Abstract: Gender equality in American jurisprudence is an important objective. The Supreme Court of United States has tried to remedy gender disparity in education by affording women a quality military education, (1) and United States Congress has funded protecting women from violence, (2) yet inequitable treatment of women persists. (3) Gender equality and religion have both been important to law, as evident by effective transformation of by women of faith in suffrage movement. (4) motivated these women and influenced debate on right of women to vote, an important factor in any election year. (5) The paramount question, therefore, is not whether influences gender equality, but to what extent. This article will highlight Christianity's rigorous impact on gender equality with understanding that is based on inherent principles and inalienable rights, and will thereby examine and offer a Christian perspective on gender equality. The late Professor Harold Berman focused his scholarship on and because Christianity has had such an important influence on origin and development of our legal institutions. (6) Noting significance of moral philosophy in in an academy devoted to legal pragmatism, Professor Berman advances need to consider the weightier matters of law (7)--what is right and just--as well as the technical subject matter of legal practice that helps to maintain order in society. (8) But he also notes that Christians have been reluctant to integrate their faith with their study of law. With rare exceptions, American legal scholars of Christian faith have not, during past century, attempted to explain in terms of that faith. Indeed, in vast majority of scholarly writings on vast majority of legal subjects, and in almost all classroom teaching of those subjects, is not mentioned. Is this because most contemporary American legal scholars see no connection between and Christianity? Or is it because has been a taboo subject in twentieth-century American legal education? (9) legal academy, and gender are both considered social constructs. (10) Feminist theorists call direct opposition to treating gender as a social construct error. (11) Within critical legal perspectives, to commit naturalist error is to assume existence of certain inherent or natural principles, rather than socially constructed ones, on which is, or should be, based. (12) Those inherent or natural principles, however, are customarily dismissed to immense detriment of gender equality. A Christian perspective examines how this higher law (13) influences our legal system, including legal aspects relating to gender. An examination of gender equality from a Christian, rather than a constructionist feminist, perspective reveals whether our positive reflects Christian beliefs and values based on transcendent principles, or notion of as a social construct. This article considers history and ideas presented by Christian scholars and their foundation in revolutionary treatment of women by Jesus Christ. Some may doubt that Christian scholarship has any merit, (14) as [r]evivalism, fundamentalism, and evangelicalism have long been plagued by accusations of anti-intellectualism. (15) The fact that Christian women scholars are generally not included among meritorious Christian scholarship particularly reflects gender inequality in scholarship. More recent historians largely have discredited this thesis [of Christians as anti-intellectual], but not in regard to women in American evangelicalism, who have been depicted as bulwark of church because of their activism and piety not because of their intellectual contributions. …
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-08-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 1
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot