“ Women should be kept silent in the churches, for they are not allowed to speak, but
should be subordinate, as even the law says . ... This question emphasises the ongoing debate over women’s ordination within the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox churches. ...
In the 21st century it still stands firm within Church dogma that women are not to be priests, despite nearly all other denominations having allowed women’s ordination. This viewpoint has risen from theological support within the Bible and teachings from Jesus, God, St. ... Yet at the same time, semi-conclusive theological evidence has been found denoting that there is simply no reason why women should not be an intermediary between God and us.
The traditional arguments that represent the view that women should not be ordained have stood since Roman times and only since human rights in the late 19th Century became apparent, counter arguments have been formulated supporting women priests. In perusing this examination of the arguments for and against the ordination of women, a final question begs to be asked: has the Church, perhaps unwittingly, developed a form of institutionalised misogyny?
To theologically examine the arguments we have to understand the historical and theological Christ. ... ”
Backed up with further passages(Galatians 3:28 and Acts 10:34) we can see the first theological belief in equality. However this also shows that the Bible can be a questionable source for issues such as ordination considering these Genesis passages are reasonably inconsistent. This statement of equality can be questioned as God incarnated himself as a male, Jesus, and resulted in an important argument to signify why only men should fulfil the requirements for Priesthood. However, it seems conservative Catholicism may have misinterpreted the distinction God purposely made between men and women. ... Jesus did not have the sexist view of his time and realised the need for equality between men and women. ...
During Jesus’ travels he had many disciples of which some close to him were women. Luke, who speaks of women more than other evangelists, gives us many examples such as Mary ‘Magadales’, Joanna, Susan (Luke 8: 2-3, Acts 1:14 and his mother the Virgin Mary. This shows that Jesus didn’t represent the restricted views of his time yet allowed women to contribute fully to the makings of what was to be Christianity. ... In the Roman Era most women weren’t as educated as men and of Jesus’ disciples only a handful were women. ... Other Christian communities such as the Anglican Church realise that Jesus chose only male Apostles for practical reasons and since the general synod in 1992 concluded there were no theological objections to women Priests, have ordained women. This act has only been apparent since 1994, as the Anglican Church has progressed with the times similar to the allowing of women Rabbi’s to liberal forms of Judaism. ... According to the congregation the Church has no authority to confer priestly ordination since it is “founded on the written word of God.” This is a clear indication that the Catholic Church has no intent to permit ordination. From an objective point of view it could be easily said that Jesus would disagree with this decision, as he himself did not ever purposely discriminate women. It can be argued that the Pope has possibly relaxed his views on ordination as a result of the Anglican decision to ordain females. Cardinal Ratzinger stated that it as no the pope’s intention to establish an infallible papal definition concerning ordination, in Ordinatio Saacerdotalis.
During the early Church, women were accustomed to being leaders in some Gentile communities as seen in Romans 16:1. It seems this tradition died out during the rise of Christianity and great injustice developed against women, such as being barred from touching sacred objects and not allowed to read sacred scripture from the pulpit. These sanctions developed as early Christians believed Christ’s message was to exclude women from religious positions. Change came about slowly within the Christian Church and even with the mammoth overhaul that the Roman Catholic Church underwent in the 1960’s,change, in respect of the view to ordain women, has not occurred at all.
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