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Christianity and the Making of the Modern Family
In a time when 'family values' occupies the minds of politicians and the public, Christianity, Family, and the Rise of the West sheds new light on two of our oldest institutions, and offers a way of rethinking our relationships to ourselves and Christian faith.
294 pages, Hardcover
First published July 30, 2000
About the author
Rosemary Radford Ruether
93 books68 followersVisiting Professor of Feminist Theology B.A. Scripps College; M.S., Ph.D., Claremont Graduate School
Rosemary Radford Ruether was the Carpenter Emerita Professor of Feminist Theology at Pacific School of Religion and the GTU, as well as the Georgia Harkness Emerita Professor of Applied Theology at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. She had enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a scholar, teacher, and activist in the Roman Catholic Church, and was well known as a groundbreaking figure in Christian feminist theology.
Education
B.A. – Scripps College
M.S., Ph.D. – Claremont Graduate School
Recent Publications / Achievements
Christianity and Social Systems: Historical Constructions and Ethical Challenges (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009)
Catholic Does Not Equal the Vatican: A Vision for Progressive Catholicism (New Press, 2008)
America, Amerikkka: Elect Nation and Imperial Violence(Equinox, 2007)
Encyclopedia of Women And Religion in North America, with Rosemary Skinner Keller (Indiana University Press, 2006)
Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History (University of California Press, 2005)
Integrating Ecofeminism, Globalization, and World Religions(Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2005)
Mountain Sisters: From Convent To Community In Appalachia, Forward (University Press of Kentucky, 2004)
The Wrath of Jonah: The Crisis of Religious Nationalism in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Fortress Press, 2002
Rosemary Radford Ruether was the Carpenter Emerita Professor of Feminist Theology at Pacific School of Religion and the GTU, as well as the Georgia Harkness Emerita Professor of Applied Theology at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. She had enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a scholar, teacher, and activist in the Roman Catholic Church, and was well known as a groundbreaking figure in Christian feminist theology.
Education
B.A. – Scripps College
M.S., Ph.D. – Claremont Graduate School
Recent Publications / Achievements
Christianity and Social Systems: Historical Constructions and Ethical Challenges (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009)
Catholic Does Not Equal the Vatican: A Vision for Progressive Catholicism (New Press, 2008)
America, Amerikkka: Elect Nation and Imperial Violence(Equinox, 2007)
Encyclopedia of Women And Religion in North America, with Rosemary Skinner Keller (Indiana University Press, 2006)
Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History (University of California Press, 2005)
Integrating Ecofeminism, Globalization, and World Religions(Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2005)
Mountain Sisters: From Convent To Community In Appalachia, Forward (University Press of Kentucky, 2004)
The Wrath of Jonah: The Crisis of Religious Nationalism in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Fortress Press, 2002
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 24, 2020
Reuther traces the history "Christian family values" through a series of transformations, in which the very notion of a static tradition goes up in smoke. Among these turns we find the Reformation's destruction of women's religious communities, as the Augsburg town council proclaimed in 1534:
"How should it come to any good when women join themselves in a separate life, contrary to the ordinance of God, yes, against nature, they give themselves to obedience to a woman, who has neither reason nor the understanding to govern whether in spiritual or temporal matters, who ought not to govern but be governed?" (p. 72)
Women's place, once more, was in the home. Until reading the Bible at home gave rise to hosts of biblically literate mothers, ready to form a Christianity of both fathers and mothers. Reuther shows the old divisions of roles and powers for each sex slowly collapsing, partly because the scriptures described Jesus as combining both paternal and maternal values. Then comes a tide of women's values invading the public domain. By Victorian times we see the very image of Jesus changing, as an almost hyper-feminized Jesus makes his appearance in religious art: "In Victorian images, Jesus had limpid eyes, delicate features, and silky hair and was surrounded by children, no more the glaring medieval pantocrator as world ruler, warrior, judge and king". (p. 104) This new Jesus might be meek and mild; but his female soldiers could be militant, as seen in the movements against slavery or child labor, for public education of both girls and boys, and for the vote. As Reuther puts it, "Reform of working and social conditions and public sanitation was thereby defined as an extension of a woman's housekeeping role in the family". (p. 112)
Reuther's portrayal of social transformations for men and for children is equally dramatic. In her account, "family tradition" is exposed as a controversy-charged work in progress for every generation. History writing seldom gets so important or hits so close to home as this.
