Christianity and the Rise and Decline of Women in the Church

Copyright (c) 2010 James Holan

Before the time of Christianity, there was a great amount of female deity power seen in religion. In the pagan religions there were such goddesses predating Christianity as the Prehistoric Goddess, typically resembling Venus, who as "mother goddess" created the world. Another such instance of a powerful female goddess predating Christianity is the Shake Goddess, known to be a restorative life source that held almighty wisdom (Prioleau, 1-24). In Greek Mythology, there is still a higher view of women in religion with the emergence of female Gods such as Hera, the wife of Zeus, and Athena, the Goddess of War (Carpenter, 8). So why, once Christianity became the major influencing Religion of the Western world, did women become a diminishing source of power? The answer to this lies in history of Christianity itself and the fact that the religion was nourished by a world that was constantly focusing on a male dominated way of thinking.

In the beginning Christianity, like most religions of its time, did not show a great distinction between its male and female followers. On the other hand, when Christianity was first forming as a predominant social movement, instead of a religion, there were several key female figures that held power in Christian society. For instance, it is well known that women were in fact "priest" at the infant stages of Christianity as a third century fresco in Rome dictates. In the fresco four women are represented, two of which are the female saints Prudentiana and Praxedis, the third is the Mother Mary, and the last is hard to explain (Torjesen, 9-10). The last woman, the forth woman, is covered by a veil and has a square halo instead of a typical round one, which dictates that the woman was still alive at the time of the fresco. Underneath the woman is an inscription that has been partially defaced but is still clearly readable and translates into, "Bishop Theodora" clearly showing that the woman in the third century fresco was in fact a very high and predominant religious figurehead. In the second century Gnostic Gospel, The Gospel of Mary, it is Mary Magdalene who rallies the disciples after their savors death and sends them off to carry out the will of Jesus Christ. Her role in rallying the disciples eventually gave her the name Apostle to the Apostles in other famous text (Torjesen, 12). Even Paul praised the amount of women who assisted him in his own works for Jesus. This historical evidence shows that women were once a fore figure in Religions, including Christianity. So, how did the power of women in religion slowly become less and less pronounced if such people as Mary Magdalene and the Bishop Theodora used to exist and did have a great amount of influence on the early Church?

The answer to this lies also in the beginning of the Christian Religion because, for every power that women processed there was still one evident fact, there were no women presbyters. Women, in Christian tradition are less than men and men and women are not created equally as is seen in the story of Adam and Eve. As is well known, Adam was created first and Eve was created from Adam's rib, therefore making Eve the inferior figure (Torjesen, 11). In Genesis the reader is very much aware of this distinct notion of male superiority as is seen in Epiphanius's interpretation, "Your desires will be for your husband and he shall rule over you" (C.G.G.). Again this same interpretation is seen in Timothy, "Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor" (C.G.G.). Thus, these two interpretations show that the belief in the inferiority of women was high even in the first few explanations of the scriptures. This feeling of inferiority is predominant not only in this early Christian belief but is also predominant in the culture that early Christianity was developing from. In early Christian society women were not given social power. Where men could speak in the streets women were only allowed to speak in the comfort of the home. The stereotypical belief for women was for women to preserve their own chastity by staying secluded within her household. Chastity is an important part of early civilization because it guarantees the legitimacy of birth within a household (Howland, 98). During this time it was highly important for children to be born from their married mother and be born of that woman's husband. This insured that children were of a man's bloodline. In order to make sure this happened a woman's chastity had to be protected. The easiest way to do this is to force women into a type of seclusion where they are unable to encounter other male figures. This being said, these women still had much power within the range of their homes. They were allowed to have houses within their names, they were allowed to travel if they had a job that required it such as a merchant, and they were even allowed to have slaves just as men were. Within their houses these women were law and they used this power effectively, creating substantially wealthy lives outside of their husbands but not in public (Howland). Still, this time period was moving towards a society which limited the movement of women in order to protect the ever growing male dominated beliefs and wants...

Carpenter, Edward. The Origins of Pagan and Christian Beliefs. London: Senate Books, 1993. 5 28. Print. C.G.G. "Bible Verses Lookup." Bible Tools. 2009. Church of the Great God, Web. 31 Dec 2009. Howland, Courtney. Religious Fundamentalisms and the Human Rights of Women. 1st ed. New York, NY: Palgrave, 2001. 56-228. Prioleau, Betsy. Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love. New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2003. 1-24. Toriesen, Karen. When Women Were Priest. 1st ed. San Fransico: Harbor Collins Publishers, 1993. 9-47.


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