‘Church and gender in the first three centuries’

Philip Nunn – ANR 85844022 August 2014, Utrecht

Master Thesis:

Research question

• The New Testament appears to offer women greater participation in Christianity and in the church than that which was normally available to them in the first century. To what extent is the development of the role of women, particularly in church activities such as praying, prophesying, teaching and leading, traceable in the first three centuries?

Status Quaestionis

• Motivation• Feminism• Reevaluating church practice– What was normal early church ‘then’– What should church practice be ‘today’

• Status quaestionis

Methodology

• Canonical literature (NT – 1st century)– Propose a likely scenario of the role of

women in church life in the 1st century

• Non-canonical literature (2nd and 3rd centuries)– How did the role of women in church life

develop during the first 3 centuries?

Canonical literature

• Women in the life and teachings of Jesus• Luke – Gospel and Acts• Paul and Peter on the family– reformed patriarchal arrangement

• Women in ‘church structure’• Women in ‘church meetings’

Likely scenario

• Women in ‘Church structure’Church leadership

• Women in ‘Church meetings’ TeachingPrayerProphecy

Non-Canonical literature

• Gospels• Acts• Epistels• Apocalypses• Church documents• Church Fathers: writings and sermons• Other

Non-Canonical literature

• Gospels • Acts – John & Thecla• Epistels• Apocalypses• Church documents – Didache & Didascalia• Church Fathers - Tertullian• Other

Apocryphal Acts of John

Painted in 1487- 1502 in Strozzi Chapel, Florence

Apocryphal Acts of (Paul and) Thecla

On the walls of the Grotto of St Paul in Ephesus, there are paintings of Paul and Thecla portrayed side by side.

Church documentsDidache

• +/- 100 AD

Church documentsDidascalia Apostolorum

• Early 3rd century

Church Fathers - Tertullian

• 160-225AD

ConclusionBoth the canonical and the sample of non-canonical literature explored, suggest the following:

1.Active women: That women were very present and active in their diverse Christian communities, as prayer warriors, as prophetesses, as teachers, as agents of miracles and in practical support roles associated with deaconesses.

2.Non-egalitarian: That early Christianity promoted and practiced a reformed patriarchal arrangement in the home and the church that gave enhanced value and offered new freedoms to women, slaves and outcasts. The attitudes, life and teachings of Jesus initiated this counter-cultural liberation.

3. Praying and prophesying: That Christian women in the 2nd and 3rd centuries still enjoyed the new freedoms offered to them in the 1st century. Tertullian held that the Spirit-led, verbal contributions in church meetings, such as prophecy, were also open to women.

4. Teaching and leading the church: That Christian women in the 2nd and 3rd centuries still lived the ecclesiastical restrictions evident in the 1st century church. In the apocryphal Acts women were active – but in church settings. Tertullian, as do other Church Fathers, strongly opposed the participation of women in teaching, leading the church and any ‘priestly’ activity.

5. Increasing pressure: That given external pressure of a prevalent male dominated society and the internal developments within the church itself, such as a shift:- From a flat to a more authoritative structure- From ministry (doing) to governance (office)- From a organic church life to an explicit priest-layman divide- From the charismatic (Spirit) towards the dogmatic (Word)- From spontaneity towards liturgy, - From small meetings in houses to large basilicas

And the rather negative view of women expressed by most Church Fathers, it is to be expected that the new freedoms given to Christian women in the 1st century were put under increasing pressure in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.

Further Research

1.Expand the sample2.Explore the 4th and 5th century sources • as Christianity is absorbed into the Roman

Empire

3.Research the difference between prophecy and teaching

End