"

GENDER AND CHRISTIANITY IN DEVELOPMENT:

FAILED MARRIAGE OR WORK IN PROGRESS?
Ruben van de Belt

Religion is mostly thought of as outdated, and related to development irrelevant at best or a barrier to
economic, political and social progress at worst. Connections between religionChristianity in the
case of this paperand the control of women are evident throughout world-history, and the history of
development in particular. Social institutions were given theological foundations as being a divine
order within the creation. Attempts to domesticate women in the colonies into the nineteenth-
century European ideals of wife- and motherhood accompanied the message of Christianity brought by
the missionaries.
1
But religion isnt only an important factor for development practitioners; we also
must understand the significance of religion for many people who receive aid. On the other hand we
must consider the role religious faith can play as liberator and as a prophetic voice against injustice
and women suppression.
The questions I wish to pose in this paper is first whether theological perspectives influence
contemporary Christian development-organizations, standing within the protestant tradition, in their
contribution to gender-equality in their projects, and second how this contribution relates to the
theological context of the development receivers. I answer the first part of this question, after an short
overview of historical relationship between development and religion, development and gender-
equality, and contemporary theological theories concerning the issue, in the critical affirmative,
pointing to some theological traditions like theology in the flesh, and feminist theology, and more
recent Trinitarian inspired approachesaccepting as a premise that academic theology is an mirror of
lived theologies within churches and organizations, although the image is diffused. Concerning the
second part of the question, I remark that questions about gender-equality seem to be in the centre of
current debates in protestant churches in the west. Answers formulated within those debates cant be
considered unimportant for the vision of those churches concerning development, but there seems to
different approach to gender-equality in Southern feminist theology and Northern feminist theology
due to the social context in which they espoused.
2
On the other hand is it necessary to be aware of
cultural borders and its influences on lived religion, even in a global society. Therefore recent

1
Caroline Sweetman, Editorial in Sweetman (ed.) Gender, Religion and Spirituality (Oxford: Oxfam, 1998),
2-7.
2
Although the North-South divide can be criticized it will be used in this paper for pragmatic reasons. I am
aware of possible geographical based objections, but I consider it a convenient way in referring to the concerned
countries and regions. Occasionally the North will be referred to as the West whenever it suits the case.
#
approaches within the field of intercultural theology shall be evaluated. As an illustration I portray the
Evangelical Centre for Pastoral Studies in Central-America, supported by Kerk in Actie and ICCO,
and their contribution to empowerment of women in Guatemala. Concluding I will formulate some
possible formulate answers to the research questions, trying to explain how different theological
approaches effect priorities in development programs, and gender-equality in specific.

Christianity, Mission and Development: A Historical Burden

The history of Christianity and overseas mission is a delicate one. In early Christianity both mission
and development existed in a close interrelatedness. Members of the community spread the gospel and
took care of the sick, even outside their own social network. This stance toward their neighbors is
derived from an imperative within the centre of the preaching of Jesus: You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strengths and with all your mind, and
your neighbor as yourself.
3
This implies both a religious as a social responsibility for the individual
believer; a responsibility which is hard to overstate. Social justice and religious piety are closely
related to each other, at least in this statement. The question remains what exactly is meant with the
command to love your neighbor, but one might assume that this points onto some kind of reciprocal
principle. But towards the end of the gospel of Matthew the following quote is found: Go therefore
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
4
How should this imperative be
valued, and most important: does it oppose for example social and medical aid? Is the salvation, as
reconciliation between God and man, more important than education and health? Without giving a
conclusive answer, I would like to point out that Christian development-organization are functioning
within a continuing tension between those two approaches. On the other hand, it might be said that
Christians always have described development in terms, which go way beyond conventional
definitions:

Development means growth towards wholeness: it describes the process by which individual persons
and communities struggle to realize their full potential; physical and intellectual, cultural and spiritual,
social and political. Thus, development is a Christian concern.
5



