Christianity & Family Life (Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE Religious Studies): Revision Note

Religious teachings on the roles of men and women

• There are many Christian teachings that show that men and women are created equal

  • The creation story in Genesis says that God created both men and women equal in his image (Genesis 1:28)

  • Jesus respected women greatly and welcomed them as disciples

    • The story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38–42) showed that Jesus valued women as followers of his message and did not see their role as simply performing domestic tasks

  • Jesus appeared to women first after his resurrection from the dead

  • Jesus’s command to “love your neighbour” applies to everyone and shows that all are equal and that discrimination is wrong

  • St Paul taught that everyone was equal in the eyes of God (Galatians 3:28)

• However, the Bible contains contradictory teachings about gender equality, with some teachings reflecting the society in which it was written

  • Although men and women were both made in the image of God, the creation story in the book of Genesis in the Bible suggests that God made women to be a “helpmate” for men

• The book of Genesis also shows that God punishes Eve for being disobedient to Adam and says that Adam will rule over her

• St Paul taught that women should remain silent in church (1 Corinthians 14:34) and should obey their husbands

• The roles of men and women within the Christian faith have historically tended to support these traditional views, based on literal interpretation of Bible teachings that reflect the role of women at the time they were written

• Some traditional Christians might support the idea that husbands should rule over their wives and that women should stay home and care for children

  • However, generally, most Christians today take a modern approach to roles within families, seeing marriage as an equal partnership between men and women who work together to make a successful family

The roles and responsibilities of men and women within Christianity

• Within some parts of the Christian church, the roles of men and women do vary

• For most of Christian history, women were not allowed to be priests

• Although most denominations now accept women as leaders, women are still not permitted to be priests in the Catholic or Orthodox churches

• The churches state that this is because:

  • All of Jesus’s twelve apostles were men

  • The priest at Mass takes on the role of Jesus in blessing the bread and wine, and because Jesus was a man, a woman cannot take on this role

  • St Paul said that women should be silent in church (1 Corinthians 14:34), which would mean that they could not take on leadership roles

• Churches that do not think that women can be priests still think that they have other gifts to offer and roles to play, including:

  • Teaching Sunday School

  • Joining in with the music

  • Flower arranging

• Protestant Christians believe that women should have the same roles as men in the church

• The reasons the Protestant Church gives are:

  • Jesus welcomed female followers and treated them with great respect

  • Jesus appeared to women first after his resurrection from the dead

  • St Paul said that everyone was equal in the eyes of God

Religious teachings on the nurture of the young

• Family life is of central importance to Christians

• Jesus commanded that all Christians should love one another (John 13:34), and love is at the heart of all relationships, including families

  • It is within a family that a child learns to love

• It is also within a family that a child learns about Christian traditions, teachings and values

• Christian parents have a duty to love and care for their children

• They should raise the children within the Christian faith

• They should teach their children Christian values: 

  • Love

  • Loyalty

  • Respect for life

  • Compassion

  • Generosity

• Parents want their children to be able to think for themselves and be true to themselves, while also being tolerant of other people’s views

• St Paul wrote instructions for parents in the early church that summarised their responsibilities in the nurture of the young:

Religious teachings on care of the elderly

• Christians are taught to respect and obey their parents

• This was commanded in the Ten Commandments:

• St Paul repeated this teaching to the early church in his letter to the Ephesians, where he called this duty towards parents “the right thing to do”:

• It is considered a denial of the faith not to look after children or parents properly, especially in their old age

Different Christian attitudes to marriage

• Most Christians believe marriage is a significant part of life

• It is a gift from God and part of God’s plan for creation

• Christians believe that marriage is a covenant before God

• The marriage takes place with family and friends, who act as witnesses to the vows

  • This shows the couple’s commitment to one another

• Jesus emphasised the importance of marriage

  • He taught that it is to be a monogamous relationship and is for life

• Many Christians believe that God intended men and women to live together as married couples but not to live together outside marriage

• Roman Catholics believe that marriage is a sacrament

  • This is why a Catholic marriage can never be “broken” in the eyes of the church — because once God has given his blessing, he cannot take it away

  • The Catholic Church teaches that believers should refrain from having sex until they have received the sacrament of marriage 

• Liberal Protestants accept couples living together before marriage but expect couples to marry before starting a family

  • They only accept sex to be between a couple committed to a long-term relationship: “recognising that for many, this is a step along the way to the fuller commitment of marriage” (Church of England Report 1997)

  • Other Christians believe that marriage is an option but not compulsory and that cohabitation is acceptable, provided the couple are committed to each other

Different Christian attitudes to divorce and remarriage

• In the Bible, Jesus taught that anyone who divorced and remarried was committing adultery:

• However, Jesus also taught:

• In this teaching, Jesus seems to be allowing divorce because of unfaithfulness

• All Christians believe that the marriage vows are sacred, form a binding contract and are intended for life

• The Catholic Church teaches that marriage is a permanent sacrament

  • If a baptised couple gets a civil divorce, they are still considered to be married in the eyes of God because they have made lifelong vows before God that can never be broken

  • A Catholic cannot remarry in the church while their partner is still alive

  • Catholics can get an annulment to cancel the marriage if there was never a true marriage

    • An annulment is a Catholic Church ruling that the marriage was never valid

  • Catholics whose marriages have been annulled can remarry in church

• Other Christians believe that although marriage is permanent, divorce can be the lesser of two evils

• If the marriage has completely broken down for serious reasons, divorce as a last resort might actually be the most loving action in the circumstances

  • They support this by saying that God is forgiving and that this forgiveness should be reflected in the church’s attitude towards people who have made mistakes

  • The Church of England and most Protestant and Orthodox churches allow couples to divorce and remarry as long as they take their vows seriously