Union Biblical Seminary

Pune, Bibwewadi

Subject. : Feminist Theology

Course code : BTW 14
Topic : Feminist Ecclesiology
Class. : BD 4
Submitted to : Dr. Viju Wilson
Submitted by : E. Echu Konyak
F. Samuel Pinto
Helina H. Yeptho
K. Blessy Georgina
Noel David

CONTENT

Introduction

1. Overview of feminist ecclesiology

2. Methodologies of feminist ecclesiology

3. Feminist critic on traditional ecclesiology

4. Women’s role in the Bible during Early Church

5. Women’s experience in church at present

6. Reframing ecclesiology from feminist perspective

7. Implication

8. Conclusion

Bibliography
Introduction

This paper on feminist ecclesiology begins by looking at its overview and methodology. Then it
examines the critic on the traditional ecclesiology in an attempt to reframe ecclesiology from
feminist perspective. Women’s role during the early church and present experiences are taken into
account and implication is drawn out of the proposed framework from the feminist perspective.

1. Overview of Feminist Ecclesiology

The Feminist Ecclesiology perspective is diverse and varies in its views of what is to be the baseline
for women in the church. Rosemary Radford Ruether’s view is on one extreme end. She propogates
that women should leave the church and their community and separate themselves to women-only
run communities. According to Ruether, this is necessary for the sake of completely removing the
patriarchal dominance that has surrounded women.1 Thus, by avoiding all patriarchal influence,
women will be able to create a church culture that has its “own structure, leadership, and ethos.”2

On the other hand, Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza sees that church is built based on the concept of
patriarchy and the elite. Fiorenza coined the word Kyriarchy from the Greek word kuriosi, which
means Lord and master, and archo means “to rule” or “to dominate” on the model of patriarchy.
Fiorenza opines that Kyriarchy is a system of structure of ruling and oppression in which many
people may interact and act as oppressors and oppressed.3 Kyriarchy is a development on patriarchy
designed to acknowledge that gender is not the sole determinant of one’s access to power. It refers
to rule of the master, where the master is not only a father, but is an otherwise “elite.”

Feminist theologians have strongly raised their voice against the flaw in translating the word
ekklesia to church, as it loses its real meaning. Ekklesia actuals means gathering, sharing and
participating equally but its original meaning is being exploited and is given Kyriarchy or
patriarchal meaning.4

1 Veli-Matti Karkkainen, An Introduction to Ecclesiology (Downers Grove: Inter Varsity Press, 2002), 190.

2 Karkkainen, An Introduction to Ecclesiology, 190.

3 Stephan Howe, Empire: A very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 9-10.

4Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, But She Said: A Feminist Practice of Biblical Interpretation (Boston: Beacon, 1992),
117.
2. Methodologies of feminist ecclesiology

The starting point is a place of profound ambiguity. It is easy to read the church's history as one of
women's misery, as an organization that has gone to great lengths to restrict, marginalize, and
oppress women, mostly solely because they are women. The growth of hierarchical and clerical
systems has paralleled the increasing marginalization and oppression of women and their faith
discourses since the early days of the Christian Church. Women have always been removed from
much of the church's important events. Those churches which understand themselves as churches of
'the Word' often do not permit women to preach. Women have been barred from the sanctuary by
churches who place a high value on the sacraments because of their perceived ritual impurity or
simply because they are priests who happened to be incarnated as a male human being-and have
been relegated to mere recipients of certain sacraments while being completely excluded from
others. The church has been, and continues to be, a place where women face systemic oppression,
where women are told of their supposed insignificance, and where a theology of womanhood is
preached that defines a meaningful life for women in terms of childbirth or sexual rejection. The
first woman to preach at Harvard Memorial Chapel was Mary Daly, a distinguished scholar with
three doctorates. She took the opportunity to initiate a symbolic exodus, inviting women, men, and
children to accompany her out of the church, an organization that was irredeemably patriarchal and
symbolized women's oppression as well as patriarchal religion in its most archetypal form.