3
Luke 10:26, (ESV).
4
Matt. 28: 19-20
a
(ESV).
5
Bridget Walker, Christianity, development, and womens liberation in Sweetman (ed.) Gender, Religion
and Spirituality (Oxford: Oxfam, 1998), 15-22.
$
A holistic approach towards development is emphasized with the Christian tradition. Passages like
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God support
this perspective.
6
Human beings are social and spiritual beings; they need companionship,
appreciation and meaning in their lives.
However this holistic approach might be a positive contribution to our understanding of
development, Christianity also played a rather sinister role in world history regarding colonialism.
Spiritual authorities often allied with political, social and economic powers, and consequently
formulated theological foundations for existing structures and the rise of capitalism. Through
missionary activities a Western worldview was forced upon the development-receivers, despite the
presence of other cultural perspectives. This last observation is a complicated one; is there for a
Western development-organization any ground to improve gender-equality when the cultural context
bears another opinion? What gotin this case a Christianworldview to say about gender-equality
that suggests being universally true? Or more particular: How do Christian development-organizations
refer to gender-equality, supposed that they consider it of such value to become part of the
organization vision. Due to the scope of this paper thosemainly philosophical relatedquestions
wont be the object of elaboration in the following parts, although it returns into focus when discussing
postcolonial perspectives on gender-equality, but one should be aware of those meta-perspective
questions when reflecting on the role of culture within development.
On a more positive note, one has to acknowledge the role of the churchCatholicism in
particularin education. Within the framework of cultural imperialism, the church built schools and
laid a foundation for modern education. Although, the main goal was to create a fertile soil for the
gospel, it had a positive impact on the development of countries in the New Land.
7

Concluding this section one might say that the relationship between Christianity and
development is ambivalent at least: it gives a strong command to take care for those in need, but at the
same time played a immense role in the history of colonialism. The latter notion plays a significant
role in contemporary understanding of development. Therefore, a closer of colonialism and
development examination is needed.

Postcolonial Perspectives on Gender-Equality and Development

Besides other perspectives on the relationship between development and gender-equality, there is a
strong tradition of postcolonial views on development. Especially when accessing the role of
Christianity within the topic at hand, it is obvious that those perspectives need to be heard, but they
must be understood within in the context of the gender-debate in development studies.

6
Matt. 4:4 (ESV).
7
Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation: A History (London: Penguin Books, 2003), 427-444.
%
The debate concerning the position of women in development arose in the 1950s and became
a hot topic in the 1970s emphasizing equity of men and women.
8
Although it has been a subject for
several decades, there is recent evidence of growing gender awareness within development,
especially in relation to enhancing the position of women. For example, microcredit schemes have
given women greater access to loans and finance.
9
But possible most important is the
acknowledgement of gender-sensitivity of several aspects of development. That acknowledgement led
to the introduction of the Gender Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure
(GEM) in 1995.
10
But also, at an institutional level, gender equity and the empowerment of women
is Goal 3 of the Millennium Development Goals, and improving maternal health is Millennium
Development Goal 5.
11

It is within those debates that several postcolonial perspectives on development arose. These
perspectives seek to value cultural differences between the global North and the global South. The
main critique on gender-equality in development programs is the stereotyping of the women of the
South as tradition-bound and constrained by patriarchal cultures, and southern women accuse northern
feminist working in development of pursuing a western liberal rights-based agenda that ignores their
respective cultural, racial and class differences.
12
There is indeed a tendency to universalize western
understanding of gender, and to impose those values upon southern cultures.
In addition to the observation of stereotyping southern women and imposing western concepts
of gender on them, Hopper states:

[T]here is greater awareness that different countries and regions have their own understanding of gender
difference and gender role. In turn, this postmodern recognition of diversity and complexity has come
to inform gender and development, challenging the notion that women are a homogenous group and
allowing space for southern womens voices.
13


The new attention for cultural aspects in gender-issues is a promising development for southern
women. They are understood as rooted in their own cultural context and part of particular social
structures. However, this awareness must not result in acceptance of gender-inequality but in a more
suiting approach of those women. In order to achieve that, they must be given the opportunity to

8
For a comprehensive overview of debates and approaches see: Paul Hopper, Understanding Development
(Cambridge: Polity Press, 2012), 93-115.
9
Hopper, Understanding Development, 103.
10
Hopper, Understanding Development, 103 f.
11
Hopper, Understanding Development, 104.
12
Hopper, Understanding Development, 110 f. Hopper refers to several scholars who wrote on the subject.
These include Mohanty (1991), Schech and Haggis (2002), Peake and Trotz (2002) and Pearson (2000).
13
Hopper, Understanding Development, 111.
&
express themselves, to address their problems, and to set own goals. At the same time, an ongoing
dialogue concerning gender-issues is needed to reflect on current practice and to criticize
subordination of women. In this dialogue participation of various disciplines is needed in order to
come to a thorough understanding of the topic. One of these disciplines should be theology, because
religion is an important player in many development countries. Theologydefined as a systematic
reflection on religious practices fromcan recognize, describe, and evaluate the underlying principles
of those practices.

