Radical religious sects extended egalitarian cosmology to family and sexual relations

Evidence

The sects pushed their radical ideas even further by undermining the basis for the patriarchal family. For the Familists, members of the Family of Love, a pantheistic sect emphasizing tenderness and quiet sympathy, founded in 1580, marriage was changed from a sacrament to a contract, and divorce became simply a matter of dissolution before the congregation. The Diggers advocated marriage based solely on love regardless of station or property. The Ranters challenged monogamy and believed that wives could be held in common. At Ranter and Quaker meetings, stripping to nakedness in church as a symbol of resurrection was not uncommon, and sexual freedom for both men and women was broached. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 530

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Gnosticism offered an egalitarian male-female cosmology marginalized by Christian orthodoxy — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 114; Christian doctrine institutionalized women’s subordination despite early egalitarian impulses — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 204; Early women scientists acted through egalitarian religious sects and domestic-role constriction — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 1017 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Early women scientists acted through egalitarian religious sects and domestic-role constriction #corroborates (0.80) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 1017
• Christian doctrine institutionalized women’s subordination despite early egalitarian impulses #qualifies (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 204
• Prosocial religions extend kinship language and psychology to co-religionists #expands (0.72) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 384