Some women, most notably post-Christian feminist thinkers Mary Daly and Daphne Hampson,
have rejected the church as an institution that no longer holds significance for them. Others have
persisted in their efforts to change themselves from the inside out. They refuse to abandon the
church, to leave Christianity to those who see their patriarchal system of thinking as the only viable
option, and instead work in terms of positive internal resistance. These women sometimes live their
lives as if they were 'resident aliens.'

Learning to live with ambivalence is the starting point for a feminist reconsideration of
ecclesiology, in order to make sense of the existence of injustice and empowerment, liberation and
pain, silence and effective expression all at once. A feminist rethinking about what it means to be
church must consider all viewpoints, the numerous and compelling reasons why women stay in the
church as well as the equally numerous and compelling reasons why women leave or remain on the
margins. The question that a feminist ecclesiology must discuss is not whether women should
'leave' or ‘stay,' but rather how it is possible to reconsider what it means to be church within a
theological paradigm that seeks to rethink Christian theology and practice in feminist terms.

As a response, feminist ecclesiology must account for women's participation and analyse their
significance in the development of the ecclesiological debate. If the church is seen as a 'given' and a
cultural religious institution of importance for both women and men, more formal, critical, and
positive reflection about what the church is needed. We must find both conventional and innovative
ways to communicate what church is. These must be applicable to both women and men, and they
must represent the church as an environment in which women, men, and children reside. The
importance of the church as a place for faith discourses, sacramental celebration, and community
calls for a rethinking of ecclesiology discourses rather than a full rejection of it.

Feminist ecclesiology must draw the dots between what it means to be human and what it means to
exist in today's world. As a consequence, it requires a revaluation of the prophetic presence in this
universe, as well as a rethinking of what it means for the church to be at the crossroads of this world
and the transcendent, of human and non-human existence and the divine. Discourses of justice and
liberation can and do take place at this intersection, and being church can begin to mean being an
open group of liberated human bodies who celebrate their own lives in the image of, and ultimately
as part of, the Triune God's life in this world. Feminist ecclesiology's role is to establish guidelines
for evaluating both conventional and modern ways of becoming church and determining whether
they take into account the lives and participation of women as church. The church, as established by
ecclesiology, is both a spiritual entity that Christians believe is "one, sacred, catholic, and
apostolic," and a political body that is divided into "denominations." Denominations are historical
and political representations of the church in specific historical, cultural, social, and political
contexts, and Ecclesiology must answer both. This generates what is basically just another unclear
circumstance. Ecclesiology is written in the context of a specific political situation, typically that of
a particular denomination.

Feminist ecclesiology has two goals: it thinks and speaks theologically about the church as an entity
and the specific institutions in which it operates, but it also discusses a number of different models
by which the church explains itself in theological terms. 5

5 Natalie K. Watson, Introducing Feminist Ecclesiology, (New York: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002).
3. Feminist critic on traditional ecclesiology

A feminist critique of Barth's ecclesiology must take into account another element of Barth's
ecclesiology's Christological base. In the church, Barth is concerned with the restoration of divine
authority. The exercise of all authority within the church is derived from the authority of Christ, so
this divine authority, which is based on the authority of Christ present in the church, is meant to
restrict the misuse of male authority. However, we must consider whether the authority of a male
Christ will really restrict or prevent authority abuse in the church, or whether it is more likely to
legitimize male authority over women within the church. To summarize, the Christological
foundation of Barth's ecclesiology is usable for women in part, whereas other parts of it must be
dismissed as adverse to women being full agents of ecclesial life. A feminist ecclesiology must be
written with an understanding the importance of gender in theology. If Christ is seen as the superior
male Christ from whom the dependent feminine church derives its identity and self-consciousness,
such an ecclesiology merely promotes a social-symbolic order in which women are second-class
citizens. A feminist re-consideration of ecclesiology must identify and resist those underlying
gender constructions.

A feminist approach to ecclesiology that considers spiritual self-understandings of the church and
represents women's perceptions of being church must balance all aspects and should not go to either
extreme. Women perceive Barth's absolute Christological determination of the church as a
reflection of male dominance that rejects women's own being as women, while voluntarism can
lead to the extreme of separatism, which creates a women's church in secession from the established
church. A feminist approach to ecclesiology must find a way to balance both perspectives: affirming
women as church and thus as part of God's story, while also encouraging women to establish the
church as their own place, promoting voluntarism but not to the exclusion of other factors. Given its
absolute Christological resolve, Barth emphasizes that the church is only a human society. Our
feminist critique must therefore return to Barth's understanding of humanity as male and female
being essential in the life of the church, despite the fact that Barth does not address this problem.

