This of course added layers to the relationship of clergy and parishioners. Seen as a healthy relationship, priest & church could potentially have a mutually caring relationship. But if I had to guess, I would say this view helped the male priests much more than it did the people of the church, over whom the priest had immense power. Another view that had more positive impact on the church was the belief that Jesus Christ was spouse to women who were "cosmically married" to him. I say this was positive because it very often allowed women to escape poverty and potentially abusive marriages by joining a nurturing community of women (where romantic relationships between women were not unheard of, by the way). This was actually pretty subversive. These obviously didn't work out this well in every instance, but the precedent for positive, nurturing spiritual relationships is certainly there. In earlier eras of church history, the church was seen as a woman to whom celibate priests were married. This of course added layers to the relationship of clergy and parishioners. Seen as a healthy relationship, priest & church could potentially have a mutually caring relationship. But if I had to guess, I would say this view helped the male priests much more than it did the people of the church, over whom the priest had immense power.

Another view that had more positive impact on the church was the belief that Jesus Christ was spouse to women who were “cosmically married” to him. I say this was positive because it very often allowed women to escape poverty and potentially abusive marriages by joining a nurturing community of women (where romantic relationships between women were not unheard of, by the way). This was actually pretty subversive.

These obviously didn’t work out this well in every instance, but the precedent for positive, nurturing spiritual relationships is certainly there.

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