What do we do with infamous texts like that of Ephesians 5:21-32? One acceptable strategy in the Catholic lectionary is to skip over the uncomfortable parts and read just the final verses, where the text becomes more love-focused and maybe even supportive of equality between spouses. But whether or not we read aloud the words, “As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything,” words that can and have been used to justify heteropatriarchy, marital violence, and rape, the reality is that this approach to sex, gender, and marriage has informed much Catholic scholarship, from Augustine to Aquinas to Catholic Social Teaching. In the first modern papal document written on Christian marriage, Casti Connubii (1930), Pius XI writes, “Domestic society being confirmed, therefore, by this bond of love, there should flourish in that ‘order of love,’ as St. Augustine calls it. This order includes both the primacy of the husband with regard to the wife and children, the ready subjection of the wife and her willing obedience” (para. 26). 

Domestic violence and violence against women and gender minorities continues to be a global reality. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, more than 12 million people are victims of intimate partner violence in the United States each year. Femicide rates attest to the status of women and girls globally, including high death rates along the U.S.-Mexico border and on indigenous reservations. In light of these realities, I would like to consider Ephesians 5 as a text of terror, in Phyllis Trible’s words. Trible, a feminist biblical scholar, tells “sad stories” of violence against women in the Bible using feminist strategies. She calls feminism a prophetic movement that examines the status quo, pronounces judgment, and calls for repentance. Feminist strategies for reading these texts can include bearing witness to the realities of violence and abuse in the texts, retrieving and reinterpreting texts to support central Gospel messages, and reading texts in memoriam of victims. Scripture, for Trible, mirrors both the horror and holiness of humanity. Through feminist biblical interpretation, texts of terror may yield new beginnings.

Treating Ephesians 5 as a text of terror and engaging in feminist retrieval of marital and sexual ethics that would condemn violence and oppression and promote sexual and gender justice involves returning to Genesis and contemplating creation. Behind Paul’s words in Ephesians is an anthropology of sex and gender relations rooted in specific interpretations of the creation story that puts God, humanity, and the created world as well as Adam and Eve into dominating and subordinating roles. Eco-feminist scholars such as Ivone Gebara point out that this type of image of domination and hierarchy has consequences for environmental and economic justice, considering how excessive human consumption can lead to ecological damage and exploitation of the poor in countries in the global peripheries. 

In this way, rereading Ephesians 5 is an opportunity to return to what we believe it means to be created in God’s image and to relate to one another. How we treat each other in our marital and intimate relations is deeply tied to how we think about a just and equitable global political economy. Dislodging our anthropological foundations from heteropatriarchy allows us to imagine in what ways sex, marriage, and family might contribute to human flourishing and experiences of the sacred.

“Of Love”
by Mary Oliver

I have been in love more times than one,
thank the Lord. Sometimes it was lasting
whether active or not. Sometimes
it was all but ephemeral, maybe only
an afternoon, but not less real for that.
They stay in my mind, these beautiful people,
or anyway beautiful people to me, of which
there are so many. You, and you, and you,
whom I had the fortune to meet, or maybe
missed. Love, love, love, it was the
core of my life, from which, of course, comes
the word for the heart. And, oh, have I mentioned
that some of them were men and some were women
and some — now carry my revelation with you —
were trees. Or places. Or music flying above
the names of their makers. Or clouds, or the sun
which was the first, and the best, the most
loyal for certain, who looked so faithfully into
my eyes, every morning. So I imagine
such love of the world — its fervency, its shining, its
innocence and hunger to give of itself — I imagine
this is how it began.

Image description: In a lush forest against a blue sky, two naked figures, both white with golden hair, stand surrounded by various animals and plants. Eve picks an apple from a tree, handing it to Adam.

This image of Genesis positions Adam and Eve amongst all of creation and emphasizes mutual equality amongst genders. The poem of Mary Oliver celebrates love, including queer love and love of creation. I invite you to choose one of these for contemplation, whichever seems to draw you in at the current moment. As you read or reflect on the painting, what images or phrases stick out to you? What does it mean to you to be created in God’s image or to love what is around you? Where do you experience the sacred in your life and in your intimate relationships or marriage? How can you imagine the divine in your relationships to others in your life?