According to Barth, worship is primarily an act of God in the life of the society. When it comes to
women's worship experiences in the Christian cultures of which they belong, it is important to
remember that, considering the fact that the majority of those attending are women, it is not only
women's religious experience that is reflected in language and types of worship. To consider
worship an act of God in the life of the congregation contributes to the isolation felt by women in
religious services where they participate but are not represented.

Barth emphasizes the idea that the church only acts as a predicate to Christ's being, which is indeed
an act of grace, in the sense of his Christological ecclesiology. Both, though, point to the same
thing: the derivative nature of women's being, woman as someone that can only be through the
other and as a part of male culture with no independent existence. This is expected to show up in
the life of a church that sees itself not only as fully decided by Christ, but also as a 'community of
brethren' in which ‘sisters' have no representation of their own and are not allowed to be agents of
ecclesial life.6

4. Women’s role in the Bible during Early Church

The Early Church was the homes of the early believers. Many women in the New Testament are
identified as hostesses of these home churches and their names are also mentioned.7 Mary the
mother of John Mark in Jerusalem, Lydia of Thyatira in Philippi, Priscilla in both Ephesus and
Rome, Chloe was leader of the Corinth church and Apphia is mentioned in the book of Philemon
and she is said to be the wife or sister of Philemon.8

It was in these house churches that the Sabbath worship took place, the love-feasts were held in the
home churches and the letters of the apostles were read in these houses. Whenever an evangelist or
an apostle visited their place, it was the place for the people to gather. Also the sick people, the
orphans were taken care of in these house churches by the women of the house. The new believers
were taught the basic elements of Christianity in these places. The women who were hostesses of
these house churches also served later as the local pastor of that church.9

Siddiqui says that women played important roles in the ecclesiastical activities along with Paul.
Paul mentions a number of women in Romans 16:1-6. Among these women Phoebe is mentioned to
be the deaconess of the Church in Cenchrease and also as a helper to the apostles. Paul mentions

6 Natalie Knödel, Reconsidering ecclesiology: feminist perspectives, Durham theses, Durham University : http://
etheses.dur.ac.uk/4729/

7 Madelynn Haldeman, “The Role of Women in the Early Christian Church,” 27, https://www.adventistarchives.org/the-
role-of-women-in-the-early-christian-church.pdf.

8 Haldeman, “The Role of Women in the Early Christian Church,” 28.

9 Haldeman, “The Role of Women in the Early Christian Church,” 29.

Prisca and Aquila as his fellow workers, he praises Mary for her work, Tryphaena Typhosa and
Persis are mentioned by Paul as those who worked hard for the Lord.10 Eudia and Sintyche in
Philippi, Louis and Eunice influenced Timothy and worked along with Paul.11 But later Paul’s
orders in Col 3:18 and Eph 5:21-33 shows us that the ministry of women and their participation in
the ministry of Church became limited in certain communities in the Early Church Period itself.12

5. Women’s role in Church at Present

Today women have started taking leadership roles in Church and also some churches allow the
ordination of women. Women find happiness and satisfaction by serving as church leaders. Suckle
did a survey among the Protestant churches which includes Episcopal, Baptist, Methodist,
Presbyterian, United Church of Christ and Lutheran and has found out that the women leaders in
these churches mainly face gender inequalities and resistance from others.13 This is the state of
women today. Even though women have got the opportunity to be as the church leaders, they are
not fully accepted by the church congregation as we belong to a Patriarchal society. There are still
some places where the role of women in church is to be as a helper by providing the needs of the
church and to assist in the event organized by the church. The women are allowed to participate in
the decision making process of the church only to some extent and in some places the voices of
women are still silent in the decision making process.14

6. Reframing Ecclesiology from Feminist Perspective

Feminist perspective of reframing the ecclesiology was based on the equality in the church. In order
to understand the concept of equality, we need to go back to the origins, where the beginning of the
creation of Adam and Eve in the creation story by the creative God and should know His divine

10 Kazi Zulkader Siddiqui, “Women in the Early Christian Church,” 3-4, http://irigs.iiu.edu.pk:64447/gsdl/collect/
hwaliyya/index/assoc/HASH9896.dir/doc.pdf.

