Page 161 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 5

A Portrait of a Christian Psychologist: Paul C. Vitz
in response to heresies. In any case, when the
spirit of the age, in some extreme form, presses
for changes in theology, this is an a priori rea- kly led, in theology, to goddess worship and to
son to reject such movements.
Another reason for not giving in to the spirit of
our time is that modernism itself is dying. The
list of ideologies given above is also a list of ex- In a Different Voice, on how men and women
hausted world views. These are now has been
ideas that have lost their cultural energy, that
have been thoroughly critiqued, and that exist
primarily in college courses on “The History of
Ideas: From the Eighteenth through the Early
Twentieth Century.”
In the context of the death of modernism, let
us look at feminism, which arose in the mid
nineteenth century and is clearly modern in
origin and character. The major ideas that had
to develop first, before feminism, were indivi-
dualism, egalitarianism, and socialism/com-
munism. This is not the place to describe how
these ideas lay the groundwork for feminism,
but perhaps on some reflection it is obvious. In
any case, many of the important feminists were
Marxists or socialists (for example, Simone de
Beauvoir, Rosa Luxemburg, Bella Abzug, and
many others). Feminism took the basic idea of
class warfare and used a similar rationale to in- Let us set aside these theological and historical
terpret the conflicts between men and women.
Marxism is known to be dead, or at least mor-
tally wounded. Socialism and the welfare sta-
te are well past their peak and literally facing
bankruptcy. Individualism has been criticized
for some thirty years, from both the left and the
right - the left longs for community while the
right (and sometimes the left) is now advoca-
ting ethnic purity (as in former Yugoslavia and
in some Black move¬ments), tribalism, or some
other localism.
As for egalitarianism, it too is being rejected,
even by many feminists. Modern feminism was
very much about equality between men and wo-
men and was opposed to any emphasis on diffe-
rences between the sexes, but in the last fifteen
years or so a new kind of feminism has arisen
that might be called “post modern” feminism.
These feminists very much emphasize sexual
difference - indeed some of these radical femi-
nists argue not only that women are different
from men but are psychologically and morally
161
superior to them.
2
This kind of emphasis on difference rather quik-
explicit rejection of Christianity.
Much less extreme examples of this post mo-
dern feminism would include Carol Gil¬ligan’s
demonstrate different approaches to the moral
life, and even such popular works as Deborah
Tannen’s You Just Don’t Understand: Women
and Men in Conversation and John Gray’s Men
Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. Other
recent major neuroscience based support for
major sex differences include Simon Baron-
Cohen’s The essential difference (2003), Steven
Rhoads’ Taking sex differences seriously (2004),
Louann Brizendine’s The female brain (2006)
3
and The male brain (2010). In short, egalitaria-
nism in its extreme forms is decidedly on the
way out. For Christians to buy into this kind of
individualist egalitarian logic at such a late date
is just another example of Christian intellectu-
als trying to catch up with a dominant secular
trend—with timing that is absolutely abysmal.
Three Models of Sexuality
considerations, however important they are.
Our primary concern here is with the psycho-
2 For feminist claims to superiority, see M. Daly, Gyn-
Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism (Boston:
Beacon Press, 1990), especially 313-424; M. Daly, Pure
Lust: Elemental Feminist Philosophy (San Francisco:
Harper Collins, 1984). The general idea is that men are
aggressive, warlike, and objectifiers of reality and of
others, while women are peaceful, loving, and merged
with or connected to others, and therefore morally supe-
rior. For a general historical summary of arguments for
feminist societies and matriarchy in the West, see P. G.
Davis, Goddess Unmasked: The Rise of Neo-Pagan Femi-
nist Spirituality (Dallas: Spence, 1998).
3 C. Gilligan, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory
and Women’s Development (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1982). J. Gray, Men Are from Mars,
Women Are from Venus (New York, NY: Harper Col-
lins, 1992). D. Tannen, You Just Don’t Understand: Wo-
men and Men in Conversation (New York, NY: William
Morrow, 1990). S. Baron-Cohen, The essential difference:
Male and female brains and the truth about autism. (New
York, NY: Basic Books, 2003). S. E. Rhoads, Taking sex
differences seriously. (San Francisco, CA: Rncounter
Books, 2004). Louann Brizendine, The female brain.
(New York, NY: Broadway Books, 2006); The male brain.
(New York, NY: Broadway Books, 2010).