Religion: Male & Female Theology

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Feminine Society. While "the specifically feminine dilemma is, in fact, precisely the opposite of the masculine," says Teacher Goldstein, and while women are beginning for the first time in history to find the time and education to make their way toward the more active, less biological levels of life, they are being told by masculine theologians that the desire for more self-awareness and more power in the affairs of the world is sinful. "If such a woman believes the theologians, she will try to strangle those impulses in herself. She will believe that, having chosen marriage and children and thus being face to face with the needs of her family for love, refreshment and forgiveness, she has no right to ask anything for herself but must submit without qualification to the strictly feminine role."

The problem, says Teacher Goldstein, is important for men as well as women, because society as a whole is growing more and more feminine. If the 19th century U.S. was a masculine society of private enterprisers and empire builders —egotists to whom opportunism and ornery behavior were no sin—the modern U.S. rates teamwork and sociability high virtues. It is a world in which the in dividual is expected to play a relatively more passive role within the group.

Dr. Goldstein feels that theologians are not taking sufficient account of this sociological fact, that they are still attacking an oldfashioned, masculine form of sin, instead of redefining their "categories of sin and redemption" to meet the new situation. "For a feminine society will have its own special potentialities for good and evil, to which a theology based solely on masculine experience may well be irrelevant." She offers no specific suggestions for a female theology of the future, but perhaps what lies ahead is a theology of enlightened self-esteem emphasizing the final words of Christ's commandment: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."