Abstract
Pope John Paul II made a historic apology to several groups oppressed by the church since its inquisition started. The late pontiff’s apology to women as a group was as a result of the obnoxious and oppressive denial of women’s human right by the Church and the greater society because of the wrong interpretation of the “submission” clause in the Bible. The subsequent re-interpretation of the submission clause in the Letter to the Ephesians strongly confirmed and affirmed the equality of man and woman and established the theological and philosophical basis for questioning oppressive cultural ethos in Africa and demanding for a theological paradigm shift which will help Africa to address the centuries old inequities, inequalities and injustices suffered and still borne by women in the 21st century. This article captures the religious role and position of the church and defines the basis for calling for a new gender approach within the Church that will achieve gender equality in Africa.
Highlights
The oppression of women has been centuries old; it is as old as biblical history
The interpretation of the Bible by the Church was carried out by a special group of men inspired by God’s word—yet they are human mortals and subject to human errors of faith and reasoning. This brings into sharp relief a transformative turn around in the established infallibility doctrine of the church which only could explain why the late Papal Pont if Pope John Paul had to make a historic apology to women for the centuries of obnoxious and oppressive treatment meted out to women by the Church as a result of a dogmatically inspired wrong misinterpretations of the biblical gender related constructive texts, the “submission clause”
The genuine empowerment of women in Africa in a post 2015 MDG era should start with the correct interpretation and reconstruction of the theological and cultural errors as contained in the different religions and societies that operate in Africa especially Christian interpretation of key biblical passages that had been used to justify oppression of women even within the bounds of oppressive cultural practices
Summary
The oppression of women has been centuries old; it is as old as biblical history. 35) the male guardians of the customs did not deem it fit to protect women from unnecessary harm and oppression against their gender This paradox of ontological values recognized by Professor Dukor and the raw custom sanctioned by selfish patriarchal lords has led to a vicious cycle of customary mistakes that continue to threaten the lives of women and treat them by the society as second class citizens. We would direct and use our hermeneutical expositions of the Bible and African culture to prove that genuine biblical passages, demonstrate equality and that the theistic humanist values, well embedded in African cosmology and ontology as African philosophy, demonstrate the existence of a pre-colonial pure culture with deep-seated core socio-ethical values that recognizes mutual respect for the two sexes as ordained by God We would direct and use our hermeneutical expositions of the Bible and African culture to prove that genuine biblical passages, demonstrate equality and that the theistic humanist values, well embedded in African cosmology and ontology as African philosophy, demonstrate the existence of a pre-colonial pure culture with deep-seated core socio-ethical values that recognizes mutual respect for the two sexes as ordained by God (Dukor, 2010: p. 20)
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