G.C. DILSAVER, Karol Wojtyla and the Patriarchal Hierarchy of the Family

Karol Wojtyla and the Patriarchal Hierarchy of the Family

His Exegetical Comment on Ephesians 5:21-33 and Genesis 3:16

Wojtyla's "mutual submission" in orthodox context
To construe the interpretative concept of "mutual submission" as a development of doctrine (that is, as an integral growth from, and harmonious with, previous Church teachings and exegesis) requires an expanded understanding of the word "submission." It is true that a husband, in a certain sense, submits himself to his wife by giving his life for her; though this broadening of the term has never been employed by the Church in her exegesis of the Ephesians 5 or her teaching on marriage. By broadening the term "submission," the term acquires an analogous meaning. It cannot be applied exactly the same to both husband and wife, but only in a somewhat similar manner. This analogous broadening of the term is necessary to keep intact the previously understood meaning, i.e., that of a hierarchical order. If, on the other hand, Wojtyla's statement that a husband submits to his wife "just as" she submits to him, is construed to mean that this submission is identical, then the understanding of the term "submission" would not be analogous but rather univocal. But such an univocal understanding would necessarily contradict a hierarchical order as enunciated in previous magisterial pronouncements, and thus bar it from being incorporated into the corpus of authentic Church teachings. An orthodox construal, then, requires that Wojtyla’s "mutual submission of the spouses" be seen as an analogous submission, where the man paradoxically submits himself to a life of authority that entails both headship and sacrificial service.

Elsewhere in this exegesis of Ephesians 5, Wojtyla asserts that by the passage "'wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord'... the author does not intend to say that the husband is the 'lord' of the wife...." For this statement to be construed as harmonious with previous Church teachings on the subject, "lord" must be understood in a strictly pejorative sense; that is, as a "lording over" abuse of authority or, as Wojtyla says in the same passage, an understanding of a husband's lordly position as "a one-sided domination."(4) But the other meaning of 'lord,' the positive meaning, must not thereby by seen as discarded, for the husband as "lord of the wife" is not only intrinsic to the Church’s teachings on familial hierarchy, but also in accord with the most fundamental principle of biblical exegesis. This first exegetical principle is to interpret scriptural passages in light of other similar writings of the day, most especially companion scriptural writings. In the epistle of St. Peter, Christian wives are exhorted to imitate the "holy women of the past..., like Sarah, who was obedient to Abraham, and called him her lord." [1 Peter 3:5-6] (N.B. Emphasis is that of the text.) So too, the rest of the Pauline letters continually stress patriarchal hierarchy.(5)

It is the clause "give way to one another in the Lord" at the beginning of the Ephesians' passage that Wojtyla uses as the cornerstone of his novel exegesis of Ephesians 5. Yet to construe "give way to one another in the Lord" as a universal prescription of mutual, univocal submission would, in effect, do away with all hierarchical order, including that of the parents and children, magisterium and faithful, and government and citizens. Instead, a reading of the entire passage in accord with simple grammatical logic clearly shows that "give way to one another in the Lord" indicates both the source of legitimate authority and the spirit of dutiful submission. The author of Ephesians goes on to delineate some specific domestic relationships of authority and submission that find their source and spirit in the Lord, beginning with that which is the model for the rest, the relation of man and wife. If Wojtyla's use of the term "mutual submission" were to be taken in a univocal sense, and hence isolated from previous Church exegesis of the passage, then it would follow that not only is a man to submit to his wife, but, as Ephesians goes on to delineate domestic relations, parents are to submit to their children as well.

If the term "submission" is construed in an implicit, secondary manner that includes a man's—or a parent's—giving of his life in sacrificial service of those under his authority, then the explicit, primary meaning which entails a hierarchical structure remains intact. Wojtyla's exegesis must be viewed as an implicit, secondary development of the passage in order to position it in the light of previous magisterial teachings and exegesis. The primary, explicit meaning, the meaning previously asserted by the Church, is that which is derived from a simple reading of the passage.