Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
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 ...
References on the history of women in the early Christian Church. Brock, Sebastian and Harvey, Susan, trans. Holy Women of the Syrian Orient, updated edition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987. Brown, Peter. The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
Each entry provides the woman’s name, titles, roles, and region of activity. Titles such as deacon, martyr, empress, or Desert Mother indicate their societal and ecclesiastical significance. Many of these women were later canonized as saints or are venerated for their contributions.
Women are slowly being recognized as theological scholars. George Gallup Jr. wrote in 2002 that studies show women have more religiosity than men. Gallup goes on to say that women hold on to their faith more heartily, work harder for the church, and in general practice with more consistency than men. [1]
Religious life is a distinct vocation in itself, and women live in consecrated life as a nun or religious sister, and throughout the history of the Church it has not been uncommon for an abbess to head a dual monastery, i.e., a community of men and women. Women today exercise many roles in the Church.
The Methodist Episcopal Church granted women limited clergy rights as local elders or deacons, without conference membership. [13] Ida B. Robinson founded the Mount Sinai Holy Church of America and became the organization's first presiding bishop and president. 1928: A secular law was passed in Thailand banning women's full ordination in Buddhism.
Through its support for institutionalised learning, the Catholic Church produced many of the world's first notable women scientists and scholars – including the physicians Trotula of Salerno (11th century) and Dorotea Bucca (d. 1436), the philosopher Elena Piscopia (d. 1684) and the mathematician Maria Gaetana Agnesi (d. 1799).
The Church of the Nazarene has ordained women since its foundation as a denomination in 1908, at which time fully 25% of its ordained ministers were women. According to the Church of the Nazarene Manual, "The Church of the Nazarene supports the right of women to use their God-given spiritual gifts within the church, affirms the historic right ...