Calvin on Women

Calvin’s view of theological anthropology concerning women differed from Luther’s in a subtle way. Luther believed that a woman’s subjection was not something that was from the beginning, but was something brought about by the fall. The woman was created to help man rule, but after the fall all she has experienced is domination. As Ruether notes, “ Unlike Luther, who sees the fall as depriving women of a role in the government of public affairs in which she would originally had shared, Calvin attributes women’s exclusion from government to the original divine ordinance in which sovereignty in domestic and state affairs was given exclusively to the male. This same order of creation means that women are not to preach or teach in church.” (Women and Redemption pg. 124)
Calvin does, however, believe that women are equal to men in everyway except in the role of government. So Intellectually, spiritually, morally, etc. women are on the same footing he says concerning man, “Truly there are many things in this corrupted nature which may induce contempt; but if you rightly weigh all circumstances, man is, among other creatures a certain preeminent specimen of Divine wisdom, justice, and goodness, so that he is deservedly called by the ancients "a world in miniature.” (Calvin’s Commentary on Genesis Chapter 1:26) he then says elsewhere when evaluating whether women are also included in the imago dei, “Why, even children know that women are included in the term!” (Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.13.3. John T. Mcneil ed. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), 479) Thus we see that Calvin in almost every way views men and women on the same level according to the image of God, but the office or duty of government is not something women where created to participate in. (Calvin’s Commentary on Genesis Chapter1:26). Calvin also believed that if women ever ruled a nation it was God’s way of punishing the men for not adequately fulfilling their roles. (Ruether Women and Redemption pg. 125)
Women where also not allowed to speak or teach in church unless there was an emergency(Women and Redemption pg. 125). Calvin rejects Luther’s view the Adam was only first by primogeniture, that is being first born, Calvin declared that women where created equal but secondarily in authority from the beginning. This excludes women from church office, as Calvin says, “He Paul assigned two reasons why women should be subject to men: because not only did God enact this law, but he also inflicted it as a punishment on the woman.” (Calvin quoted in Women and Redemption/Ruether pg. 124-125)
Of course one cannot exclude from this discussion Calvin’s belief in determinism. For Calvin a persons freedom only depended if the person did what they wanted to do, it is not necessary for that person to be able to do other wise, only that the person wants to do an action or has the desire to do an action. Before the fall women’s hearts would have been turned toward God, but now they are only worried about usurping the power of the husband. On the opposite end of the spectrum, in paradise, Adam would have loved his wife and exercised his authority with Grace, but now this no longer happens because men are driven by a desire to abuse their authority. Calvin believed that men and women’s problem stemmed from their mutual rebellion against God, both Adam and Eve where responsible for the same sin, disobedience. This sin is what has caused the lack of functioning in marriage.
For Calvin it can be seen that women have rules that have been laid down by God from the beginning. Ruether notes three statuses of women in Calvin’s theology, “ 1) an inner quality of soul as image of God; 2) an external subjugation in matters of government, both of being established in God’s original order of creation; and 3) a worsening of women’s subjugation into servitude in the Fall in which women are forced to accede to submission that would originally have been voluntary.” Contrary to what many Feminist writers have written neither Calvin, nor Luther would have seen abuse by men or women to be a good thing. They saw it stemming from the universal curse of sin that was brought on by human disobedience, but it was not something that God would allow to go on forever, but would remedy in his own time.