Christian egalitarianism
Egalitarians believe in a form of mutual submission in which all people submit to each other in relationships and institutions as a code of conduct without a need for hierarchical authority.
[4] Christian egalitarianism refers to a biblically-based belief that gender, in and of itself, neither privileges nor curtails a believer's gifting or calling to any ministry in the church or home.
[citation needed] All three Synoptic Gospels record Jesus as saying: You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.
[citation needed] Egalitarians argue that Jesus Christ did not conform to a mentality unfavorable to women, but reacted against inequalities based on sexual differences.
[20][21] She reaffirms this point in a later article, "Sexism and Misogyny in the Christian Tradition: Liberating Alternatives", referencing Galatians 3:28,[22] saying that through baptism androgyny is restored.
Relationships that are typically rooted in sexuality (marriage and motherhood) place women in roles that are subordinate in accordance with society's patriarchal norms.
[20] Liberal feminism rejects the notion that creation established the patriarchy; Ruether asserts that gender equality originally existed, but was distorted by historical injustices against women.
Ruether continues saying, "The Church as a bearer of redeemed humanity ought especially to represent this equality of men and women in its institutional life.
Ruether references a sixteenth century humanist, Cornelius Agrippa, saying that women have an "affinity with divine Wisdom that gives them moral and spiritual superiority".
Ruether says that this ideology prescribes women to morally reform men and male-centric institutions, but to do so they require education, voting rights, and political power.
[20] The Roman Catholic Church has formally opposed radical egalitarianism and has stated that the differences between men and women are not merely phenomenal but are in fact ontological in nature.
As a response to the upcoming of evangelical feminism and egalitarianism in the 20th century, prominent theologians and scholars such as John Piper, Wayne Grudem, Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., James A. Borland, Thomas R. Schreiner, D. A. Carson, S. Lewis Johnson, George W. Knight III, Douglas J. Moo, John Frame and Vern Sheridan Poythress contributed to Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, in which they discuss and rebut most egalitarian viewpoints, such as the use of Galatians 3:28 to defend fundamental equality.
[29] In 1988, the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) published the Danvers Statement as a response to the "widespread uncertainty and confusion in our culture regarding the complementary differences between masculinity and femininity", directly opposing feminist egalitarian beliefs.
[31] In its Foundation Documents, The Gospel Coalition confesses that "men and women are not simply interchangeable, but rather they complement each other in mutually enriching ways".
