Crowned Madonna Della Strada in the Church of the Gesu in Rome
Part of a series on
Christianity and gender
"Adam and Eve" by Albrecht Dürer (1504)
Theology
Proverbs 31
1 Timothy 2:12
Biblical womanhood
Christian views on marriage
Deaconess
Jesus's interactions with women
List of women in the Bible
Ordination of women
Paul the Apostle and women
Rape in the Hebrew Bible
Stay-at-home daughter
Women as theological figures
Women in the Bible
Women in Christianity
Major positions
Christian egalitarianism
Complementarianism
Other positions
Asian feminist theology
Biblical patriarchy
New feminism
Womanist theology
Ordination of women in Christianity
Ordination of women in Catholicism
Ordination of women in Protestantism (Anglican • Methodist • Presbyterian)
Church and society
African and African-American women in Christianity
Christianity and homosexuality
Fallen woman
Transgender people and Christianity
Women in Church history
Organizations
Feminist
Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus
Egalitarian
Christians for Biblical Equality
Complementarian
Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Patriarchal
Vision Forum (defunct)
Theologians and authors (by view)
Feminist
Anne Eggebroten
Grace Jantzen
Virginia Ramey Mollenkott
Letha Dawson Scanzoni
Egalitarian
Gilbert Bilezikian
Greg Boyd
Gordon Fee
Kevin Giles
Stanley Grenz
Kenneth E. Hagin
Paul Jewett
Roger Nicole
Frank Stagg
William J. Webb
Complementarian
Don Carson
John MacArthur
Susan Foh
John Frame
Wayne Grudem
George W. Knight III
Albert Mohler
Douglas Moo
Jennifer Morse
Dorothy Patterson
Paige Patterson
John Piper
Vern Poythress
Douglas Wilson
Theologians and authors (by branch)
Roman Catholic
Hildegard of Bingen
Julian of Norwich
Catherine of Siena
Christine de Pizan
Juana Inés de la Cruz
Edith Stein
Pope John Paul II
Phyllis Zagano
Eastern Orthodox
Frederica Mathewes-Green
Protestant
April Ulring Larson
Catherine Booth
Lise-Lotte Rebel
Katharine Jefferts Schori
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Women in Church history have played a variety of roles in the life of Christianity—notably as contemplatives, health care givers, educationalists and missionaries. Until recent times, women were generally excluded from episcopal and clerical positions within the certain Christian churches; however, great numbers of women have been influential in the life of the church, from contemporaries of Jesus to subsequent saints, theologians, doctors of the church, missionaries, abbesses, nuns, mystics, founders of religious institutes, military leaders, monarchs and martyrs.
Christianity emerged from within surrounding patriarchal societies that placed men in positions of authority in marriage, society and government, and, whilst the religion restricted membership of the priesthood to males only, in its early centuries it offered women an enhanced social status and quickly found a wide following among women. With the exception of the Eastern Christian churches,[1] in most denominations, women have been the majority of church attendees since early in the Christian era and into the present.[2] Later, as religious sisters and nuns, women came to play an important role in Christianity through convents and abbeys and have continued through history to be active—particularly in the establishment of schools, hospitals, nursing homes and monastic settlements. Women constitute the great majority of members of the consecrated life within the Catholic Church, the largest of the Christian churches. In recent decades, ordination of women has become increasingly common in some Protestant churches. Laywomen have also been highly active in the wider life of churches, supporting the community work of parishes.
Within Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, particular place of veneration has been reserved for Mary, the Mother of Jesus, which has kept a model of maternal virtue central to their vision of Christianity.[3] Marian devotion is however, generally not a feature of Reformed Christianity.
^Y. Glock, Charles (1967). To Comfort and to Challenge. University of California Press. p. 41. ISBN 9780520004863.
^David Murrow (2005, 2011), Why Men Hate Going to Church. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. ISBN 978-0785232155.
deacons. In the history of the Catholic Church, the church often influenced social attitudes toward women. Influential Catholic women have included theologians...
Christian communities to the role of womenin positions of church leadership. Paul's letter to the Romans, written in the first century, commends Phoebe...
on the subject of women and their role in the church and in society. Views range from the full equal status and ordination of women to the priesthood...
Madigan, Kevin; Osiek, Carolyn, eds. (2005). Ordained Womenin the Early Church: a Documentary History (pbk ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press...
practice of the early Church, being universally taught by the Church Fathers and practiced by Christian women throughout history, continuing to be the...
The history of womenin the United States encompasses the lived experiences and contributions of women throughout American history. The earliest women living...
History of womenin Canada is the study of the historical experiences of women living in Canada and the laws and legislation affecting Canadian women...
ordination of womenin the rite of holy orders are diverse. Historically, as in other Christian denominations, many Methodist churches did not typically...
Church to consider the ordination of women led Pope John Paul II to issue two documents to explain Church teaching. Mulieris Dignitatem was issued in...
In Christianity, the ordination of women has been taking place in an increasing number of Protestant and Old Catholic churches, starting in the 20th century...
present in the church. The issues that arise from the patriarchy in the church include the discouraged ordination of women, the lack of equality in a marriage...
adherents are called Anglicans. The English church traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain by the 3rd...
role of womenin the Church. However, there are arguments that some of these writings are post-Pauline interpolations. The Gospels record that women were...
prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization. The church consists of 24 sui iuris churches, including the Latin Church and 23 Eastern...
History of womenin the United Kingdom covers the social, cultural and political roles of womenin Britain over the last two millennia. Medieval England...
Testament names womenin positions of leadership in the early church as well. Views of womenin the Bible have changed throughout history and those changes...
in and of itself, neither privileges nor curtails a believer's gifting or calling to any ministry in the church or home. It does not imply that women...
in ministry, particularly inchurch settings, as limited. The complementarian view holds that women should not hold church leadership roles that involve...
The Presbyterian Churchin America (PCA) is the second-largest Presbyterian church body, behind the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the largest conservative...
of women'shistory. The discipline considers in what ways historical events and periodization impact women differently from men. For instance, in an influential...
Europe to enact women's suffrage. It is also strongly influenced by the conservative social views of the Catholic Church. The history of women on the territory...
so only in a modified form, as in those dioceses which ordain women only to the diaconate (such as the Diocese of Sydney in the Anglican Church of Australia)...
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