Women in the Early Apostolic Church

30 – 80 AD

 Paul endorsed the fundamental equality in Christ of women and men.

Women took part in the Church’s apostolate.

Paul asked women to wear a veil in the assembly to forestall cultural clashes.

• the principle of equality
• women’s ministries
• women deacons
• Mary seen as role model
• the wearing of the veil

 Readings:

• Would Paul not raise his
  eyebrows? by John Wijngaards in ‘Did Christ Rule out Women Priests?
  
• “St. Paul’s Attitude Toward Women”
  by John L. McKenzie in ‘Women Priests: A
  Catholic Commentary on the Vatican Declaration’
• DUBLIN, Aug 29, 2000. CWNews,
  New Testament texts ‘harmful’ to women.
• A “Pauline” Defense of Women’s Right to Baptize? Intertextuality and Apostolic Authority in the Acts of Paul, Stephen J.Davis.

 On Specific Pauline texts:

• “Transitory Character” . . . Only in “Disciplinary Cases of Minor Importance”? by Juliana Casey in ‘Women Priests: A Catholic Commentary on the Vatican Declaration’
• “Women in the Pauline Assembly: To Prophesy, But Not To Speak?” by Robert J. Karris in ‘Women Priests: A Catholic Commentary on the Vatican Declaration‘
• “The Divine Plan of Creation: 1Cor 11:7 and Gen 2:18-24” by Thomas L. Thompson in ‘Women Priests: A Catholic Commentary on the Vatican Declaration’
• “It is not Good that the ‘Mensch’ Should be Alone; I Will Make Him/Her a Helper Fit for Him/Her” (Gen 2: 18) by Walter Vogels in Êglise et Théologie, 9 (1978). (n.b. English text. The article refers to 1Cor11)
• “Is Silence Golden?
  Paul and Women’s Speech in Corinth” by Caroline Vander Stichele in ‘Louvain Studies’, vol.20 (1995) pp.241-253
• Paul and Sexual Identity: 1 Corinthians 11.2-16 by Timothy Radcliffe in ‘After Eve’
• Mutuality and Interdependence of Man and Woman: An Exegetical Study of 1 Cor 11, 11-12, by K.J. Mercy, Bible Bhashyam, 2000, vol.XXVI, pp.196-20