11 Haldeman, “The Role of Women in the Early Christian Church,” 28.

12 Isabel Sparow, “An exploratory study of women's experiences and place in the church: A case study of a parish in the
Church of the Province of Southern Africa (CPSA), Diocese of Cape Town,” 17, https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/
58912534.pdf.

13 Nicole L. Davis, “Women in Ministry: How Conflicts between God's Purpose and Church Doctrine Impact the
Efficacy of Female Church Leaders,” 60, https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1129&context=shss_dcar_etd.

14 Zenaida V. Rotea, “The Role of Women in the Church and in Society,” 1, http://www.laici.va/content/dam/laici/
documenti/aamm/proclaiming-jesus-christ-in-asia/conferences/role-women.pdf.
purposes of human creation. The teachings of the second chapter of Genesis confirm and expand
upon those of chapter one where they provide a rationale for the essential unity of human nature in
male and female. They also show that in God’s creation ideal, man and woman were expected to
enjoy a relationship of mutuality in equality. There is nothing in Genesis 1 and 2 that provides even
a hint of a disparity of nature or rank between man and woman.15
A Discipleship of Equals is founded on the notion that all human beings, despite their differences of
gender, race, intelligence, and so on, are equal because God created each one. Everyone is made in
the image and likeness of God. We are all God’s children, loved by God
despite our diverse traits of personality, beauty, genius, quirks, and frailties. Christians share a
further equality insofar as we are all baptized. The initial sense of equality gradually gave way,
however, as the Church took on many of the characteristics of the Roman Empire, the society in
which it developed. Distinctions between clergy and laity hardened. Bishops, priests, and deacons,
pushing the laity to one side, assumed the leadership of the Church. Although Vatican II called for
more involvement of the laity, Canon law continues to restrict decision-making to the ordained and
allows the laity only a consultative, never a deliberative voice. That is contrary to a principle of
Roman law adopted by the medieval canonists and incorporated into the modern Code of Canon
Law. What touches all should be approved by all.” This has resulted in a great chasm between the
male, clerical leadership – the clerical club – and the great mass of the faithful who are denied their
baptismal right to participate in every phase of the work of Christ’s Church.
Jesus intruded in to the sin-laden institutions of the world in order to release a new kind of life, an
irrepressible ferment that would change men and women and empower them with the effervescent
dynamic of the spirit. Endowed with new powers, they would personify the new creation and
establish the new community.16 In this community, men and women are called by God to occupy
kingdom functions and to assume kingdom roles at maximum levels of involvement and visibility
tolerable within their contemporary cultures. In multiple ways, Jesus established the principle of full
access of both men and women to the responsibilities attendant to the harmonious functioning of the
new community. Jesus taught His followers in word and deed to consider the gender difference
irrelevant to the concerns and to the process of the kingdom of God.
The teachings of the apostolic church are in full accord with the inaugural statements of the church.
Husband and wife are to enjoy a relationship of mutuality in equality within the home. Men and

