COUNTLESS BOOKS have been written about women in Bible times. And most people know how the story goes: Ancient Hebrews, like their neighbors, were intensely misogynistic; women had legal status somewhere at or below the level of cattle; and only a few of them rose above their station to gain even name recognition in Scripture. "And that's the way it was in ancient Israel. ..."

But over the centuries, things have changed. Well, sort of. While some cultures in the world do hold to old traditions relegating women to second-class citizenship or even according them no citizenship at all, many other cultures have undergone an attitude adjustment fueled by the phenomenon called feminism. I decided to look up the word, remembering how, in the 1970s, it used to be "fighting language," certain to arouse strong feelings, fury, and tears—and that was just around the dinner table at my house. According to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia—hardly an intellectual resource, but a pretty good mirror of contemporary culture—feminism is defined simply as "an ideology focusing on the equality of both sexes." Nobody argues with that very much anymore. Today, it's a "given."

More women are CEOs of major corporations than ever before. Women earn graduate degrees, including doctorates, in record numbers. Little girls are told, "You can be anything you want to be," and that's true. But such achievement usually carries with it a hefty price-tag. Women still earn considerably less than men who perform the same work. Women still often bear most of the responsibility for child care and domestic duties. Women still face challenges in asserting and maintaining authority in the workplace. Women still starve themselves, stuff themselves into uncomfortable attire, and teeter around on three-inch heels, despite having won the privilege of keeping up with the guys, beer-chug for beer-chug, and demanding various types of personal satisfaction. Not surprisingly, relationships between men and women seem to be in pretty sad shape; in the United States, those who marry face a 50 percent national divorce rate. So, how much progress have we really attained?

When we consider our foremothers as the Bible presents them, and how their lot in life compares with that of women today, perhaps—despite many changes in lifestyle—not too much has changed after all. The reason is that the root cause of prejudice, stereotyping, and oppression is a view of mankind based on matter, not on Spirit, God. Regardless of how much progress has been made through human means—technology, political revolution, and social change, for example—these evils will not be addressed effectively except through a correct identification of every one of us as an idea of God, created and empowered to glorify Him. Conversely, with such an understanding, even a glimmer of it, people are able to triumph over all sorts of adversity, in any age and in any social setting. That is what the Bible record shows, and that is what Christian Science teaches. Here are just a few examples.

Hebrew women in ancient times had few legal rights; but as individuals they had plenty of influence over their husbands, sons, and others in the community. Their relationships certainly weren't one-dimensional. Sarah, for example, made decisions about the family lifestyle, giving the Egyptian slave Hagar to her husband Abraham, then ordering him later to banish Hagar and her son Ishmael. Yet Sarah apparently knew little or nothing about Abraham's decision to offer Isaac as a sacrifice to God (see Gen., chap. 22). One can only imagine the conversation that took place when they returned from Mount Moriah and Sarah learned how close she had come to losing the son she so cherished!

Today, women have many legal rights—even though they were also highly influential in society without them. One might say that over time, human law has simply acknowledged and codified what was always true about the place of each individual, male or female, in society. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, wrote, "Through many generations human beliefs will be attaining diviner conceptions, and the immortal and perfect model of God's creation will finally be seen as the only true conception of being" (Science and Health, p. 260).

Women with business skills were by no means unknown in Biblical times. The description of the "virtuous woman" at the end of the book of Proverbs (see chap. 31, especially verses 14, 16, and 24) includes several references to commercial activities, including the purchase of real estate. Perhaps the best example is Abigail, to whom her husband's employees turned when in danger from a band of adventurers that included the future king, David. Abigail brought peace to a situation that could have had a tragic ending (see I Sam. 25). Today, women have access to more formal lines of economic decision-making, and they still show the strength of character that distinguished their foremother Abigail.

In Biblical times, there were the "bad girls"—the bitter mother-in-law Naomi, the ruthless Queen Jezebel, the "strange woman" who interrupted a private dinner party in order to wash Christ Jesus' feet, and the adulteress whom he saved from being stoned by a self-righteous mob. Each one of these characters has present-day sisters. Some of them bask in media attention, while some are hidden in the shadows of private life. All of them know what it means to live out a stereotype, even when the stereotype is not really "one size fits all." Both men and women suffer within such a conceptual straitjacket, and in repudiation of it, Mary Baker Eddy wrote: "Sometime we shall learn how Spirit, the great architect, has created men and women in Science. We ought to weary of the fleeting and false and to cherish nothing which hinders our highest selfhood" (Science and Health, p. 68).

Interestingly, a case may be made for a feminine parallel in Hebrew Scripture to the spirit of unconditional love Jesus expressed in the gospel record. Ruth, whose loyalty under trying cultural, economic, and personal conditions never wavered, expresses the timeless, gender-free quality of the Christ. Manifest with absolute clarity in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ shines brightly and constantly in consciousness to show us who we really are. The Christ knows no limitations or stereotypes of any sort. It was Jesus' pure expression of the Christ qualities that brought some of the "bad girls" mentioned earlier to a higher sense of themselves and literally saved their lives.

The Christ is present today to rescue everyone, male and female, from oppression of every sort. The Christ allows us to see ourselves and each other in our true light. According to Science and Health, "Christ's Christianity is the chain of scientific being reappearing in all ages, maintaining its obvious correspondence with the Scriptures and uniting all periods in the design of God" (p. 271).

Recalling this unity in the design of God is, when all is said and done, the point in investigating, yet again, the old story of Biblical views of women. We discover that true womanhood—and manhood—is not about the human scene with its changing customs, standards, technologies, and opportunities; it's about those elements which do not change and which Bible history shows us have not changed in thousands of years. Gender conflict, misunderstanding, oppression, all trace back to the same source: a distorted view of God and His creation. Conversely, whatever genuine progress has been made in human affairs has been made when individuals and societies have gained a fuller understanding of God, and of man and woman as essentially spiritual, made in His own image, as the Biblical book of Genesis declares. On this basis Mary Baker Eddy exhorted: "Let the 'male and female' of God's creating appear. Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into newness of life and recognizing no mortal nor material power as able to destroy. Let us rejoice that we are subject to the divine 'powers that be.' Such is the true Science of being. Any other theory of Life, or God, is delusive and mythological" (Science and Health, p. 249).

Progress for women and for men comes through the power of spirituality expressed. The Bible shows how spiritual qualities such as humility, fidelity to goodness, and unselfed love, shown in the lives of women and men alike, transform individuals and families. It illustrates the liberating power of the Christ, a power completely independent of human circumstances. A power just as effective in today's complex world as it was thousands of years ago. css