Women in Christianity

Question 1

When did the role of women in the Christian church shift?

Answer 1

As the centre of Christianity shifted, from private household to community settings. Women were no longer central in community service and expected to be silent in worship.

Question 2

Describe the rights of women in the Greco-Roman world in comparison to male citizens?

Answer 2

• Women had few rights in comparison to male citizens

- Jewish and Greco-Roman culture placed men in positions of authority in domestic household, society and government.

Question 3

Who said the following? : “Women are irrational in relation to men and unequal in virtue.”

Answer 3

Aristotle

Question 4

True or False: Jesus wished to reverse the Jewish tradition that was inequality.

Answer 4

True

Question 5

True or False: Women ere amounts the earliest followers of Jesus.

Answer 5

True

Question 6

Who does Jesus welcome as his followers int he three Synoptic gospels?

Answer 6

Women

Question 7

How did Jesus treat women during his lifetime?

Answer 7

With compassion and dignity: he ate with them, spoke to them, healed a women who bled, saved one who was accused of adultery.

Question 8

True or False: the gospels did not record Jesus’ prohibition against any hierarchy or subordination others.

Answer 8

False. It did.

Question 9

What is Mary Magdalene known for?

Answer 9

She is known to have been the first person to discover the empty tomb of Christ. She was the first witness to the resurrection and the one who was commissioned by the risen Jesus to go and tell the 11 disciples that he was risen. Story of Mary Magdalene was very important for the formation of Christianity.

Question 10

What do the letters of Paul indicate about women?

Answer 10

• that women, as well as men, performed diaconal (service) roles for the community
• individual women were also acknowledged as apostle and identified by Paula s cop reachers with men
• Paul also wrote about the equality of all, male and female, before God.

Question 11

Describe women during the patristic age?

Answer 11

• as the centre of Christianity shifted from private household to community settings, the place women in the church also shifted
• Women were no longer central in community service and expected tone silent in worship

Question 12

True or False: during the Patristic age, as the three orders ministry (bishop, priest, deacon) developed, women were excluded from all three leadership roles.

Answer 12

True

Question 13

What were the only roles open to women during the patristic age?

Answer 13

The only roles that were open are those of widows and deaconesses.

Question 14

Are deaconesses the same as deacons? Explain.

Answer 14

• Deaconesses are not the same as deacons
• Deaconesses were not female equivalent of deacons
• A deaconess is a women elected by a church to assist the clergy
• their role was to assist with the preparation of female candidates for baptism

Question 15

When did the office of the deaconesses eventually die out?

Answer 15

in the sixth century

Question 16

Describe the role of women in the Middle ages?

Answer 16

• in the Middles ages, local bishops provided opportunities for women to escape the path of marriage and child bearing, acquire education, and play an active religious role
• As a result, various forms of religious life for women flourished
• They facilitated the groups of women living in a religious community by providing them rules (canons)

Question 17

What was one of the most important canons to develop in the Middle ages with regard to women?

Answer 17

One of those canons was the roles governing nuns or female monastic communities. Nuns lived together, maintaining permanent commitment to the religious life and as ‘bride of Christ.’

Question 18

True or False: Not all female monastic communities uphold the authority of local bishops.

Answer 18

True

Question 19

What are Beguines?

Answer 19

There were groups of unconsecrated women, known as Beguines, who chose to live a free religious life, without following any canons.

Question 20

What is Marguerite Porette known for?

Answer 20

• the author of The Mirror of Simple Souls
• burned at the stake for heresy in 1310
• she is known to have said: “when the Soul is truly full of God’s love, it is united with God and thus in a state of union which causes it to transcend the contradictions of their world.”

Question 21

What are Beguines typically known for?

Answer 21

Their writing in the tradition of love mysticism

Question 22

Was the Reformation “good” for women?

Answer 22

The reformers did not take an egalitarian view of women.

Question 23

Describe Martin Luther and his views on women.

Answer 23

• Martin Luther has sometimes been portrayed as a champion of women’s rights in the church
• But he has also been portrayed as perpetuating male superiority
• He is known to have said that women were inferior to men

Question 24

True or false: Martin Luther placed the importance of the the celibate life over against marriage.

Answer 24

False. He is known to have placed the importance of marriage over against the celibate life.

Question 25

Why do feminists go against Martin Luther?

Answer 25

Somehow justifying role of women tied to household and childbearing. Why feminists go against him. He was doing this for a purpose…promoting Christian family.He was the one who considered that celibacy was important.

Question 26

How did the view on celibacy change?

Answer 26

Celibacy, male/female monastic community, was gradually considered not the natural state for human being.

Question 27

Why did luther believe that marriage was more important than celibacy?

Answer 27

Luther imagined Christian parents carrying out the good work of begetting and bearing children, and of suffering and living together in Christian faith.

Question 28

Describe how the role of women changed with the continental reform?

Answer 28

• with the spread of the printing technology, scripture was accessible to all, women included
• women were to preach only if nomen were available

Question 29

Who advocated public education for both boys and girls during the continental reform? Why?

Answer 29

Luther advocated public education for both boys and girls to ensure basic literacy to access scripture.

Question 30

Why did Protestant Christians participate more openly in their church during the Great awakenings?

Answer 30

Because revivalist preachers emphasized the ministry of all the baptized, including women.

Question 31

True or False: During the revivalism, members of the tent congregations were mostly women despite the majority of the priest being male.

Answer 31

True

Question 32

What was the dominant view during the revivalism?

Answer 32

Gender segregation existed. Men were to work in public world; women ere to make the private world (home and family) their virtue.

Question 33

What was the dominant view during the revivalism justified by?

Answer 33

View was justified by the notion of family in Christianity. Had to maintain family order. Justified by understanding of theology and teaching of Luther in this case.

Question 34

What happened as communities grew and enjoyed prosperity in during the Great Awakenings for middle class women?

Answer 34

Middle class women who could afford to take time way from they household responsibilities initiated voluntary associations. These include: Sunday School movement, the development of missionary societies, the resurrection of deaconess, and maintaining network with women in other communities

Question 35

What helped to lay the groundwork for the issues of equality scubas recognition of women’s right to vote in Church council and ordination?

Answer 35

voluntary associations

Question 36

What happened with women in the modern era?

Answer 36

• significant changes in the roles and participation of women
• int he 19th CE, we saw the rise of women’s leadership in voluntary and missionary arenas
• in the 20th CE, women’s roles in Church were being woiced

Question 37

When were women included as full persons under the law, with the right to vote and participate in public worship and service?

Answer 37

the modern era

Question 38

True or False: Even in the modern era, women’s leadership roles were not fully accepted in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox, and Conservative Protestant.

Answer 38

True

Question 39

How do women’s roles differ int he Anglican Church of Canada and the Anglican Church in England?

Answer 39

• The Anglican Church of Canada permitted ordination of women as bishops, priests, and deacons.
• But in the Anglican Church of England, women are still restricted to serving as deacons and priests.

Question 40

True or False: In North America, liberal denominations ordained women as clergy since the enid-twentieth century. The Anglican community follow din their steps nothing after that.

Answer 40

True

Question 41

Why do Roman Catholic and Orthodox theologians oppose the ordination of women in their Church?

Answer 41

Answer varies:

• women cannot represent Christ, because Christ was male
• the early church did not ordain women in the threefold order of ministry