Intercultural Theologys Understanding of Gender-Issues

The development of a theological approach to gender-issues is largely comparable to the process of
gender and development addressed earlier. Since the topic of this paper is the relation between gender-
equality and Christianity with development, it is needed to focus on this discipline. On the one hand
because culture cannot be separated from religion, and on the other hand because women struggle
against exclusion or domination due to religion.
As stated above, theology shares in the development of development and gender, resulting in a
cultural-sensitive understanding of gender. Kim seems to be illustrative for that statement:

While gender is universal, it is always culturally expressed. Whereas women and men are differentiated
by sex at birth, the categories of male and female, although universally recognized, are differently
perceived across cultures. The fact that gender roles and relations are worked out differently across
cultures is a motivation factor in leading women to question the roles and status ascribed to them in
their traditional culture and to envision new ways of being and behaving.
14


In the quotation several familiar aspects are manifest. First, there is an acknowledgement of the
cultural relatedness of gender. Secondly, there is a call to address gender-roles in cultures, which must
be initiated by the southern women themselves. It is within that dialogue that cultures meets and
theology becomes intercultural theology. That singular adjective and noun suggests some kind unity,
and according to the eminent scholar Rosemary Radford Ruether there is something like that:

Christian women theologians across the globe are concerned with common themes of critique of sexist
symbols in Christianity and the reconstruction of the symbolism for God, Christ, humanity and nature,
sin, and salvation, to affirm womens full and equivalent humanity. But women theologians in each

14
Kristeen Kim, Gender Issues in Intercultural Theological Perspective in Mark J. Cartlegde and David
Cheetham (eds.) Intercultural Theology: Approaches and Themes (London: SCM Press, 2011), 75.
'
context take up issues particular to their societies and histories and draw on cultural resources before
and beyond Christianity to envision a more just and loving world.
15


So within the field of intercultural theology there is a shared interest in certain subjects of theology
and specific loci of Christian dogmatic. But the contexts in which that shared interests are translated
into particular concepts differs. There are some differences between feminist theologies from the
North and feminist theologies from the South.
First, feminist theology in the global North emerged in a period and among a social class in
which women had already achieved a large measure of autonomy and could earn their own living, live
independently of male support, and without children if they so chose.
16
Secondly, as Kim states,
women in the North already achieved influence on political matters, which kept increasing over time.
When these differences are approached from the southern side, the following is written:

In the South, feminist theology is primarily a matter of womens personal and political freedom and
self-defined identity, but is inseparable from the struggle for nationhood and the vision of a new, post-
colonial society. In other words, feminist theology in the global South grew not within the discourse of
womens rights but in the wide discourse of international development and human flourishing.
17


So there is difference in understanding of what gender-equality is about. Northern theologians think
about liberation in a political sense, and address issues like the image of the ideal woman in western
society. In the South theologians are focused on the building of a nation, providing possibilities for
girls to attend schools and receive education, andespecially a South-American issuesecure
physical integrity in male-dominated societies.
This raises the question whether Christian development organizations in the North mean the
same when they refer to gender-equality as their southern partner-organizations, who perform the
actual program? In order to formulate an answer a case-study will be helpful.

A Message from the Field

Mission-statements, published by Christian development-organization might be considered as
theological documents. When this is the case, one might approach them as such and gain
understanding of them by a theological interpretation. In following a mission-statement of Kerk in
Actie is evaluated that way. It states:

15
Rosemary Radford Ruether, The Emergence of Christian Feminist Theology in Susan Frank Parsons (ed.)
The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 3-22:18.
16
Kim, Gender Issues, 84.
17
Kim, Gender Issues, 85.
(

All human beings are created as images of God. Based on that conviction, Kerk in Actie
supports groups that are subordinated and disadvantaged. We empower women living in
conflict-zones, victims of war and violence, and tribal people. We fight against exclusion of
cultural, ethnical and sexual minorities.
18


