John Calvin and the daughters of Sarah

Although John Calvin's doctrine of woman and his relationships with women have been the subject of much recent study, interpreters disagree over his relative hierarchicalism or egalitarianism. All agree Calvin was traditional, but part of traditional biblical theology entails elements of both patriarchy and egalitarianism. Moreover, one recent interpreter cites the pro-woman influences of French humanism in order to claim an unprecedented "openness to future change" in Calvin's description of the scriptural prohibition against women teachers as liable to change at the church's discretion. The present dissertation seeks to place Calvin's teachings on women in the context of his fellow exegetes. A preliminary investigation of possible sources for an innovative doctrine and advocacy of women among Calvin's humanist contemporaries argues the unlikelihood of this influence on Calvin. The heart of the dissertation then compares Calvin's exegesis of key scriptural texts concerning women with the exegesis of six of his predecessors and a dozen of contemporaries. Two lines are pursued: First, the "regular" doctrine of woman of these exegetes is established by examining their commentary on woman's status as the image of God and on the biblical arguments for woman's subordination. Second, in order to probe these exegetes' "openness to change," their commentary on the exceptional deeds of the patriarchs is surveyed, along with their corresponding view of the matriarchs and prophetesses as exceptional women and as potential precedents. Both lines of research establish Calvin as almost always in the mainstream of commentators and by no means an innovator in women's advocacy. A final chapter investigates Calvin's puzzling relegation of women's silence to matters of polity and adiaphora by analyzing his use of these terms in the Institutes and his exegesis of texts bearing on women. Evidence suggests that Calvin's agenda is determined not, again, by a real advocacy of women but by his concern to preserve the polity of the church without allowing polity to tyrannize the conscience.