WOMEN IN THE CHURCH

...The example of Jesus, too, is frequently mentioned insofar as he did not choose women to be among the 12 apostles who were to be the chief continuers of his mission and the authority in the community he founded...

...From these we can discern the rights of woman and her position as an equal to man, and in no way an inferior to man...

...The present phenomenal advance of women in the...

...The example of the early church is also mentioned...

...Paul encouraged masters to treat their slaves well...

...This approach also makes frequent use of St...

...The fact that there were no women who were apostles may not be used as an argument concerning the role of women in the Christian -community today since the position of women is being completely changed in civil society...

...Paul's statement would be fair neither to God nor to St...

...The church has to learn to respect human beings as made by God-male and female...

...it is still forbidden for Catholic priests to be married...

...This can also be applied to the problem of the rights of women...

...Since the modern world has advanced to a point in which the more enlightened persons recognize woman as a human person with rights equal to those of a man, then this is a criterion for judging the Scriptures and the tradition of the church, rather than vice versa...

...The office of the pope will probably be the last post to be open to women-if even this were to happen this side of paradise...

...Human beings become more aware of their rights and of the conditions which are truly humanizing and fulfilling for them as persons...

...This approach is applicable not only to the question of women's rights but to many other issues in which there is a long tradition of unfair domination of one group by another...

...Paul who said that in Jesus Christ there is neither Greek nor Jew, male or female (Gal...

...This is one more direction in which revolutionary changes are taking place rapidly and universally...

...Still another attitude is to recognize the evolutionary character of revelation by God, that God's revelation in the Christian tradition does not necessarily reach its ultimate point in every aspect with the New Testament or the life of the apostles...

...For today mankind is aware that a just God will not condemn to eternal unhappiness thousands of millions of people who are not Christians for no fault of theirs...

...Unfortunately church leadership is prepared to educate and "promote" the woman, but as yet is not willing to acknowledge equal rights...

...What method is to be invoked in the evolution of a theology concerning women...

...Thus the law of Moses that an adulteress could be stoned or strangulated to death was not being observed in the time of Christ, partly due to the influence of the Romans...

...It may be asked how far the questions of today concerning the liberation of women at a worldwide level can be inspired by these texts...

...Paul and the New Testament which the church has long since forgotten: e.g., that only circumcized persons should be ordained, that bishops should be the husband of one wife, etc...

...Both these are deeply influenced by the cultures that have prevailed in the so-called Christian societies...

...A third attitude is to affirm the equality of all persons and to try to remove all disparities in treatment as these are almost wholly due to the cultural conditioning of our societies...

...The evolution of the human race in its self-understanding is also a process that takes place under the guidance of Providence...

...A woman is capable of being Prime Minister of one of the world's largest countries, India...

...There is a certain amount of truth in this position too insofar as Jesus sometimes went against the traditions and customs of the tune and adopted a more humane and liberal attitude towards women...

...For, such statements were not meant as statements for all time...

...Theology is the reflection on the revealed teachings of God...

...We may say the same concerning the rights of women...

...likewise for the tradition of the church...

...Similarly for questions such as human freedom and the rights of individual conscience...

...What is required is a radical new approach to the problems of theology with reference to the sexes...

...One such line of argument is that the Christian Scriptures speak of the supporting role of the woman from the very beginning of history and of this relationship as seen in the story of Genesis...

...If the Christian theological tradition had no adequate answer for this problem what we have to do is begin with the assertion of the goodness of God and the rights of man and in the context of these two to critically evaluate our theology or theological tradition...

...Thus in the question of the salvation of those who are not of the Christian faith it is not of much use to engage oneself in endless theological research to try to prove that the Christian tradition is not against the salvation of those who are not Christian...

...Only a radical approach to the question of the equal rights of women can help the church meet the challenge that is posed to it by the revolution of the modern world...

...To try to work within the old theological framework is to accept limits which cannot be too helpful...

...whereas man is regarded as the more independent, powerful and active...

...The attitude of the Catholic Church towards women's rights depends both on its theoretical teachings and its practical policies...

...The modern world has made it possible for women to perform most of the functions which were earlier the preserve of man...

...In this tradition the weight has been given to the celibate woman as the ideal of feminine goodness...

...There are many particular lists of advice in St...

...This study is known as hermeneutics or the research into the interpretation of texts...

...Such a change in theology is likely to help the Christian religion itself to get itself out of a position in which women are supposed to be more "religious" and almost as a consequence religions are regarded as more feminine...

