“It (The Early church) chose not to challenge the subjugation of woman or the institution of slavery. Thereby it prepared itself gradually to become the religion of the established class, a development that culminated in the age of Constantine three centuries later.” (pg. 168-169 “The Politics of Jesus”)
Yoder’s statement above is quite powerful. According to Yoder less than one generation removed from the death and resurrection of Jesus, the early church that would have consisted of disciples who sat at the feet of the master had already softened the cutting edge of the gospel message. His observation is quite troubling and comforting to think about.
According to Yoder, the Apostle Paul (and other writers) liberally borrowed from the popular Haustafeln or “Household Rules” of his day to discern the Biblical subordination understanding to the broader church on the issue of women, slavery and child rearing. The criticism therefore is that consciously or unconsciously, Paul along with others limited the radical message of Jesus by conforming to the world around him. Instead of perhaps being a thermostat for the culture, Paul and other writers of the New Testament were mere barometers on sensitive issues such of subordination during a time were patriarchy was the norm. In other words, according to Yoder the Jesus of the Gospels would have “radically” framed the issue of subordination differently as he had done on the issue of divorce, lust, violence, etc. The logical conclusion therefore that Yoder’s argument would lead is to question the sovereignty of scriptures along with questioning how (mind vs. heart) God through the Holy Spirit inspired the writers of scripture. All of which leads me to the troubling fact that Christianity as we know could have been dramatically shaped differently.
This leads to my second observation on Yoder. His willingness to put the possibility that the early church lost a portion of its moral compass, though admittedly troubling, is also important to note it is also freeing. Yoder’s names what many in the church refuse to grasp about scripture that still impacts us yet today. We all are influenced, shaped, and therefore fashioned by our environment. Simply put, we do not live in a bubble that remains stagnant and free from outside influence. As a result it shouldn’t be a surprise that the authors of the both Testaments of our scripture were both inspirited by God in the spiritual yet were also impacted by what they saw and experienced in the natural. Is this not according to Yoder our call today as well? Yoder is clear – we are to remove all the (cultural, ethnic, etc) barriers that would impede us from Jesus being our normative way of life.
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