Introduction
Through the years, the western and eastern religions have been regarding women differently. For example, some religions regard women as goddess-like figure as they believe that they are the most holy creatures. On the contrary, other religions view women as insignificant hence denying them some important rights. Both Eastern and Western religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islamic all have differing roles for women. However, the religions remained to keep a few part of their roles similar. Each of the mentioned religion equips women with specific duties to fulfill as well as differing values for women. I choose to write on the roles of women amongst Hinduism and Christianity because the two are interesting where by Hindus view women as a divine figure responsible for the happiness of the society. On the contrary, the modern Christianity is disagreeing with the traditional roles of women. They are currently positioning for equality, as they believe that God offered the mortal equal responsibility and that in his eyes, they are equal (Sarkar & Tanika 177).
Role of women in Eastern (Hinduism) and Western (Christianity) religion
Christianity has always been deeply involved with issues of relating to women and religion. Christian women insist that women should have equal rights with men. This has enabled the contemporary women in the field of theology begin receiving a great deal of attention. The religion criticizes people that view things from a male perspective without including the perspective of women. Therefore, the degree of consideration towards Christian women has become a manner of judging people’s views. Firstly, I think the differences between Christians and Hindus exist whereby many Christians, both women and men think that it is essential for husbands to love their husbands in the same manner that Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Therefore, Christianity believes that God appointed the husband in order to make the final decision of the family but only after seeking advice from their wives. However, Christianity asserts that if the husband and wife disagree, the man is responsible of making decisions as the woman submits to his God-appointed decision. This is because Christianity believes that the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Christian women receive the benefit of the husband’s oversight as well as spiritual protection. In case the woman does not get married, then her father or members of the older married men offer her spiritual protection.
On the contrary, Hinduism views women as a source of energy as well as aspect of Shakti because she is the mother of Goddess. When a young child, she is Kanya referring to the goddess Durga while when she is a wife, she is Patni and Saha dharma, which refers to a partner in her husband’s religious duties. As a mother, she is responsible of worshiping while as a child; the religion requires her to remain in the custody together with care of her parents. The Hinduism religion states that once a woman is marry; she becomes the property and responsibility of her husband as he is supposed to cater for her responsibility and custody. Hinduism expects women to act as servants to their husbands, assistant while making decisions, mother and caregiver of children and well as a lover in the bed of his husband. When a woman gets old in Hinduism, she moves to the son’s house hence staying a solitary life. Currently, the situation amongst the Hinduism women is changing whereby; the religion is trying to change the role of women in both the institution of family and society.
The second difference between Christian and Hindu women occurs in their manner and reasons of praying. This is so because Hindu women obligates five prayers per day towards Krishna while the church encourages Christian to pray as many time as possible without ceasing. Hinduism only allows their women to worship and offer their prayers to Krishna while inside their homes. The Hinduism religion discourages their women from attending the temples, as they believe that the best temple for women is their houses. On the contrary, Christian women are encourages to fellowship as well as worship with other believers in the church because they believe that they are one church family. Therefore, they have the permission to get involved in dissimilar church ministries if they wish to. Notably, Christian women can perform differing roles in church such as leading women’s group as well as praying for the leaders and other members of the church (Brown 87).
The similarities between Christian and Hinduism women occur in their worshipping whereby they both have a reason for worshipping. This is so because Hinduism women consider worshipping an essential segment of their roles. They conduct their worship by respecting their fasting and praying schedule, as they believe that it will give them an opportunity to enter paradise. However, the same is vital to men because they will have the company of many virgins who will give them pleasure, which is contrary to women, as they do not get the same. On the contrary, Christian women worship God because they believe that he loves them that is why his offered his son Jesus Christ to die and rise for the sinners who could never earn any of God’s favor. Interestingly, Christian women also fast and pray, but they do so as a response to God’s favor but it does not act as an obligation to earn God’s favor (Beit-Hallahmi 23)
Additionally, the second similarity existing between Hindu and Christian women occurs in their rules and laws. This is so because Christian women believe that God expects them to conduct themselves modestly in order to act as God’s witness to the unbelievers. They assert that they should not have outside beauty identified by adornments such as braided hair, gold jewelry and fine clothes. Christianity expects women to have inner beauty, which consists of the unfading beauty with gentle and quiet spirit. This is imperative in the sight of God. Similarly, Hindu women have laws that instruct them to dress modestly and they have rules that guide them on how to do so. This is essential in their religion because it helps in classifying whether they are dwellers or hell (Batson & Ventis 72)
Conclusion
After conducting this research, I realized that there are many things to talk about differing religions in the world. This is so because in every place, there are people from different religions and believes, others religions are obsessed by the anti-religion propaganda while others lead their lives according to their likeness. Furthermore, the research enabled me understand that Christianity beliefs in Jesus and its spread all over the world. I also discovered that over 70% of the Indian population confesses in Hinduism. Finally, I discovered that Christianity recognizes the existence of one God while Hinduism has more than a thousand gods and it believes that all of them are a manifestation of one god.
Works Cited
Batson, Schoenrade & Ventis, Andres. Religion and the individual: Asocial-psychological perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print
Beit-Hallahmi, Argyle. The Psychology of Religious Belief, Behaviour and Experience. London: Routledge, 2007. Print
Brown, Linus. The Psychology of Religious Belief. London: Academic Press, 2007. Print
Sarkar, Sumit, and Tanika Sarkar. Women and Social Reform in Modern India: A Reader. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008. Print.
