Ordaining Women

Ordaining Women PDF Author: Mark Chaves
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674641464
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
In a revealing examination of the complex interrelationship of religion, social forces, and organizational structure, Ordaining Women draws examples and data from over 100 Christian denominations to explore the meaning of institutional rules about women's ordination.

Ordaining Women

Ordaining Women PDF Author: Mark Chaves
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Why does a denomination prohibiting women clergy support parishes run by women? Why does a denomination opt to ordain women when there are few women seeking to join that clergy? And why have some denominations ordained women so much earlier than others? In a revealing examination of the complex relationship among religion, social forces, and organizational structure, Ordaining Women draws examples and data from over 100 Christian denominations to explore the meaning of institutional rules about women's ordination. Combining historical and sociological perspectives, Mark Chaves deftly shows that formal institutional rules about ordination often diverge from the actual roles of women and are best understood as symbolic gestures in favor of--or in opposition to--gender equality. Ordaining Women concludes that external pressures from the women's movement and ecumenical pressure expressed through interdenominational organizations such as the National Council of Churches influence ordination practices. At the same time, internal factors such as having a source of religious authority that is considered superior to modern principles of equal rights also explain why some denominations ordain women much earlier than others. Surprisingly, "the Bible forbids it" does not account for policies even among fundamentalists and other biblical inerrantists. Chaves' historical and comparative approach offers a revealing analysis of how the internal denominational debates have changed over time, becoming more frequent, more politicized, and more contentious. The skillful delineation of forces affecting debates and policies about women's ordination makes this book an important contribution to our understanding of religious organizations and of gender equality.

Ordaining Women

Ordaining Women PDF Author: B. T. Roberts
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1498208622
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 151

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Book Description
B. T. Roberts saw the exclusion of women from ordination as analogous to racism. His ability to see the new community made possible by Christ offers Christians today a prophetic vision of the difference Christ makes. Roberts's 1891 Ordaining Women takes seriously the scriptural promise that Christ has unmasked the false distinctions and repaired the damaged social arrangements of this world. Like the abolition of slavery, the ordination of women becomes yet another obvious sign of the world made new in Christ. With careful attention to biblical interpretation, church tradition, and empirical evidence, Roberts exposes the biases that have long held captive the Christian imagination. In this new edition, Benjamin Wayman offers an updated and fully annotated version of Roberts's original work and demonstrates the breadth and depth of his analysis. Roberts's vision of the gospel challenges the traditional and still-dominant view of the global church, and invites Christians to reimagine the inclusion of women in ordained ministry. If Christians had for so long been wrong about race, might we today be wrong about gender?

Women and Ordination in the Orthodox Church

Women and Ordination in the Orthodox Church PDF Author: Gabrielle Thomas
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532695802
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Contributing Authors: Fr. John Behr Dr Spyridoula Athanasopoulou-Kypriou Dr. Dionysios Skliris Fr. Andrew Louth Dr Mary Cunningham Met Kallistos Ware Rev Dr Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Dr Kyriaki Karidoyanes FitzGerald Dr Carrie Frederick Frost Dr Paul Ladouceur Luis Josue Sales This book--a collaborative, international initiative, involving academic theologians and practitioners--invites the reader into a conversation about the ordination of women in the Orthodox Church. It explores questions relating to the significance of being human, Eve's curse, sexed bodies, the place of Mary, the nature of priesthood, the role of the deacon, and the task of being a priest in the twenty-first century. The reflections move across three main areas of discussion: issues of theological anthropology, particular questions pertaining to the priesthood and the diaconate, and contemporary practices. In each area the implications for ordaining women in the Orthodox Church today are explored.

Ordained Women in the Early Church

Ordained Women in the Early Church PDF Author: Kevin Madigan
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801879326
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Madigan and Osiek assemble relevant material from both Western and Eastern Christendom.--Robin Jensen, Vanderbilt University Divinity School, author of Face to Face: The Portrait of the Divine in Early Christianity "Catholic Historical Review"

