You are right in reminding us to seek the dynamic equivalent in our culture of Paul's words for his culture. Since Masculine and Feminine have some very important things to say about God's nature, we might ask what was Paul's purpose in speaking of women in these ways. Is it as C. S. Lewis says that God is the Masculine before Whom everyone is Feminine? Was it actually oppressive or liberating for Paul to say what he said, relative to the culture into which Paul spoke?

We too are somewhat bound to the culture of our time. It is a culture which is unfriendly to authority, to sexual purity, and to standards of truth beyond conventionality.

23 August 1996. Copyright information is available.