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Religon: Christianity and Gender

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Submitted By sajidb
Words 1407
Pages 6
Religion has played a vital role in the formulation and understanding of gender in society. Many religions which we are conscious and know off are primarily male oriented and male driven. This essay will discuss the role and understanding of gender in Catholic Christian church. The essay will be concerned with women in these churches, and how different gender theories conform with the observations witnessed during my visit. In this essay, I look at the prevalence of male centrism during the Sunday mass in the Catholic church I visited to, using Mary Daly’s theory of patriarchy in religion and how women are being oppressed due to a male God and conclude the ways in which we know of Christianity of being a heavily patriarchal religion. Secondly in this essay I will also look at the use of language in the church and how language can be deciphered as symbolic and reflect gendered perspectives using Luce Irigaray’s theory of symbolism to conclude how the use of language reflect a gender biases and how it is one sided.
When I visited the church on Sunday I was amazed to see the statues and images of Jesus in the entrance area. Once, inside the main area there is a huge crucifix in the altar where I could see the the image of Jesus. There were other statues of Jesus in the church and then there was the one statue of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. Before the service began, there were male announcers who gave short speeches on the recent doings of the church and related matters. Being a Catholic church, the service was led by a senior male priest who was aided by other junior male priests. These priests were the people who were in a religious attire, other than that most of the people there were wearing modest clothing. When the priest began the service by saying, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” he also with his hand made the sign

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