15 Gilbert Bilezikian, Beyond Sex Roles (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1985), 37.

16 Bilezikian, Beyond Sex Roles, 118.

women have equal access to positions of leadership in the church, provided they are properly
qualified.17 The apostolic church propounded lofty ideals for male/ female integration in the new
community both in its inaugural statements and in its teaching. During its period of infancy, the
church had to overcome formidable obstacles to practice what is preached concerning social
structures. On one hand, the church was to realize the new community where there would be neither
Jew nor Greek, no slave nor free, no male nor female. But on the other hand, the church could not
afford to segregate itself from the world, since its mission was to penetrate society and make
disciples from all nations. The logic of its inner life required radical adherence to Christ’s vision
and, therefore, repudiation of the worldly status quo. But the exigencies of its mission called for
continued openness to society and the ability to relate to it positively in order to speak to its needs.
The church could become radical, other-worldly sect and cut itself off from the mainstream of life,
or it could temporize its ideals for the sake of outreach and lose its distinctiveness.18
The lofty ideals for male/female integration among Christians an enunciated in the church’s
inaugural statements and in its teaching, were also practiced in the life of the church. The evidence
indicates that women participated in the roles of leadership at the highest levels. Such continuity
between faith and practice was achieved against pressures to confirm to patriarchal norms in
ambient culture.
Since the writings of the New Testament were action documents produced in a patriarchal setting,
the number of references to women they contain was normally affected by this factor. The positive
evidence of available in the New Testament for a male /female integration may, like the proverbial
tip of the iceberg. represent the fraction of the radical changes effected in the practice of the new
community under the impact of the ministry of Jesus. However, as relatively sparse as it may be, the
evidence is conclusive. The apostolic church confirmed its practices to its teachings: “there is
neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).19
The scripture repeatedly warns the believers against the sublet danger of critically adopting
prevalent cultural concepts and worldly practices. Christians are commanded to examine their
assumptions in the light of God’s Word and, should they do so, they are given the promise that they
will be able to discover His divine will. Perhaps no other area of corporate Christian life requires as
critical a reappraisal of its basic presuppositions as that which concerns the relationships of

17 Bilezikian, Beyond Sex Roles, 193.

18 Bilezikian, Beyond Sex Roles, 194.

19 Bilezikian, Beyond Sex Roles, 206.

believers among themselves. Faulty relationships among Christians have paralysing effects on the
vitality and the effectiveness of their corporate witness. Discriminatory and divisive practices grieve
the Holy Spirit and hinder the growth and outreach of Christian communities.
From the movement of our birth, a fallen society presses us into compartments and niches that
become our private prisons for life. The concept of sex roles is one of those bondages from which
the gospel can set us free. Nowhere does the Scripture command us to develop our sex-role
awareness as males and females. Both men and women are called to develop their “inner man,”
which means their basic personhood in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit or
the result of the Holy Spirit’s impact on human personality, is a character that exhibits “Love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22-23). Biblically,
such qualities pertain neither to masculinity nor femininity. They are the reflection of the person of
Christ Himself. In order to attain this ideal, some men may indeed have to repudiate the traits that a
pagan culture portrays as true masculinity. They have to surrender toughness for love, ambition for
joy, aggressiveness for peace, expeditiousness for patience, forcefulness for kindness, competition
for gentleness, and assertiveness or self-control.20
Genuine Christian spirituality is located beyond the entrapment of sexual roles. Men should learn to
temper the masculinity instilled into them by the world with the authentic world produced by the
Holy Spirit. In this manner, they will truly reflect the character of Christ, who embodied to
perfection the “fruit of the Spirit.” In order to do so, men may have to relinquish their bogus
masculinity as they “crucify the flesh with its passions and desires.” This is the sine qua non
condition for “belonging to Christ Jesus” (Gal 5:24). Again, the essential traits characteristics of the
people of God are qualities that would be popularly considered as feminine: compassion, kindness,
humility, gentleness, patience, a forgiving spirit, and – supremely love. Such traits are not cited by
Paul at random. This is how he describes the new nature which is renewed in Christ Jesus (v.10).
Both men and women are to acquire such characteristics because they are the manifestations in
human life of the image of God. Men who continue to assume superior attitudes, by claiming
exclusive positions of power and dominance prerogatives, and pathetically inflating their macho
image at the expense of the very persons whose servants they should be for Christ’s sake, need to
examine their basic assumptions about the transformation claims of the gospel.
This transformation calls not only for a change of the “inner man” but also for a change of attitudes
toward the other sex. The sanctification of our attitudes toward the other sex will require nothing