...It performed the same function towards feudalism, capitalism and colonialism...

...It is perhaps much better to accept that the Christian tradition has not been too favorable to women's rights in spite of the example of love and affection shown by Jesus...

...assertion of their rights presents an important issue to theologians and Catholics in general...

...Another line of thought gaining ground today is that Jesus was a liberator of women and that he did not support the discrimination against women that was prevalent in the Jewish society of his time...

...However, it is one thing to say this and another to claim that an adequate theology of the role and rights of women in modern society can be develop-ed on the basis of the New Testament, Scriptures or the examples of the early church alone, for the issues that are raised up today are quite different in their breadth and depth...

...If it had any meaning it was only as understood within the context of the day...

...There is no reason why she cannot look after a diocese...

...It might have been recommended for a given time, as a concession to male domination or as an acceptance of the existing situation...

...The theologian has to learn from the modern world to recognize that every human being is a person and has a right to personal fulfillment, freedom and happiness...

...women, and provision of a special place for them due to their being the stronger or weaker sex...

...Instances are mentioned of the relationship of Jesus with women such as the adulteress, the Samaritan woman at the well, Martha and Mary, Mary Magdalen and above all his own mother...

...Therefore we have to critically evaluate the context of the Scripture in the light of the growth in human awareness concerning what is right and just...

...Theologians provide the main material for the teachings of the Church...

...The fact that Jesus was a man is also said to favor masculine superiority...

...This is a crisis more for the church than for enlightened women...

...They advocate respect for father tissa balasuriya, O.M.I., former president of Aquinas College, Colombo, is Asian chaplain of the Catholic Students Movement...

...Women themselves can contribute much to Christian reflection by laying aside the historical burden of a male-dominated theology, and evolving their own thinking from within their own consciousness of their rights as free, responsible human beings...

...There seems hardly anything so manly in the ecclesiastical offices that a woman cannot perform...

...The church has already alienated the workers, youth and intellectuals...

...The process of the evolution of the world has taught the church many things which it did not find originally in Scriptures or even in the explicit teachings of Jesus Christ...

...It can help us understand the limits within which the original message was given...

...The UN Year of the Women, 1975, coincided with Pope Paul's Holy Year which has "Reconciliation" as its theme...

...We do not have to be surprised by this for theology too is culture-bound...

...For women will all the same go ahead towards their greater liberation...

...Yet the development of the struggle of the women for their promotion, emanicipation and liberation is posing a serious question to Catholic thinking...

...It would therefore follow that sex should not be a criterion of discrimination...

...In our approach to the texts of Scripture we have to distinguish: (a) the intention of God in revealing a particular teaching at a given time...

...Nor need we accept as adequate the writings of great theologians like St...

...It is not that the priesthood is important for woman's liberation...

...How do theologians react to all this...

...There are many actions of the apostles which are not necessarily meant to be imitated...

...WOMEN IN THE CHURCH TISSA BALASURIYA We cannot expect to evolve an adequate theology of women's rights from the New Testament or the life of the early church Today the Catholic* Church gives the impression of being the last refuge of male chauvinism...

...It is almost futile to try to find arguments for woman's rights in the long tradition of Christian theology which has been dominated very much by males, especially by clerics and monks...

...One conclusion of this is that humanity's consciousness of right and wrong as it develops over the centuries is a guide for the critique of the understanding of the message or revelation...

...Today we are aware that slavery is dehumanizing and hence it is of no avail to argue that Jesus Christ did not condemn slavery or that St...

...b) the authors' own expressions (c) how these are understood in the cultural context of the time...

...The fact is that the Christian community itself learns from the world...

...If we argue from an example of Christ it is unfair to him because we cannot take each of his actions as guidelines for all time...

...It leads to the type of thinking that is likely to be satisfied with the "promotion" of the woman), when the legitimate demand is for a liberation which the dignity of every woman as a person demands...

...Therefore the suggestion is that a methodology for the evolution of a theology on women's rights would have to begin with thinking of the more enlightened persons in our contemporary society and the experience of the world...

...This is a grace for it In its turn it can help the liberation of millions of women...

...The process of rapidation itself will grow within the next few years...

...Numerous citations can be found in the Scriptures in favor of an inferior position being given to women...

...The apostles and later popes and bishops seemed to think that the highest ecclesiastical position a woman could be given was that of a deaconess...

...The subordination of woman to an inferior position is dehumanizing and unjust, and this cannot be the will of God...

