Chrześcijańska godność kobiety

Abstract

After Mulieris dignitatem and Christifideles laici we can afford to look at the main elements of the Christian anthropology of woman without simplifications. The author first discusses three historical models of the relations between women and men, i. e. subordination of women, distinction on equal terms, and abstract equality of the sexes. Then he considers Christ's attitude to women, which was orientated not so much towards women's social or cultural liberation as towards bringing out the redemptive sense of a woman's life. Christian anthropology, which is based on Biblical, cultural and psychological premises, states three major points regarding women: the equality of men and women, the need to include sexuality in the account of woman as a person, and a woman's ability to open herself lovingly towards a man. This rules out both woman's subordination to man and a levelling of differences undertaken in the spirit of extreme feminism. From a Christian viewpoint, it is impossible to separate sex from love, sexuality from maternity, procreation from family, partnership from love, femininity from masculinity.