Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 19:1 (Winter 2005)
Article: Just as the Father, So the Son: The Implications of John 5:16-30 in the Gender-Role Debate
Author: Kristin Johnson

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PP 19:1 (Winter 2005) p. 13

Just as the Father, So the Son: The Implications of John 5:16-30 in the Gender-Role Debate

Kristin Johnson

Kristin Johnson, president of the Boston chapter of CBE, is a student at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary pursuing a Master of Divinity. She is also a graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University and a former Peace Corps volunteer to Albania. She was a professor at Savannah College of Art and Design for five years and is presently teaching part-time at Boston University. She is also a recipient of the national Lydia Scholarship sponsored by the Network of Presbyterian Women in Leadership, a ministry of Presbyterians for Renewal (PC[USA]).

Introduction

In the fifth chapter of John’s gospel, the Jewish leaders accuse Jesus of “making himself equal to God.” Today, a woman who assumes a position of ordained leadership in the Church may be accused of “making herself equal to men.”1 Although most Christians agree that men and women are spiritually equal before God, some nevertheless insist that women are subordinate to men in function in the home and in the Church.2 In order to codify the functional subordination of women biblically, some scholars who support hierarchy in male/female relationships use what they claim to be the subordination of the Son to the Father in the Trinity as a divinely inspired model of male-female relationships.

The subordination of the Son in the Trinity has historically been rejected by Church fathers such as Athanasius, Augustine, and Calvin and the Reformed councils and confessions because this view of the Trinity undermines Jesus’ status in the Godhead.3 Likewise, most Christians who believe that men and women are created as equals oppose the ontological and functional subordination of women because this view undermines women’s status in the body of Christ. Yet, there is division even among these scholars as to the nature and relationship between the Father and the Son. While some have written entire books that counter the belief that there is subordination in the Trinity,4 others believe that the relationship between the Father and Son is irrelevant to the current gender role debate altogether.5

Still, the analogy becomes relevant when it is used to exclude Christian women from positions of leadership in the Church, to define male and female roles in marriage, and to place Jesus Christ in a subordinate position in the Godhead. Therefore, defining the relationship among the Trinity, particularly between the Father and ...

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