I recently heard from a young woman (I assume from Biola) who had this to say at Flash Point:
I am … surrounded by many intellectual single women who see no definition of womanhood outside the context of marriage and children…Before single women learn to engage their culture, they need to understand their own identity, and part of that is their gender.
I understand the longing to have God speak to each of our circumstances. For myself especially, it often feels hopeless being a thinking Christian woman with academic aspirations, but also being unequally yoked….I’m not exactly the posterchild for what is considered the ideal Christian woman. I have a lot to say about relationships, faith in God, and functional singleness as a married woman. But the bible doesn’t have a lot to say about my particular situation, and so I depend on knowing what God has revealed to all of us.
So I ask, does a woman need to contemplate her femininity, her identity as a woman, prior to exercising her intellectual gifts? Outside or independent of the question of pastoral or elder leadership in the church, the answer is ‘no.’ These areas of leadership are not the only place in which the life of the mind is relevant. There is not monopoly on the role of the intellect by church leaders. Christians who tend toward the academic or intellectual in their gifts find themselves baffled by how to serve, but none more than women.
Does a man first contemplate his gender or identity as a man prior to his inquiry about the meaning of life, the problem of evil, the nature of the atonement, or which method of apologetics is most biblical? Obviously not. While I do hold that it is important to have a proper perspective on roles in the church, there is no exclusive correlation between these roles and the life of the mind. No where in Scripture are women asked to suppress their talents, but to use them to God’s glory within the framework that is established in Scripture. And this is not limiting of women, the issue of roles in the church is very small in light of how large our world is. Women aren’t expected to disengage their mind so as to cause men to look more intelligent. In fact, Mary of Bethany would have been with Martha in the kitchen if this was the expectation. What Jesus said was that being at his feet was “the good part.”
So does this answer Amy Beth’s concern? I think Mary of Bethany is a great example of a single Christian woman pursuing God. But I don’t think her gender was a consideration in her sitting where she was until it was pointed out that she wasn’t conforming to the cultural norms that existed at that time.
The definition for Christian womanhood (single or otherwise) is this: to be an obedient follower of Christ, willing and eager to serve the church with the gifts God has blessed her with. Let’s not assume that so much is wrapped up in our gender that we cannot do anything until we understand what it is that makes us not male. What about what makes us human? I believe that understanding that we’ve been created in the image of God is of much greater significance and it is from there that we must function.
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