Could Christ Have Been a Woman?

An Interview with Father Basil Pennnington
by Simeon Alev

Interviewer: It seems to be the case for most of us that our identification with being men or women is quite primary. Freud went so far as to assert that gender distinctions constitute the core of the individual personality and the basis of our civilization collectively-that our ideas about gender form the very foundation of who we believe ourselves to be and are the very source of the way our civilization is put together. In your view, does this fundamental identification with our gender ultimately inhibit or support the realization of our full potential as spiritual beings?

Fr. Basil Pennington: Theoretically, I'd say it would inhibit it, in the sense that any kind of box we put ourselves in inhibits our growth. We are an expression of the Divine and are open to full divinization, and so anything that tries to define us is going to fall short and has the danger of inhibiting our full blossoming. I would certainly say that if a person is too conscious of his maleness or her femaleness, and if that's become something of the agenda of their life, then it definitely would inhibit their spiritual development. It can become part of that project of building up the false self. In my own experience, I don't believe I personally think of myself as a man, or as gender-specific, and I don't know if I ever did. But just looking at today's advertising, I think you can see that there's a lot of playing at what it means to be a "real" man or a "real" woman, and that's all usually fairly superficial. So obviously, if you're putting a lot of energy and intentionality on that, then the spiritual dimension is going to be lost.

Interviewer: You said that you may actually never have thought of yourself specifically as a man?

Fr. Pennington: Well, I don't think I meant that exactly, but that I've tended to give primacy to my being. And yes, perhaps I have thought of myself specifically as a man at times, but that's only to say that at times I celebrate my maleness and feel very happy that I have a male body. And it's not just physical, either; I think there's a whole attitude toward life that comes with that. But my point is that it's more a matter of just being who I am. And I must say that I don't like categorizing at all-you know, "These are female characteristics; those are male characteristics."

Interviewer: In contemporary society, though, these ideas about what it means to be a "good" or "real" man, or a "good" or "real" woman, tend to exert a very powerful influence on most of us. And we generally experience a lot of insecurity about whether or not we measure up to our gender ideal, and tend to put a lot of energy into trying to live up to it. Spiritual liberation teachings, by contrast, have perennially stressed that we have to be willing to give up all of our preconceived ideas and live in a state of perpetual "unknowing," a condition of genuine openness to the discovery of what is. One of the things we're exploring in this issue is what this kind of "unknowing" would mean in relation to our gender identity. Would it be possible, for example, for an individual to come to a point in their spiritual development where they're completely free from any fixation on gender differences, superficial or otherwise, while at the same time feeling no need to avoid or deny whatever real differences may actually exist?

//Continued