Religious Studies

Describe the continuing problem with authority and the various interpretations of Jesus and his continuing presence within the Christian tradition

Jesus’ movement referred to as Christianity is confronted by issues of authority in relation to the interpretation of Jesus within the Christian context. Doing Jesus’ will as stipulated in the scripture is a struggle for every Christian. However, intellectual interpretation of the scriptures is the quest for rationalists but unfortunately it is not applied in the witnessing of faith. Traditionally, Christianity has awarded men a significantly higher rank within the marriage institution, the political systems and the society at large. Women have a submissive role in this in the leadership of the church such as being ordained as clergy. This has been compared with the overall submission of every Christians to the almighty God without questioning his directives. However, the male authority has been criticized by various progressive Christians. Following the scriptures to the latter has been taken as obedience to God while failure to do so has questioned the effectiveness of God’s authority to guide mankind through the Bible as his word. This biblical authority has often been a controversial debate since various passages have been misinterpreted to question its authority by various scholars and evangelicals. Therefore, the biblical authority to guide Christians is at stake since obeying its directives when they conflict with the popular viewpoints within the society is difficult. Scholars have cited the difficultness in identifying the biblical teachings that should be viewed as transcultural so as to be applied today and those which are cultural and were only meant for early Christians. Biblical commands should be interpreted bearing in mind their cultural context. For instance the issue of slavery as well as female subjugation is cultural and should not be applied or justified within the biblical context today. Accordingly, biblical patriarchy has to be reinstated by the scriptural reference to Jesus found in Galatians 3:28 which states that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor freeman there is neither male nor female; for you are all one person in union with Christ Jesus” (New World Translation).

The issue of authority has been cited back to Jesus Christ in that he himself only chose twelve men as his disciples. The twelve apostles together with Jesus helped greatly in the foundation of Christianity and therefore, signified authority within the Christian congregation. Jesus as the son of God has authority over sins, demons, death, sickness and man, given to him by his father (Luke 7:8). Jesus had power awarded to him in heaven and on earth and by appointing twelve apostles he gave them a share of this authority. On the same note, according to John 1:12 he awards his believers this power to become ‘the sons of God’. Therefore, like Jesus, Christian leaders think that they possess such power awarded to them by Jesus and continue to cite such scriptures to justify their dominion. However, the New Testament, which addresses the teachings of Christ is mostly cultural and therefore, applied only to the first century Christians but the issue that has been mistaken by complementarians. They justify male authority and female submission as an explicit command in the New Testament and therefore, require the ministers in the church to be men. Male leadership is a representative of Jesus Christ, who is referred to as the son of God as well as an ultimate incarnate of a man. However, in my opinion, the term ‘son’ for instance is just an analogy that was applied by the authors of the bible to rhyme with cultural privilege awarded to men in the first century Christians. Therefore, the presence of Jesus as a male was theologically significant since the messiah could not be acceptable in such a society as a female. Biblical patriarchy maintains that men and women are equal but gender roles are awarded to each one of them. For instance, it argues that a man heads the marriage and the church while women should not claim such authority. Most significantly, it points out that men should dominate the civic sphere while women remain submissive. Jesus’ apostles could not claim his position and therefore, women should not question their position in the church, marriage, and political institutions as exemplified by Jesus.