My paper will discuss the views about women in the church presented by Nolan and Johnson. Both see how Jesus empowered women, and I will discuss the points they bring up to support that. These authors share in the idea that women are important in Catholic history.
             In her book, Johnson discusses feminist theology, the idea that women are not equal to men in the church. There are two different courses of action that feminists might take. First, there are those who believe that the church cannot be reformed because of it's male dominated history. These women, the revolutionist feminists, leave to form a church supportive of women, and in which the higher being is referred to as a "she." The other group of women sees the " powerful liberating elements," of the Christian tradition, and chooses to stay with the Catholic Church in hopes of reformation. These women, known as the reformist feminists, see incidents that support the equality of women.
             Those women who stay in the church in hopes of reformation use the following events in history to show their importance in history.
             The first event is the idea that Jesus' preaching was open to all, including women. He preached community and equality. He specifically preached that God condones any group that makes themselves exclusive. God believes that it is necessary to end the old pattern of discrimination, and instead begin to form the new pattern of relating to each other.
             Another event from history that supports the equality of women, is the calling of God Abba. Jesus believes Abba to be an all-encompassing, generous God who believes in a community of brotherhood and sisterhood. Abba does not believe in " patterns of domination."
             In all his actions, Jesus treated women with equality. He included women, both sinners and non-sinners, at his table. Jesus' disciples also included women. The most well known of these dis...