20 Bilezikian, Beyond Sex Roles, 207.

less than a systematic effort of deprogramming, designed to purge the Christian mind of abusive
interpretations of portions of scripture that should have been left alone when not understood, and of
the vulgar popular stereotypes that such misinterpretations have reinforced. Obedience to scripture
regarding male/female relationships within the church will release undreamed of vitalities and
potentialities for the work of the gospel. The church understood as clerical-patriarchal hierarchy not
only is exclusive of women leadership, but also establishes its critical territorial boundaries as a
women-free zone through celibacy. Nevertheless, we must be careful not to construe our struggle
for the transformation of the patriarchal church into the discipleship community of equals in
dualistic oppositional terms. There are many members of the patriarchal hierarchy that seek to
realize the discipleship community of equals, just as women and other ecclesial non subjects still
have to struggle with our religious internalizations of patriarchal values and visions.21
Studies which focus only women don’t prove women’s equality of discipleship one way or the
other, and in fact may even distort the Gospel message. The only way to demonstrate equality of
treatment is not to isolate women’s stories, but to examine the text for literary evidence of a
balanced treatment of female and male disciples. Women and men are invited to identify not
primarily with those of their own gender, but rather with the character with whom they most closely
resonate or who most challenges their own faith response. For the women and men of the Fourth
Gospel, the only trademark is love and service, lived out in a genuine discipleship of equals.

7. Implication
Though in todays world, as women get opportunities to perform their task in Indian churches, still
we could see in numerous places, denominations, rural areas where women are considered unequal,
sinful, fallen, first cause of sin, subordinate, helper, housekeeper etc.... These kinds of patriarchal
mindset has truly subjugated women throughout in church history. Women were often not allowed
to speak in churches, not allowed to make decisions, not given ordination etc ..
So to eradicate this, first we need Pastors to interpret the Biblical passages in such a way where
both men and women could function in the church with equality for its proper function. Pastors
should teach and preach about how women and men are equally fallen .. and how women could be
used efficiently in the church.

21Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Discipleship of Equals: A Critical Feminist Ekklesia-logy of Liberation (New
York: The Cross Road Publishing Company, 1994), 295.
The gospel of Jesus Christ should be preached as it brings forth of how Jesus welcomed both men
and women to His ministry. These things should be discussed in church gatherings, diocese's etc ..
so that women get enough role and opportunities to participate in the churches.

8. Conclusion
In this paper we have discussed in brief of how patriarchal mindset have governed the church
throughout history and how it subjugated women in various ways within the church. We have also
discussed about the various methodological views of various feminist theologians on their views on
church and patriarchy and have come up with a some practical implications for todays Indian
church leaders to follow.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books
Bilezikian, Gilbert. Beyond Sex Roles Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1985.
Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schussler. But She Said: A Feminist Practice of Biblical Interpretation. Boston:
Beacon, 1992.
Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schussler. Discipleship of Equals: A Critical Feminist Ekklesia-logy of
Liberation, New York: The Cross Road Publishing Company, 1994.
Howe, Stephan. Empire: A very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Karkkainen, Veli-Matti. An Introduction to Ecclesiology. Downers Grove: Inter Varsity Press, 2002.

Watson, Natalie K. Introducing Feminist Ecclesiology. New York: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002.

Online Sources

Davis, Nicole L. “Women in Ministry: How Conflicts between God's Purpose and Church
Doctrine Impact the Efficacy of Female Church Leaders.” https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cgi/
viewcontent.cgi?article=1129&context=shss_dcar_etd.

Haldeman, Madelynn. “The Role of Women in the Early Christian Church.” https://
www.adventistarchives.org/the-role-of-women-in-the-early-christian-church.pdf.

Natalie Knödel, Reconsidering ecclesiology: feminist perspectives, Durham theses, Durham

University : http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/4729/

Rotea, Zenaida V. “The Role of Women in the Church and in Society.” http://www.laici.va/content/
dam/laici/documenti/aamm/proclaiming-jesus-christ-in-asia/conferences/role-women.pdf.

Siddiqui, Kazi Zulkader. “Women in the Early Christian Church.” http://irigs.iiu.edu.pk:64447/gsdl/

collect/hwaliyya/index/assoc/HASH9896.dir/doc.pdf.

Sparow, Isabel. “An exploratory study of women's experiences and place in the church: A
case study of a parish in the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (CPSA), Diocese of Cape
Town.” https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/58912534.pdf.