Icons of Christ

Icons of Christ PDF Author: Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Ethics William G Witt
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781481313186
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
The pastoral office is one of the most critical in Christianity. Historically, however, Christians have not been able to agree on the precise nature and limits of that office. A specific area of contention has been the role of women in pastoral leadership. In recent decades, three broad types of arguments have been raised against women's ordination: nontheological (primarily cultural or political), Protestant, and Catholic. Reflecting their divergent understandings of the purpose of ordination, Protestant opponents of women's ordination tend to focus on issues of pastoral authority, while Catholic opponents highlight sacramental integrity. These positions are new developments and new theological stances, and thus no one in the current discussion can claim to be defending the church's historic position. Icons of Christ addresses these voices of opposition, making a biblical and theological case for the ordination of women to the ministerial office of Word and Sacrament. William Witt argues that not only those in favor of, but also those opposed to, women's ordination should embrace new theological positions in response to cultural changes of the modern era. Witt mounts a positive ecumenical argument for the ordination of women that touches on issues such as theological hermeneutics, relationships between men and women, Christology and discipleship, and the role of ordained clergy in leading the church in worship, among others. Uniquely, Icons of Christ treats both Protestant and Catholic theological concerns at length, undertaking a robust engagement with biblical exegesis and biblical, historical, systematic, and liturgical theology. The book's theological approach is critically orthodox, evangelical, and catholic. Witt offers the church an ecumenical vision of ordination to the presbyterate as an office of Word and Sacrament that justifiably is open to both men and women. Most critically Witt reminds us that, as all people are image-bearers of the divine, so men and women both are called to serve as icons of Christ in service of the gospel. --Alan G. Padgett, Professor of Systematic Theology, Luther Seminary

She Preached the Word

She Preached the Word PDF Author: Benjamin R. Knoll
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190882379
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
She Preached the Word is a landmark study of women's ordination in contemporary American congregations. In this groundbreaking work, Benjamin R. Knoll and Cammie Jo Bolin draw upon a novel collection of survey data and personal narrative interviews to answer several important questions, including: Who supports women's ordination in their congregations? What are the most common reasons for and against women's ordination? What effect do female clergy have on young women and girls, particularly in terms of their psychological, economic, and religious empowerment later in life? How do women clergy affect levels of congregational attendance and engagement among members? What explains the persistent gender gap in America's clergy? Knoll and Bolin find that female clergy do indeed matter, but not always in the ways that might be expected. They show, for example, that while female clergy have important effects on women in the pews, they have stronger effects on theological and political liberals. Throughout this book, Knoll and Bolin discuss how the persistent gender gap in the wider economic, social, and political spheres will likely continue so long as women are underrepresented in America's pulpits. Accessible to scholars and general readers alike, She Preached the Word is a timely and important contribution to our understanding of the intersection of gender, religion, and politics in contemporary American society.

The Hidden History of Women's Ordination

The Hidden History of Women's Ordination PDF Author: Gary Macy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198040897
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
The Roman Catholic leadership still refuses to ordain women officially or even to recognize that women are capable of ordination. But is the widely held assumption that women have always been excluded from such roles historically accurate? In the early centuries of Christianity, ordination was the process and the ceremony by which one moved to any new ministry (ordo) in the community. By this definition, women were in fact ordained into several ministries. A radical change in the definition of ordination during the eleventh and twelfth centuries not only removed women from the ordained ministry, but also attempted to eradicate any memory of women's ordination in the past. The debate that accompanied this change has left its mark in the literature of the time. However, the triumph of a new definition of ordination as the bestowal of power, particularly the power to confect the Eucharist, so thoroughly dominated western thought and practice by the thirteenth century that the earlier concept of ordination was almost completely erased. The ordination of women, either in the present or in the past, became unthinkable. References to the ordination of women exist in papal, episcopal and theological documents of the time, and the rites for these ordinations have survived. Yet, many scholars still hold that women, particularly in the western church, were never "really" ordained. A survey of the literature reveals that most scholars use a definition of ordination that would have been unknown in the early middle ages. Thus, the modern determination that women were never ordained, Macy argues, is a premise based on false terms. Not a work of advocacy, this important book applies indispensable historical background for the ongoing debate about women's ordination.

Ordained Women in the Church of the Nazarene

Ordained Women in the Church of the Nazarene PDF Author: Rebecca Laird
Publisher: Beacon Hill Press
ISBN: 9780834114524
Category : Ordination of women
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
It is often assumed that the church was mostly founded by men. Here is the story of 12 women who were crucial to the birth and development of the Church of the Nazarene.

Ordaining Women

Ordaining Women PDF Author: Mark Chaves
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674641464
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
In a revealing examination of the complex interrelationship of religion, social forces, and organizational structure, Ordaining Women draws examples and data from over 100 Christian denominations to explore the meaning of institutional rules about women's ordination.

Women Who Would Be Rabbis

Women Who Would Be Rabbis PDF Author: Pamela Susan Nadell
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 9780807036495
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
1998 National Jewish Book Award finalist Pamela S. Nadell mines a wealth of untapped sources to bring us the first complete story of the courageous and committed Jewish women who passionately defended their right to equal religious participation through rabbinical ordination.