Catholics, Evangelicals, the Blessed Virgin, St. Paul

[Love_is_Patient]

I’ve been pondering the Catholic/Evangelical divide recently, especially after reading articles like the following :catholic.com/thisrock/2002/0203fea2.asp

And I have a theory, although I’m sure I’m not the first to think of it.

Catholic (and Orthodox) spirituality tends toward the feminine. We love the Blessed Virgin Mary and hold her up as the model Christian.

Evangelical spirituality tends toward the masculine. It often seems to me that St. Paul is their unofficial patron saint.

Catholics love the Blessed Virgin for who she was and how she responded to God. Did she plant churches, get shipwrecked, give testimony in court, etc, etc? No. She simply said ‘yes’ to God every day, and pondered all she’d learned in her heart.

Evangelicals love St. Paul because he’s such a heroic Christian, actively living out his faith. He *did * so much in his life and suffered and endured and fought. He was truly a soldier for Christ (two points if you got the Confirmation reference there…).

So it seems to me (in my interactions with evangelicals) that this masculine/feminine divide is why we don’t understand each other. They sometimes look at the BVM and our devotion and seem perplexed because - to their mind - “all” she did was give birth to Jesus and oh, yeah, she stood at the cross. She is thus worthy of mention at Christmas, then gets packed away till her brief appearance at Easter. She’s certainly not as active and heroic as St. Paul. She’s little more than a minor character in the story.

That’s not to say that Catholic spirituality is devoid of the masculine or that evangelical spirituality is devoid of the feminine. Of course there’s both in both.

What do you think? Am I close or am I missing something? Is there a good way to bridge this gap?

Love is Patient

 

[puzzleannie]

I think it is John of the Cross who points out that every soul is feminine in relationship to God, who has revealed himself as masculine, that is, he is the initiator of the loving relationship, the soul is the recipient of the love, God pursues, the soul is won, God acts, the soul is acted upon, as the potter works the clay.

 

[Love_is_Patient]

I think it is John of the Cross who points out that every soul is feminine in relationship to God, who has revealed himself as masculine, that is, he is the initiator of the loving relationship, the soul is the recipient of the love, God pursues, the soul is won, God acts, the soul is acted upon, as the potter works the clay.

I love that.

I also know that the last time I said something to that effect to an evangelical guy, he nearly flinched at the thought that he is feminine in relationship to God. It’s one of those Catholic-Evangelical divides.

 

[Hisalone]

It is difficult for women to see themselves as Sons of God. For men the difficulty lies in being the bride of Christ.

 

[Love_is_Patient]

It is difficult for women to see themselves as Sons of God. For men the difficulty lies in being the bride of Christ.

Good point, Hisalone. But, in my limited experience, I’ve never seen a woman recoil at being a son of God. But I’ve seen men get mighty uncomfortable with being a bride of Christ.

I wonder if that’s because our culture has so long denigrated femininity.

Love is Patient

 

[Cluny]

<<Catholic (and Orthodox) spirituality tends toward the feminine. We love the Blessed Virgin Mary and hold her up as the model Christian.

Evangelical spirituality tends toward the masculine. It often seems to me that St. Paul is their unofficial patron saint. >>

A rather odd remark about Orthodox.

In most Orthodox parishes, the converts are more likely to be men than women.

Presbyteress Frederica Matthews-Green in the preface of her book FACING EAST mentioned that in her observation, including her own personal experience, that when a couple converted to Orthodoxy, it was usually the husband’s idea. The wife was frequently hesitant until the moment the Chrism was applied to her brow. As one woman herself put it, “I was in for the ride of my life, and I was not the one in the driver’s seat.”

And in my own experience as a Baptist, to say nothing about observing pop-evangelical churches, they are usually filled with women, with very few men.

 

[DOShea]

But I’ve seen men get mighty uncomfortable with being a bride of Christ.

It’s just because we haven’t a thing to wear.

 

[CHRISTINE77]

Don’t forget that Mary is the Mother of God. The mother figure is very important as she is our nurturer and the one who truly cares about us. Mary nurtured her son, and watched him grow and mature and mourned his death. Mary makes intercession for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

I agree that Protestents don’t have much love for Mary. I wonder why. It makes for a very male-dominated religion. Paul taught good things of course, but it’s like just having a father figure for a teacher in the Protestent churches, unlike the Catholic Church, where we have both a father and mother figure to guide us.