The Role of Women in the Early Christian Church
The early Christian church existed in a hostile milieu of polytheistic and pagan belief systems, and had to fight against prevailing beliefs in order to survive. Although Hellenist, Roman and Jewish religions of the time have been well-documented, the role of the female in these religions has not been studied as extensively. This paper contends that early Christian leaders engaged in an active campaign to reduce the influence of women by reacting against female-dominated religions in their regions, and by subsuming the role of women in Christianity. There has been little written about the role of women in the early Christian church until the past 20 years. In the definitive Cambridge "Early Christian Church," a good deal of time is spent on Hellenic and Jewish traditions, but no mention is made of women, either in pre-Christian or proto-Christian times (Carrington 1957). This situation has changed somewhat in the past 20 years, but there is still relatively little about female-dominated pre-Christian religions, and how they were displaced in a planned fashion by Christians in the first centuries AD.This paper will cover three topics: the presence and power of women in non-Christian religions in the first cent
Clearly influenced by the flourishing Egyptian culture of the time, goddesses were prominently featured in the Canaanite religion of Israel at the time (Keel 1998). Thomas Aquinas is recognized as one of the more misogynistic, proponents of woman having a limited role in religion. Women in the early Christian churchChristianity stemmed from Judaism. One can regard Christianity (and Islam after it) as a response to previously matriarchal culture and religion, a "counter-reformation" which reached its pinnacle in the last millennium. He and his confreres also advanced the idea of the Virgin Birth, equating Original Sin with temptation and loss of virginity: "What is the difference whether it is in a wife or a mother, it is still Eve the temptress that we must beware of in any woman. In contrast to earlier times, priests could no longer marry2 nor have children. The Latin words "ordo, ordination and ordinare" were used frequently in early Medieval texts to demonstrate the ordination of women (Macy 2000). In the times of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom up to Roman times, women were given an equal role to men. The "cult of the Virgin Mary" elevated the role of Jesus' mother at the same time that it differentiated her from all other women. I fail to see what use woman can be to man, if one excludes the function of bearing children (Armstrong 1986). Saint Augustine, writing in the fourth and fifth centuries, advanced the idea of woman as evil, and leading man in that direction. Ordination of women should therefore be regarded as fairly standard practice for the first millennium of the Christian era.
Common topics in this essay:
Hellenic Jewish,
Women Christian,
Theodora Subsequent,
Virgin Mary,
Mother Vesta,
Original Sin,
AD Aquinas,
Roman Jewish,
Israel Keel,
Ages Latin,
christian church,
advanced idea,
women christian church,
women christian,
jewish religion,
role women,
equal role,
ordination women,
century ad,
mary magdalene,
middle ages,
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Acceptance Essays
