Page 167 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 5

A Portrait of a Christian Psychologist: Paul C. Vitz

the time they are born, little girls are much That is, women find something extraordinarily
more responsive to people than little boys. Girls satisfying about their relationship with God, as
respond earlier and more strongly to the human Father, or as Son, or as Holy Spirit.
face and the human voice. They smile sooner. As far as a woman’s identity goes, how can she
As noted, boys are much more responsive to doubt her femininity, her womanhood, if it is
objects—apparently primarily to objects that acknowledged and honored directly through
move or make noise. the love of God, her Father?
We have all noticed that the great majority of
girls are more likely to play interpersonal games, God the Father and Christian Women
often of a cooperative nature, and girls playing That orthodox Christian theology is thought to
with dolls exist in every culture. Boys are much be somehow hostile to women or inadequate
more drawn to competitive games where there for their psychology remains a great mystery
are win¬ners and losers, rules to argue about, to me. It is not just that Christianity, compared
and to playing with things like balls, sticks, to the other great religions, accords a remar-
and trucks. Women are not only more sensiti- kable place to women - after all, the Mother of
ve emotionally - which means to interpersonal Jesus is the highest form of human saintliness.
messages - but also they are more sensitive to Women were fundamental to the Gospel sto-
different degrees of temperature, to different ry; they were among those who ministered to
kinds of touch, to different tones of voice, dif- and helped Jesus. He treated them with unu-
ferent odors, and the like. Not only interper- sual love and respect. It was women - far more
13
sonal relations but also that kind of relationship than the apostles - who showed loyalty and sup-
described as “intimate” is something on which port at the time of his crucifixion, and it was
many women place great value. In short, it is in women who first were told of the resurrection.
concrete interpersonal relationships and inti- All of this occurred in a Jewish society that gave
macy that the majority of women seem to find less importance to women’s testimony even in
their greatest rewards. court. Women were major contributors to the
Since God made women that way, since He apostolate of Saint Paul. Holy women surroun-
finds it “good,” there is every reason to believe ded many of the great early saints, such as Saint
that He would honor this need, that is, that God Jerome. Thousands of the early martyrs were
would honor women’s special needs and abili- women. Large numbers of the greatest and most
ties to have deep and intimate interpersonal re- widely acknowledged saints were women. As
lationships. Perhaps this is what is meant when mentioned earlier, there is simply nothing like
Jesus told Martha that Mary had the better part; this great tradition of female accomplishment
perhaps this is much of what is meant by the and of honor paid to women in any other do-
“contemplative life.” In any case, the lives of the main of human endeavor.
female saints have been filled with language de- Thus, the notion that the idea of God the Father
scribing the intensity of the personal relation- has been an impediment to female religious life
ship with Jesus and with God. It is as though the seems to me most unlikely in light of the hi-
capacity of women for spiritually intense relati- storical evidence to the contrary. Somehow for
onships is rooted in their capacity for many in- hundreds of years millions of Christian women
tense relationships in the natural world. I do not did not notice that it was a problem! Indeed,
wish to imply that the relationship of Christian this historical evidence speaks very much to the
men to God the Father is less rich, but themes of interpretation that the Fatherhood of God has
union, themes of love and intimacy, seem to me been a strong, positive component of Christia-
to be much more typical of the female saints. nity for women (in part, for the psychological
Furthermore, it seems to me that this is a good reasons given above).
way to explain the great number of impressive To conclude, let me emphasize again the Chri-
Christian women throughout history. stian model of manhood and womanhood as
complementary. After decades of tension and
13 For a good summary of the many differences between
men and woman now known to be rooted in biology and conflict over the roles of men and women in the
brain differences, see Moir and Jessel and footnote 4. Church, is it not time to turn to a positive mo-

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