Some thoughts…
Having recently completed a dissertation on headship and submission I was provoked by the thought that maturity is not achieved by structures of authority and submission – far from it. They may produce the appearance of well ordered, tidy lives and homes on the surface, but something is missing, in fact we know that sometimes under the surface all is not well. It is the nature of fallen humanity to emphasise, promote, and play to such structures. Such structures put people in their various boxes and keep people in their place, but life and relationships were never designed to function that way.
Praise God, the birth, life, and work of Christ, the new creation, and the outpoured Spirit changes all that. The Christian and the church were never intended to function like a fallen world. Throughout the New Testament we are told: “You are not to Lord it over others like the Gentiles do,” “the last shall be first,” “the meek shall inherit the earth,” “unless you become as a little child…” “submit to one another” “Father’s, don’t exasperate your children,” “Masters, remember you have also have a Master in Heaven…” and more.
In his book Classical Arminianism, F Leroy Forlines, points out that Calvinism can be defined as ’cause and effect’ and Arminianism as ‘influence and response’. In Calvinism, God is the sovereign cause, everything else is the necessary effect (sometimes referred to as determinism, but there’s always a struggle where to draw the line, soft, medium or hard/meticulous determinism). Whereas, in Arminianism, the God who is sovereign, graciously influences, and the response is ours to make.
It struck me that patriarchy/authority and submission, operates in much the say way as calvinism, authority is the cause, submission is the expected effect, which perhaps explains why complementarianism is popular among Calvinists.
The former creates a controlled world with everything in its place (I think of Wayne Grudem with his meticulous lists of roles and responsibilities for men and women), the latter a free world of varying possibilities.
The former produces the appearance of maturity based on fulfilling certain roles and responsibilities with man as the head, exercising authority, and the woman as the one who obeys. The latter calls for us all to submit to one another, to learn from one another, and in doing so to grow and flourish in unity.
One of, if not, the main image, of the church in the New Testament is that of a family, of the people of God as brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter their background, education, job, etc.. learning to do life together. It can be done by cause and effect but it’s cold, precise, and doesn’t produce healthy living at any level. Families are not meant to function by cause and effect, but by influence and response.
An example of both cause and effect and influence and response is found in the musical The Sound of Music, where Captain Von Trap is the ‘sovereign’ cause and the effect is highly disciplined children, and a well ordered house with little in the way of love, life and music. But when Maria enters the story all of that changes as she operates by influence and response. Suddenly the rigid order has gone, there’s life, love, learning and maturing. And yes, it’s a bit untidy, but there’s music in the air.
As I said, a few thoughts, what do you think?
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