Some remarks on this mission-statement can be made. First of all the understanding of a human being
as images of God seems to be antecedent for a general equality of all groups of people. It is the
shared condition of imago Dei that is fundamental for the anthropology of Kerk in Actie, and seems to
imply an intrinsic value of a human. Secondly, the imago Dei isnt gender-specific; no division
between men and women is made in that qualification. Thirdly, a specific remark to women living in
conflict-zones is made, but due to context of a enumeration and emphasis on conflict-zones that
doesnt seem to refer to any special importancethat is more than victims of war and violence and
tribal people. This approach of women seems to connect with the worldwide tendency of
mainstreaming gender-equality in development programs. Rather than focusing upon specialized
projects for women, gender mainstreaming entails transforming existing policy agenda by integrating
a gender perspective into all policies and programs.
19
It is at least implicit present in the statement.
This mission-statement forms the foundations for several development programs in the global
South. One of them is the Centro Evanglico de Estudios Pastorales en Centro Amrica (Cedepca) in
Guatemala. It is a training centre that focuses on pastoral care for women and tries to offer the tools
to eradicate violence and injustice in their world, especially violence against women and children.
20

They formulated several targets: eradicate violence against women; stimulate womens self-esteem;
create a fundamental equality between men and women, and; encourage female leadership in
churches.
21
These targets can be found on the Dutch website of Kerk in Actie, which is purposed to
inform and attract new donors. Although these statements, which relate very well to southern feminist
priorities as described above, are on the website the most attention is drawn to other quotes, who refer
to western priorities. They describe the work of Cedepca as making the voice of women heard in
church and society, including a reference to womens rights. These to aspects are typical for western
feminism within Christianity. Addressing the first Ruether states that The Northern feminist
theologians were most concerned not with social issues but with the church, and how it could be re-

18
http://www.kerkinactie.nl/over-kerk-in-actie/onze-themas (derived on april 28, 14). The translation is my
own.
19
Hopper, Understanding Development, 112.
20
http://www.cedepca.org/ (derived on may 30, 14)
21
http://www.kerkinactie.nl/projecten/de-stem-van-vrouwen-gehoord-in-kerk-en-samenleving#more-info
(derived on may 30, 14). The translation is my own.
)
formed in such a way that women could have freedom and be included within it.
22
Referring to the
latter Kim is called in memory when she states that western feminist theology grew within the
discourse of womens rights, in contrast with southern traditions.
Concluding the case-study, one might state that Cedepcas program fits the needs of women in
the South, but is portrayed in West conform the priorities of western feminism. Those observations
comply with insights from the sections on the postcolonial perspective on gender-equality and the one
on intercultural theology and gender-issues. In order to formulate an answer to the research-questions,
a turn must be made towards the relationship between contemporary theological approaches and the
way gender-equality is addressed. To achieve that, two currently dominant theological perspectives
one North and one Southwill be examined and related to the case-study.

Imago Trinitatis as Western Perspective

The doctrine of the trinity, formulated in the Nicean Creed as tres personae una substantia, is one of
the most disputed and difficult aspects of Christianity. For decades it was almost ignored completely
or in some cases even denied in Christian theology. The disciplines communis opinio was that the
doctrine, as it was formulated, said more about Hellenistic philosophy than the godly being. But,
surprisingly the interest in the doctrine was resurrected during the 20
th
century and ever-since the
amount of publications dedicated to it kept growing. It even was described as crucial for Christian
theology and its understanding of other topic, including gender. Butin states:

Since Barths well-known step, there has been a growing acknowledgement in Reformed theology
todayand indeed in theology in generalof the cruciality and indispensability of the doctrine of the
Trinity as the paradigm of Gods relationship with humanity.
23


These developments made the trinity the core paradigm for theological subjects. It is this approach
that is adopted by many western theologians and has its influence on contemporary theology and all its
loci. Therefore, it also is part of the discussion of the concept of gender in western churches.
As stated before, the imago Dei is at the core of Kerk in Acties understanding of men and
women. From a Trinitarian perspective the imago Dei is understood as imago Trinitatis, in which both
male and female qualities are appreciated.
24
These qualities are expressed in relational terminology

