Created Equal By Joshua Berm Chapter Summary

In Created Equal by Joshua Berman, Berman espouses his thesis of “critiquing certain views by exposing their real motives-- in which religion is a self-interested distortion that makes human construction and exercise of power” (17). Berman centers in on the Egalitarian Theology in one of the first chapters of his book. Egalitarianism can be defined as “a movement based on theological viewpoints that favor equality. It encompasses having no gender-based limitations of what functions or role each individual can fulfill in the home, the church, and the society” (Arneson, 1). One of the opening lines in Created Equal says “it is impossible to extract social and political thought from religious thoughts and ideals (15). Egalitarian theology, I think, is
The structure of the patriarchal household in Ugarit is controlled by the oldest male, and at the bottom of the social hierarchy were workers and slaves who served the members of the higher ranks within the order (25). This would not be considered Egalitarianism in any way. One reason is due to the fact that not everyone is being treated in an equal manner in the social hierarchy. Nor is everyone being treated with the same rights and opportunities as each other. In today’s society, it would be almost impossible to center in on this movement because in places like Israel - or even the United States - restructuring society to this would be radically different near unfeasible. Anything related to the political or social field such as race and gender would have to be equaled out in some degree so everything is on a basis of equal opportunity. Whereas we like to think that everyone is granted equal opportunity, but the foundation of most countries is built on inequality in some sense. Restructuring society to enable equal opportunity is idealistic, but far from