Summary On Women 's Decline

Professor of religious studies Karen Armstrong finds in the early Christian Church examples of hostility toward women and fear of their sexual power, which she contends led to the eventual exclusion of women from full participation in a male-dominated church.

For instance, political leaders only had local power, the Church was the most powerful institution. Also, two parts of the Code of Chivalry really talked about the Church. They were, “Thou Shalt believe all that the Church teaches, and shalt observe all its directions” and “Thou Shalt defend the Church” (Doc. 5). In other words, people valued the Church’s teachings and directions, so they had to protect it with all they had. This proves that the Church was important to all the people, the peasants, the kings, the nobles and the knights. Furthermore, “the Church became very powerful, and it often used this power to influence the kings to do as it wanted” (Doc. 3). In summary, the Church had even more power than the kings. As you can see the Church had the most political

When one thinks about the leaders of early Christianity, an orthodox vision of Jesus’ male apostles and disciples fills their head. While there is no doubt these men were important, their influential women counterparts are often overlooked and underrated. For years, historians were perplexed at the rapid spread of early Christianity, until they considered women. Women had a major role in the rise and spread of early Christianity because they were not only numerous, but also influential in leadership positions and converting others.

The development of christianity under the empire undoubtedly changed the relation between the political and spiritual spheres in following centuries. In fact, this transpires in how often emperors and empresses played dominant roles in the Eastern church after Constantine I's reign. In many

Donald G. Matthews said, “Was just what it was represented to me, a new entry into a new life, often to the consternation of those upon whom a woman had been psychologically dependent.”(Ch.6,131). This statement implies that women now had a sense of self confidence and also was preceding in church membership. More importantly these primary steps to women rights in the church provided opportunities for women to participate in outside affairs such as: charitable events, local groups, and missionary projects.

African American women represent a significant proportion of congregation in most African American churches. “African American women make up about 66-88 percent majority in African American churches though they are not well represented in the church leadership.” The greatest variation that can be observed in women’s leadership is in the pastoral category. The situation is worse for unmarried women who want to be church ministers, pastor or preacher but it becomes complicated for women who are in relationships but not yet married. Nonetheless, unmarried women are still being ordained and appointed as pastors and bishops at a growing rate. One of the remarkable appointment which also marked a milestone

Though change comes slowly for religious factions, change has come. Today, the Mennonite faith has female pastors, including one of Carolyn’s sisters, women in leadership, and does not

The part of the timeline I feel was most responsible for bringing women’s health to the forefront was during the 1980s and early 1990s. During this time, government policies were changing to include women in scientific studies. The U.S. Public Health Service’s Task Force pushed to include women in biomedical research and clinical trials. The Office of Research on Women’s Health Issues (ORWH) was founded, and the Women’s Health Equity Act was established. The ORWH began to advocate for gender specific research, and the Women’s Health Equity Act provided the funding for that research. Gender specific research meant that women’s health would now be researched independently from that of men, and a new scientific focus would be set on on health

Second, a woman’s position in the church is not to be a preacher in the pulpit. The first reason a woman cannot be a pastor is because women are not have authority over men. Bacchoicchi states, “God wasn’t prejudices against the women, but he didn’t make women equal with the men but He still added them to part of the worship.” God did not make men and women to be equal in authority. The men are the have the authority and preach to the women. Women do not have the power over men to be ministers

Gender roles, and the mere existence of a gender binary, has been a recent topic of conversation for many churches, theologians, and individual believers. As the cultural pressure to remove gender-specific limitations builds, many of those aforementioned have turned to scripture for answers. Seldom are women’s roles in the Old Testament characterized by decision making or personal merits. Rather, a woman’s capacity to produce an heir for their husband complements his dominance and responsible faithfulness and allows God’s plan to be fulfilled through their combined efforts. In the New Testament, through the transformative power of Christ, prominent women became less of an anomaly, but were still held to a different set of standards and expectations than men and were usually still praised according to their actions and their faith. The Pauline epistles, written in the context in which the Church still exists today: the age to come, provide a basis for today’s understanding of women’s roles in marriage and in church leadership. Although there are many instances of women fulfilling God’s plans and proving their worth among the community of Christians, the biblically normative role of women is to avoid authoritative church leadership positions and remain submissive in situations of teaching and interpreting the Word.

The bases of keeping women out of the ministry in most religions are more or less tradition. A Bible scripture such as (Mat. 10:2) as Jesus was searching for His disciples he only chose men. Even when he had to replace them, He only chose men. In most of the passages in the bible, Jesus never chose a woman nor did He address the public by speaking to the woman specifically. Some would believe that Jesus was a sexist, but during the times it was only tradition for a man to be the head of everything and the role of a woman during the biblical times were to listen to the man, nurture her family and husband. During the biblical times when Jesus walked this earth, Christianity was a very warous event. People were not accepting of the Christ therefore it leads to wars and battles. (Mat. 24: 6). During those days women did not do battle. As of today the tradition still holds and it plays a significant part in our everyday lives as well as our religious worship. We

The second paper, written by David Norris, focuses mainly on the history of Pentecostal women in ministry. He gave a brief mention to the emergence of Holiness women preachers, and then fast-forwards to the Pentecostal movement. Because many of the people involved in the Pentecostal movement had once been a part of the Holiness movement, women were generally accepted as ministers. However, even here women were relegated to the margins. They took the broken, burnt out, run down churches that no one else wanted. Many times these women would revitalized a run down church only to step down, or be shunted aside, so a man could take over as pastor. According to Norris, at the founding of the UPCI nearly 22% of the licensed ministers were women. This number has steadily declined over the past 50 years until only 3% of the licensed ministers are women. Norris gives four possible reasons for this: 1. Because women did not learn how to theologically defend their position at the beginning of the movement, they do not know how now that the climate has changed to where they must defend their calling. 2. There were many more denominations involved in the Pentecostal movement than just the Holiness groups who were not willing to license women. 3. There are little or no role models who promote women in

Until recently, women were not allowed to preach or even speak in the Christian Church, but in modern times women are beginning to play a more significant. While sects of Christianity still hold the traditional teachings about women, others have given them equal status within the church, an increasingly accepted interpretation.

Bowles, M. (2011). American history 1865–present: End of isolation. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

The Pope was the supreme authority while there was an emperor who was second in the command. For example, Charlemagne served as the Roman emperor after being elevated to the position by Pope Leo III. The church became powerful in many aspects; the people were required to pay tithe to the church while there was exemption of the church from taxation. The church went to the levels of owning armies as well as cities in addition to playing a great role in the regulation of state affairs.