Hi Jason –
That’s very interesting and may well be correct. I’d like to say a bit more about Origen and castration since you’ve very usefully opened up the discussion here (for the fearful ).
I’ve heard it sometime suggested that the charge of self castration may have invented by Origen’s enemies. However, I also know that Peter Brown – who I’m told wrote the standard work on the Body and early Christianity - believes it may well be true and entirely in keeping with the worldview that Origen shared with his contemporaries (must read this book one day – apparently it’s a work of great understanding and compassion).
I understand that as a Roman citizen Origen may well have been in trouble with the authorities for self castration. The pagan cult of ‘family values’ brought in by Augustus took a very dim view of this because it deprived the Roman state of a potential breeder for the Roman army - and perhaps we also need to be aware of a context of protest here).
One thing I am fairly certain about is that Origen’s act was not driven by sexual disgust and loathing for women. I understand that it is no longer certain that Clement of Alexandria was Origen’s teacher – but Origen was certainly strongly influenced by Clement. Clement wrote effusively in praise of women, and of women as real equals in Christ with men.
Our ‘negative friend’ Tertullian was, by way of contrast, hot on misogyny. As you say, it is ironic that he – the staunch and angry defender of the severest orthodoxy -ended up a heretic. In the end he joined the Montanists because of their heretical rigour in not forgiving even minor sins committed after baptism and their consequent readiness to hand out excommunications left, right and centre. Their dependence on prophetic utterance as a source of authority also challenged the wider Church at a time when the authority of scripture was under attack and not settled. And the big irony is – regarding Tertullian – that their two leading prophets of Montanism were women.
Certainly Tertullian’s anti-feminism eventually won the day in the early Church.
I note that Augustine, when he was a Manichean had a sort of civil contract (of councubinage) with a woman who was the father of his child Adeodatus – Manichean’s did not marry because they believed the physical world was created by an evil god as a prison for spirit (so they had no sacrament of marriage).When he first became a Christian – before he’d got himself ‘sorted’ – he famously prayed ‘O Lord give me chastity, but not yet’. However, when he had sorted himself out, he did not marry his ‘mistress’ for the sake of his son and out of love for the mother of his son – instead he turned her away, literally telling her to ‘go to hell’.
Jerome – who features over at Tentmakers as a good bloke for having said some things which sound like they were influenced by Origen – claimed that the only woman he’d ever admired (a female ascetic whom he knew) was a woman who filled him with disgust by her physical repulsiveness. There was a contemporary of Jerome’s named Jovinian – also a strict ascetic – who had the temerity to suggest that the married state and the celibate state were equally pleasing to God as vocations for the faithful. Jerome hounded Jovinian with intemperate and vicious invective. I often think that for all the harsh things we can justly say about Luther – he was engaged in one very big battle with tradition and conscience to overcome his fear and marry a runaway nun.
As far as the New Testament goes I remember reading a scholarly work – and I’ve forgotten who it was by – in which the author suggested that one of the big impressions we get from reading the Gospels is that Jesus enjoyed the company of women and walked among them without scruple of anxious prudery. It is often commented how relaxed and humorous his conversation is with the Samaritan woman at the well – for example. And when he addresses the woman with a haemorrhage as ‘Daughter of Abraham’ – I understand that there are no parallels in Rabbinic literature of the time (and he is breaking purity law by his act of inclusion).
The fact that women are the first witnesses to the Resurrection is subversive too – in Hebrew law the testimony of women was not equal to that of men. And of course we have our old pal ‘Junia’ who Paul addresses as a fellow Apostle in the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament (whereas in later manuscripts her name has been changed to its masculine form – ‘Junius’)
Regarding Jesus saying about Eunuchs and the Kingdom – which is obviously about self restraint – I’ve heard it commented that the Mediterranean was and is ‘a magnificent sea surrounded by layers of pathological male sexuality, and nothing accosts that profound insecurity like the mention of eunuchs and castration – so Jesus’ metaphor does not necessarily promote asceticism – and even less literal castration; rather it is directed deliberately at patriarchal chauvinism. Also I’ve heard it commented that eunuchs were not uncommon in the ancient world – whether through birth, through accident, or through castration as male slaves in a Roman household that had intimate contact with the women of the house. Leviticus suggests that eunuchs are unclean because no eunuch can become a Levite – and perhaps a another layer of purpose and meaning to Jesus’ metaphor here is to challenge the exclusions made by purity laws.
A final word about Origen – then high time to move on!!! The British writer Karen Armstrong pictures him memorably thus –
‘In an age where the philosopher was characterised by his long beard (a sign of wisdom) Origen’s smooth cheeks and high voice would have been startling’.
And it’s great to know that people are beginning to say good things about ‘our man’ Origen in the media!
All the best
Dick