...Augustine, St...

...In this sense, therefore, this almost universal consciousness of the evil of slavery is a criterion for judging the Bible itself...

...Mary, the Mother of Jesus, has been presented as the Blessed Virgin, a patient, docile mother...

...What the Bible says about shivery has to be reval-uated in terms of our present consciousness of what is right and wrong...

...Thomas Aquinas or even Teilhard de Chardin...

...Even in present writings and speeches we see the presentation of woman as the ideal of docility and religiosity...

...To defend slavery on the basis of St...

...Paul...

...Paul's sayings concerning the role of women as being made to be more seen than heard in the Christian community...

...Christian theological reflection has unfortunately helped to socialize male domination...

...The contradiction is between such words and the practice of the church where a woman priest, not to mention bishop or pope is still unacceptable...

...The church has to grow and once again learn from the world...

...How can this issue be faced...

...It means being caught up within a system of male superiority...

...Christian theological tradition has tended to regard woman as an inferior being, a temptress, a fair defect of nature, and at best only a secondary associate of man...

...The Catholic priesthood is not only a preserve of the males...

...They say all persons are equal, but women are different and should be treated as such...

...This need not be an impediment to us today...

...Will the Catholic Church reconcile itself to the equal dignity of men and women during this holy year...

...It does not fundamentally alter the position of male dominance...

...We have, therefore, to question the thinking of the church about women and their rights beginning with what the secular society teaches us as a matter of experience and this I would suggest is also a theological method for the evolution of our thinking on women's rights...

...This leads to a certain protectionism and paternalism...

...In this we note the historical evolution of the pedagogy of God with reference to his people...

...It is also thought that in the early church women had a greater degree of equality than in the Jewish-Greco-Roman society of the day...

...It would be sacrilegious to have to think that • God wanted such a law to be maintained for all time under all circumstances...

...For this means that God present in mankind has made humanity more aware of its own nature and dignity...

...Some are traditionalist and want the woman confined to the homes-children, kitchen and church as they say in German...

...There are different approaches...

...Others are more liberal...

...Thus Paul circumcized his disciple Timothy out of consideration for the Jews...

...All these are founded on the basic conception that the woman is an inferior being compared to the man...

...This school of thought would also argue from the history of the church and from canon law in favor of the privileged position of the male in human society and in the church...

...In any case, if the church fails to recognize women's rights at this stage of history, it is the church that will suffer the consequences...

...Hence it would be necessary to give up many of the traditional concepts of Christian theology concerning the woman, i.e., to demythologize the traditional Christian theology of the Christian woman-that she is a temptress, that as coming from Adam's right rib she is inferior, that she is the one who has to be only docile and passive, is meant for victimhood, compassion, patience...

...For we see a continuing evolution in the church of its own understanding of the Christian message even in matters concerning the moral law...

...It takes place today mainly within secular society...

...The evolution of the particular aspects of theology insofar as there are differences of sex, psychology, etc., would have to take place within the fundamental proposition of basic equality, which the modern world emphasizes...

...What was perhaps normal in the time of the Jews and the Romans cannot be regarded as universally valid, particularly today, when we have women Prime Ministers, legislators, Everest climbers, astronauts, scientists etc...

...They invoke the long line of traditional theological thought...

...Why then is it that only Paul's advice regarding women's speech and headdress are remembered and not those more significant recommendations...

...They would therefore maintain that women cannot be priests and much less bishops or pope...

...All these persons wrote at a given historical time and their attitude to women depended on the cultural context of the time...

...Now it may even lose many women who have long been the mainstay of her own position...

...There are so many things which the Christian tradition has not been aware of but had to learn from the evolution of the world...

...The usual method is to return to the Scriptures of the early church and to find there reasons for or against the emancipation of women...

...However, the acknowledgment of the rights of woman must not to be one more paternalistic concession, nor a patchwork palliative...

...We know that there has been a gradual evolution of that within the church with reference to such matters as slavery, polygamy, democracy, socialism, etc...

...3:28), and in the Second Vatican Council which also affirmed that any discrimination based on sex, race, color, social condition, language or religion is contrary to God's intent (Church in the Modem World, Art...

...For women will advance, and many among them may leave aside the church as incapable of understanding their deepest and best aspirations...

...It is a form of revelation to mankind by God...

...We may find arguments for such a radical approach in St...

...But the insult contained in the law that women cannot be priests, bishops or pope is a counter-witness in the modern world to the dignity of the human person...