Mothering Salvation?: Gender and Class in Early Christian Household Discourse

Field: Arts and Humanities (Social Sciences)

Mothering Salvation? Gender and Class in Early Christian Household Discourse Elna Mouton 1 Preamble The first group of (8) essays in this edition of Neotestamentica is a diverse collage of perspectives on οἶκος rhetoric in the NT. Most of these were originally presented at a mini-conference arranged by the NTSSA Gender and Sexuality Subgroup at the University of Johannesburg, 26–28 October 2016. It served as a follow-up to the 2013 NTSSA annual meeting (hosted by the then Gender Subgroup) on the theme “Interconnecting Discourses —Gender, Bible, Publics.” Proceedings of the latter were published in Neot 48.1 (2014), with an extensive introduction by Johannes N. Vorster. The 2016 conference was presented in tandem with a second Interdisciplinary Conference on Gender Studies in the Humanities organised by UJ’s Religion Studies Department, with the dual purpose to focus on expressions of “mothering” in both early Christian discourse and present-day communities in (Southern) Africa. The NT group explored the nature and rhetorical function of ancient and early Christian household discourse in general, and NT household codes in particular. It focused on the importance of women’s childbearing in Graeco-Roman culture (and its interface with salvation discourse in the NT), with special emphasis on gender and class relations, and issues of body and power. A second purpose of this multi-faceted project was to account for the probable effect of NT household codes on domestic violence (in Africa). In continuation with Rebecca Solevåg’s 2013 monograph with an analogous title,1 its two-pronged theme was phrased: Mothering Salvation? Gender and Class in early Christian Household Discourse Mothering, Community and Care: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Gender Studies in the Humanities [End Page 1] Various international speakers participated in the event: Griselda Pollock (Leeds University, UK) as keynote speaker; Marianne Bjelland Kartzow and Maria Rebecca Solevåg (both from Oslo, Norway); Abiola Mbamalu (Nigeria); and Kartzow’s doctoral student Gladys Ekone Wang (Cameroon). Amanda Gouws (Political Science, Stellenbosch University) acted as second main speaker. In total 27 papers were presented, 12 from the Gender and Sexuality Subgroup. Contributions to the latter included senior colleagues from UNISA, NWU and UJ, as well as colleagues who recently completed PhD’s at UCT, UJ and UP. Of particular interest for the NT part of the project was the peculiar reference to childbearing in 1 Tim 2:15, “Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty” (NRS). The rationale for this interest was that, [f]or many people, 1 Timothy 2:8–15 is a canonical text that resists being read liberatively. It has probably become—especially since the nineteenth century—one of the most controversial texts . . . in the history of biblical interpretation relating to the participation of women in church leadership and decision-making . . . It often functioned explicitly or implicitly, and in various ecclesial contexts still functions, to legitimate private, submissive and restrictive positions for women.2 Against the often abusive history of reception of NT household code material in general, and 1 Tim 2:11–15 in particular, the project focused on the sense-making function or implied rhetorical effect of these writings in their first-century Mediterranean contexts. Since Christianity’s foundational documents originated from within patriarchal—that is, hierarchical—societies, influenced by (highly gendered) Roman imperial and Jewish theological discourse,3 a major challenge was to ascertain whether and how these texts themselves provide a hermeneutical key through which they may be re-appropriated today—even against their patriarchal grain and reception history. It was, therefore, asked whether these canonised texts have the potential to re-shape the memory, imagination, language and behaviour of present-day Christian households [End Page 2] (in Africa), for the justice and well-being of all, particularly with regard to motherhood and childbearing. The project thus aimed at accounting for the socio-cultural and religious-political world of the Pastoral Epistles on the one hand, and their concern for the integrity of the Christian gospel and its life-giving, “mothering” rhetoric amid threatening pseudo-practices on the other hand. In this light, and with the functioning of material related to gender and class from...