Always intrigued by a battle of the sexes scenario I recently started to put two and two together on male and female responses to the person of Jesus Christ.
Amongst emergant thinkers there's a clear focus on Jesus of Nazareth as the inspiration for life and faith today, and a sense that we need to rediscover him under the layers of Pauline theology that have dominated modern evangelical thinking. As I've been reading along these lines I've been challenged with my own 'preference' for Paul's writings rather than the gospels and it made me wonder why. I think I'm probably not alone in accidentally slipping into sticking to favourite or 'safe' passages of scripture in my devotional life and I wonder whether gender might have a part to play.
Jesus as portrayed in the gospels is unashamedly a man of action, he gets things done, meets needs and makes things happen. In the writings of Paul however Jesus Christ becomes a more conceptual, intuitive person, working from our inner lives and concerned with our motives, values and emotions. Jesus of Nazareth demonstrates a task to be completed and lays down a challenge, he empowers us to act, to imitate his way of life. Jesus the Christ affirms our inner world and the intuitive aspects of our nature, he is a figure of worship, our strength and protection.
Maybe these different angles on Jesus appeal to the genders differently, but as some of us respond to the challenge to action of Jesus of Nazareth they will inevitably run into the question how can I act as he did? The need for an indwelling of the Spirit of Jesus becomes painfully apparant as we are confronted by our human limitations. Likewise as others respond to the inner intimacy of Jesus the Christ shaping their character and restoring their soul the question resounds why? A constant reference to the Jesus who practiced the Kingdom on earth is necessary to prevent us from becoming individualised and insular.
Its so necessary to be shaken out of our 'religious' habits and to recognise the factors that influence us in our response to God whether personality, culture, family background or gender. My personal feeling is that the Gospel narratives of Jesus and Paul's theological exposition of the Christ are, as are men and women, better together.