"How should it come to any good when women join themselves in a separate life, contrary to the ordinance of God, yes, against nature, they give themselves to obedience to a woman, who has neither reason nor the understanding to govern whether in spiritual or temporal matters, who ought not to govern but be governed?" (p. 72)
Women's place, once more, was in the home. Until reading the Bible at home gave rise to hosts of biblically literate mothers, ready to form a Christianity of both fathers and mothers. Reuther shows the old divisions of roles and powers for each sex slowly collapsing, partly because the scriptures described Jesus as combining both paternal and maternal values. Then comes a tide of women's values invading the public domain. By Victorian times we see the very image of Jesus changing, as an almost hyper-feminized Jesus makes his appearance in religious art: "In Victorian images, Jesus had limpid eyes, delicate features, and silky hair and was surrounded by children, no more the glaring medieval pantocrator as world ruler, warrior, judge and king". (p. 104) This new Jesus might be meek and mild; but his female soldiers could be militant, as seen in the movements against slavery or child labor, for public education of both girls and boys, and for the vote. As Reuther puts it, "Reform of working and social conditions and public sanitation was thereby defined as an extension of a woman's housekeeping role in the family". (p. 112)
Reuther's portrayal of social transformations for men and for children is equally dramatic. In her account, "family tradition" is exposed as a controversy-charged work in progress for every generation. History writing seldom gets so important or hits so close to home as this.
December 29, 2018
This was a vital book for me. It is both historical analysis and polemic by an important Catholic theologian who deals with substantive issues. You can read the background easily from this site. And comments by others posted here explain much. Health concerns profoundly struck the author caused great interference in her later life.
The work proceeds historically but always with both a critical and prophetic aspect. Her style is lively and engaging. She is fun to read.
The work proceeds historically but always with both a critical and prophetic aspect. Her style is lively and engaging. She is fun to read.
March 25, 2011
A look at the family and the roles of women in it from ancient Jewish and Classical times, through early Christianity to today. The author shows that there was no archetypal "Christian" family structure that lasted through this period; indeed, the early Christians were more anti-family than anything else, it was centuries into the Christian era before marriage became a sacrament instead of a secular matter, and asceticism was more valued by the Church than marriage until the Reformation. She shows how the family in Western Christian lands changed continually, especially due to changing economic organization, and how this impacted women's lives and family roles. The twentieth century comes in for close scrutiny, bringing out several very interesting causal relationships behind official decisions that shaped women's social and economic lives.
The family enshrined by religious fundamentalists and conservatives is the middle-class Victorian family, and it is still mandated mainly for the white middle class, rather than for the poor or people of color who are held up as lazy freeloaders if they stay home to take care of their own children. Working class and poor women have always been expected to bring in money for the family. The author, a feminist theologian and progressive, makes this and similar hypocrisy explicit. She ends with a chapter that reimagines the modern family in ways that allow both partners to balance work and home responsibilities equitably .
Overall, an enlightening look at the impact of Christianity on families, and particularly on women's roles, over the last 2,000 years.
The family enshrined by religious fundamentalists and conservatives is the middle-class Victorian family, and it is still mandated mainly for the white middle class, rather than for the poor or people of color who are held up as lazy freeloaders if they stay home to take care of their own children. Working class and poor women have always been expected to bring in money for the family. The author, a feminist theologian and progressive, makes this and similar hypocrisy explicit. She ends with a chapter that reimagines the modern family in ways that allow both partners to balance work and home responsibilities equitably .
Overall, an enlightening look at the impact of Christianity on families, and particularly on women's roles, over the last 2,000 years.
November 23, 2008
This was absolutely an eye-opener. I'd previously read enough history to know that the conservative image of the homemaker wife/wage earner husband was a Victorian construct, but to see it traced from the foundations of Christianity was very interesting.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews