Church Fathers cast woman as the literal gateway through which evil entered the world.

Evidence

All the Church Fathers emphasize the fact that she led Adam to sin. Once again, Tertullian has to be quoted: “Woman! You are the devil’s gateway. You have convinced the one the devil did not dare to confront directly. It is your fault that God’s Son had to die. You should always dress in mourning and rags.” All Christian literature endeavors to exacerbate man’s disgust for woman. Tertullian defines her as “Templum aedificatum super cloacam.” — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 364

Categorization

• SHARE: The Tertullian quote ‘Templum aedificatum super cloacam’ (a temple built over a sewer) is exactly the kind of grotesque patristic line a friend writing on misogyny in early Christianity would relish.
• CANDY: Tertullian calling woman ‘the devil’s gateway’ who should ‘always dress in mourning and rags’ is a starkly quotable historical one-liner.
• XREF: connects to: Colonial Christian doctrine taught that women were the origin of sin. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 88

Broader Connections

• Colonial Christian doctrine taught that women were the origin of sin. #corroborates (0.85) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 88