Cheryl Bridges Johns holds the Robert E. Fisher Chair of Spiritual Renewal at Pentecostal Theological Seminary. Her book, “Seven Transforming Gifts of Menopause: An Unexpected Spiritual Journey” (Brazos Press), will be released on March 17. The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of BCNN1.
The ancient Greeks believed the female body was particularly tainted and inferior. Women were seen as less rational than men and driven by instincts, and as such, they were closer to animals than to men. A woman’s uterus (Gk.: Hysterika) was a troublesome creature that roamed throughout her body, driving her mad with urges to have sex. Quipped Hippocrates, “What is woman? Disease.” We can thank him for the term “hysteria,” which later became a catchall phrase for “women’s disease.”
The ancient church father Tertullian, in his treatise “On the Apparel of Women,” broke into a tirade against women: “And do you not know that you are (each) an Eve? You are the devil’s gateway. … You destroyed so easily God’s image: Man.”
It was Tertullian I was thinking of as I read Rachel Jones’ recent article, “PMS: The Monthly Fight with the Flesh,” on The Gospel Coalition website. Jones, who suffers with premenstrual syndrome, commonly referred to as PMS, believes her struggle offers a window into the spiritual reality of the war of the flesh against the Spirit. Jones invokes the Apostle Paul’s words from his letter to the Galatians, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
Online reaction to Jones’ argument was swift. Many women expressed feeling shamed by the post, which seemed to equate PMS symptoms, which she called “a fight with the flesh,” with sin.
Many of the theologians in the ancient church, including Paul, were influenced by Hellenistic (Greek) philosophy, which promoted the idea that spirit was superior to the body. In the course of time, Paul’s usage of the flesh became synonymous with the body. In order to fight the flesh, Christians have denigrated the body and waged all war against it.
Jones is not ignorant of how Paul uses the phrase “the flesh.” His purpose, she wrote, is to refer to “the whole person as under the impulses of sin.” But in advising Christian women about how to deal with PMS, Jones jumps to the role of the body as the battleground on which the war against sin is fought and stays there.
A better reading of Paul’s use of the word “flesh” would be to include the dimensions of the mind, the affections and the will. To fight this fight is to have the mind of Christ, to love as God loves, and to live in obedience to God’s will.
But even if Jones were to restrict herself to emotions, she too readily identifies negative emotions as sinful. They are not. This is the real danger of Jones’ argument. In a conservative Christian world where pleasantness and niceness define a Christian woman, negative emotions are already too often considered shameful. Jones not only supports this view, she perpetuates images of women as ruled by their hormones, which in turn serves the ideology that women are designed by God to submit to the leadership of men.
Source: Religion News Service
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