22
Ruether, The Emergence of Christian Feminist Theology, 7 f.
23
Philip W. Butin, Revelation, redemption and response: Calvins trinitarian understanding of the divine-human
relationshiop (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 5.
24
Almatine Leene, Triniteit, Antropologie en Ecclesiologie: Een kritisch onderzoek naar implicaties van de
godsleer voor de positie van mannen en vrouwen in de kerk (Amsterdam: Buijten & Schipperheijn Motief, 2013)
168-197.
*
and therefore imply equality; only when men and women work together, they can be the imago Dei.
They need to complement each other in order to represent God on earth. The doctrine of the trinity
helps to understand that a rational understanding isnt the foundation of gender, but that gender is
always expressed in relations. According to these theologians, the doctrine secures gender-equality
although a definition of that noun is obscure. The church as an icon of the Trinity is to be understood
as a communion characterized by equality and freedom.
25

Now the significance of a Trinitarian theology for gender-issues is established, it is time to see
how that equality is described. It seemsand the previous quotation supports that statementthat
western feminist theologians focus on the church as environment where the feminist case has to be
defended. Ruether sees this as a pattern in western feminist theology, and it is at this subject where it
is alienated from southern theologians.
26
Church leadership is the main concern of those theologians
and that tendency is expressed in the description of Cedepca, stating that it aims to encourage female
leadership. It also aspire to let the voice of women be heard in society, matching another priority.
Concluding, one might state that the concerns of feminist theologians is expressed is translated
in new terminology, and got different concerns when addressing gender-inequality than their southern
counterparts, which take a different approach in theology and accentuate other aspects. One of the
most important theological perspectives in development countries a so-called theology in the flesh,
and it is that approach that will be examined in the following sections.

Theology in the Flesh as Southern Question

Although a Trinitarian perspective seems to become dominant in the near future, the emphasis in
development countries is on a theology in the flesh, which is heavily influenced by the corporeal
turn, and therefore is more sensitivity for southern women who struggle in their battle towards
physical integrity. In his recent defended dissertation Jacob Meiring explores the role of this corporeal
turn in post-colonial southern Africa, focusing on its contribution to reconciliation in South Africa
regarding the Apartheid. He describes the theology as following:
It is a contemporary theological anthropology with a sentiment of the flesh and a sensitivity to the
textures of life, which functions within the intricate and complex connection of the living body,
language and experiencing in a concrete life-world with an openness to the more than.
27


The difference between western Christianity andalthough generalizingsouthern Christianity is
expressed in the case at hand: the program itself pays much attention to physical abuse, self-esteem

25
Catherine M. LaCugna, God for us: the trinity and Christian Life (New York: HarperSanFransico, 1991), 286.
26
Ruether, The Emergence of Christian Feminist Theology, 7 f.
27
Jacob Meiring, Theology in the flesh: exploring the corporeal turn from a southern African perpective
(Amsterdam: VU University Press, 2014), 313.
"+
and fundamental equality, but the slogan promoting the program on the Dutch side seems to express
western accents in feminist theology based on political freedom in church and state, the possibility of
women leadership in churches and the space for women to get involved in the public debate.
Liberation is understood in different ways and therefore leads to other results. The western Trinitarian
approach focuses on the diversity in the godly being, which is supposed to be completely equal.
Southern theologians embrace the corporeal turn and emphasize the body as a narrative of liberation. It
seems that the case of Cedepca, and its portrayal on the Dutch website represent both approaches: the
first in the content of the program, the latter in the way it is described.

Conclusion

This paper tried to examine the relationship between Christian development programs and the
theological context of the development practitioners, and how that relates to the theological context of
the development receivers. It established the delicate relationship between western and southern
feminist in post-colonial development, where both groups seems to have other concerns regarding
gender-equality. This discrepancy in priorities is also reflected in Christian feminist theology, and
thereforeas theology is a mirror of lived religiongot an impact on Christian development
programs. There difference between theological perspectivesa Trinitarian approach from the West
and a corporeal, Theology in the flesh, approach from the Southis expressed in a similar way. The
western Trinitarian approach focuses on gender-equality in leadership and churches, whereas the
southern corporeal approach emphasizes physical integrity and accentuate the body as narrative.
Recapitulate conclusions from two sections above. The case reflects both: the content of the program
is allied with a Theology of the flesh, focusing on programs fighting sexual abuse and violence
towards women, where the program is presented towards the western public in slogans referring to
western concerns. An explanation of that phenomenon might be found in the position of the program
between the development receivers and the donors. Donations are crucial but donors will only give
when they can relate to the issues addressed in the program. These issues are obviously shaped and
formed by their western stance towards gender-equality, and it might be because of this that Kerk in
Actie refers to gender-equality in western concepts, whereas the program adapts to the needs of the
southern women.