The emancipation of women as a challenge to the Church (2002)

[struggle4progress]

Anglican Theological Review
Summer 2002
by Elfriede Kreuzeder

In the apostolic era many women are mentioned as apostles, leaders of house churches, prophets, deacons, and so on. This is a sign that what Jesus had done was still highly regarded, despite all the traditional conditions set by place and culture. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul says: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" ...

... with the church's emergence as a public institution, the subordination of women set in as a consequence of the church's adaptation to Hellenistic-Roman culture ...

In the Zeno Chapel of the Roman church of St. Prassede there is the representation from the fourth century of an episcopa Theodora. An attempt has in fact been made to scratch out the final "a," but it remains clearly recognizable. In the same way there is an epitaph from the third or fourth century on the Greek island of Thera to the presbytis Epiktas ...

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3818/is_200207/ai_n9101730

http://www.bloogs.com.nyud.net:8090/ducadegandia/theodora_episcopa1.jpg
Bishop Theodora is the left-most mosaic figure; the inscription episcopa Theodora is written as one horizontal and one vertical word at the upper left of her figure

[defendandprotect]

1. The excitement of the "Da Vinci Code" has been slowed down by

"Opie" making the book into a movie which amounts to a car chase for 11 year olds . . .

and then, at the end, makes clear it's betrayal of the book and women.


Much of women's history on the planet, like much of science, literature, art which the

patriarchy/patriarchal religion understood as a threat to its claimed superiority and

its one sky-god . . . they destroyed.

Yet, archelogical excavations continue to provide "finds" on almost a daily basis ---

Anatolia --- oldest known civilization -- birth of art

No images of military pursuits, no weapons of war, no fortifications were found. The established ideas about early cultures were called into question as the Goddess spoke across 9000 years Her message of life abundant - peaceful and joyous, cyclical and celebratory. And, as Marija Gimbutas reminds us in The Civilizations of the Goddess, the culture of Catalhuyuk did not emerge from a vacuum, nor did its Goddess.

The Venus of Wilden Mann dates back 70,000 years
Area of the "finds" stretch from Ireland to Siberia, thru Meditterean area, the Near
East and Northern Africa.

And contrary to patriarchal "creation" myths . . . "In a word, life begins as female.
The female is not only the primary and original sex but continues throughout as the
main trunk."

Is it likely that an all male Vatican, for instance, will move to end its war on women ---
or even to embrace equality for all -- i.e., democracy?

[knitter4democracy]

2. Someday we'll get back what we've lost.

Many of us are praying and working for it. I know that the Orthodox Church admits that women were at least deaconesses (though the misogynists question what their roles were, saying they were different than the men's, which is a bunch of crap) and that the rules against women priests were written into the canon laws much later, after the Gnostic controversy. One of these days, we'll get the altars back.

[Occam Bandage]

3. Fascinating article. I'd be interested in knowing, actually,

how they managed to determine the "A" was there (I don't doubt that they did), since from the picture it looks like there's no visible trace of the "R" or the "A" remaining.

[annabanana]

4. Even in the Anglican Church (traditionally one of the more "liberal")

They have just gotten around to welcoming women as priests & ministers. It's has been "allowed" for years... but has just recently been "sanctioned".

[PassingFair]

5. Maybe they tore her apart, like Hypatia...

Christians had a place for women, and it WASN'T
in the pulpit.

They can usually be found in the basement, cleaning
and cooking, or in the choir, belting out the greatest
hits.

[struggle4progress]

6. Synesius of Cyrene, later Bishop of Ptolemais, was one of Hypatia's students

... Her most adoring pupil was Synesius, a bishop in the church who had died several years earlier. He addresses seven letters to Hypatia and refers to her in several more. Indeed, on his deathbed, he writes to her as "mother, sister, teacher, and withal benefactress, and whatsoever is honoured in name and deed" (Ep.16). She is "my most revered teacher" (Letter to Paeonius) and the one "who legitimately presides over the mysteries of philosophy" (Ep.137). And, in a letter written two years before her own death, he says "I account you as the only good thing that remains inviolate, along with virtue. You always have power, and long may you have it and make a good use of that power" (Ep.81). She taught Synesius how to make an astrolabe; he also requested a hydrometer from her, a device to measure the specific gravity of liquids. A philosopher, which is how Synesius repeatedly addresses her, Hypatia may have studied with Antoninus, who had prophesied the destruction of the Serapeum....
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/paganism/hypatia.html


It was written in 413, when Synesius was in great problems because he had a conflict with the governor Andronicus ...

To the Philosopher <Hypatia>

I salute you, and I beg of you to salute your most happy comrades for me, august Mistress. I have long been reproaching you that I am not deemed worthy of a letter, but now I know that I am despised by all of you for no wrongdoing on my part, but because I am unfortunate in many things, in as many as a man can be. If I could only have had letters from you and learnt how you were all faring -I am sure you are happy and enjoying good fortune- I should have been relieved, in that case, of half of my own trouble, in rejoicing at your happiness. But now your silence has been added to the sum of my sorrows. I have lost my children, my friends, and the goodwill of everyone. The greatest loss of all, however, is the absence of your divine spirit. I had hoped that this would always remain to me, to conquer both the caprices of fortune and the evil turns of fate.
http://www.livius.org/su-sz/synesius/synesius_letter_010.html


Written in 402, it is the world's first description of a hydrometer ...

To the Philosopher <Hypatia>
I am in such evil fortune that I need a hydroscope. See that one is cast in brass for me and put together. The instrument in question is a cylindrical tube, which has the shape of a flute and is about the same size. It has notches in a perpendicular line, by means of which we are able to test the weight of the waters. A cone forms a lid at one of the extremities, closely fitted to the tube. The cone and the tube have one base only. This is called the baryllium. Whenever you place the tube in water, it remains erect. You can then count the notches at your ease, and in this way ascertain the weight of the water.
http://www.livius.org/su-sz/synesius/synesius_letter_015.html


Together with Letter 10 (also to Hypatia, written in 413), this is the last piece of Synesius' correspondence ...

To the Philosopher <Hypatia>

I am dictating this letter to you from my bed, but may you receive it in good health, mother, sister, teacher, and withal benefactress, and whatsoever is honored in name and deed. For me bodily weakness has followed in the wake of mental sufferings. The remembrance of my departed children is consuming my forces, little by little. Only so long should Synesius have lived as he was still without experience of the evils of life. It is as if a torrent long pent up had bust upon me in full volume, and as if the sweetness of life had vanished. May I either cease to live, or cease to think of the tomb of my sons! But may you preserve your health and give my salutations to your happy comrades in turn, beginning with father Theotecnus and brother Athanasius, and so to all! And if any one has been added to these, so long as he is dear to you, I must owe him gratitude because he is dear to you, and to that man give my greetings as to my own dearest friend. If any of my affairs interests you, you do well, and if any of them does not so interest you, neither does it me.
http://www.livius.org/su-sz/synesius/synesius_letter_016.html