ABSTRACT
A theology of ownership and power finds its origins in the early belief that women have an inferior moral nature and thus must be under male control for the good of the community. In this theological view, God’s divine will for the structure of human relationships is revealed most clearly in the structure of a male-headed household. Men, as primary representatives of God, are the overseers of the family. Women, associated with the physicality of the world, are secondary and inferior. This theology is often based on creation myths, wherein women are created second to and under the authority of men. Creation accounts serve to validate the suffering and obedience of women to men, as we observed in preceding chapters of this book. They also justify absolute female subordination to male authority and power in marriage. While the men in creation stories and in most of the accounts relayed in the following may not have literally owned the women in their worlds, they believed that it was God’s will that they exercise strict control over them.
