Q. In an increasingly secular society, why do you think the church is still important?
A. A strong argument can be made that the gaining of female rights and freedoms in the West has its roots in Christianity. It is also generally accepted that democracy could only have emerged in a culture grounded in the Christian belief that we are all equal in the eyes of God. It was successive movements engendered by Christianity – both lay and religious – that gradually transformed the West into the society and culture that it now is.
Interestingly, Martin Luther’s emphasis in the Reformation – which was initiated by him – on the importance of individual religious and moral autonomy is considered to have been a significant factor in the emergence of liberal democracy along with the separation of church and state and emphasis on individual rights and freedoms.
It’s a mistake to perceive the Reformation and the Enlightenment as events that happened in opposition to the Church: rather, the Church, in its upholding of and teaching of Christianity, generated these events due to the supremely high ethical standards it has always preached and the calibre of the education it provided.
The internal dialectic within the Church reflects Jesus’ battle with the religious establishment of the biblical era and his efforts to reform Jewish legalism. In such a context we can postulate that the establishment of Christianity in the Empire was the second move in this battle. It took 1,800 years to reach the Enlightenment and 2,000 years to the first gaining of female rights. The current falloff in church attendance can be defined as an important initiation of the next move, which has the potential to so furtherly progress the Christian West and to resolve church schisms. By doing the latter it will finish or change the role of the Roman Empire in the Church.
Q. While the major Christian branches in the UK, the Church of England and Catholic Church, have seen big falloffs in their congregations, there are many other smaller Christian sects. Are they in the same precarious situation and facing extinction?
A. Overall, due to the increasing proportion of the young who claim they have no religion, in the UK church membership is forecast to decline to just over four per cent of the population by 2025.
Interestingly, the smaller Christian sects are closely related to the reformed tradition because they don’t have hierarchies, and in many the congregations are autonomous. It’s reported, however, that in most there is still a falloff in church attendance – though not as high as in the largest UK churches, Anglican and Catholic.
There is one new Christian denomination that is said to be increasing both in the UK and throughout the world:. the Pentecostal Church. This denomination focuses on individual spirituality thanks, it says, to the love and action of the Holy Spirit.
There are, however, large falloffs in Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist denominations. The reasons for the decline of Methodism are considered by its leaders to include the increased secularization in the West and the intellectual changes in British culture with the rise of science.
This is a serious concern as the renewal of Christianity is necessary for the full possible progress and survival of our world.
Q. How did gender and social inequality manage to seep into the Church hierarchy?
A. Evolutionary biologists have discovered and described how religion and politics evolved in tandem with one another as a means for creating male patriarchal power structures to support male domination of the world and of women. As a result, religions are forces for social control, especially of women. For this reason, the distinction between religion as a phenomenon and the forms individual religions take while under the control of their founders must be kept in mind.
In the early Church, women and men were equally involved in church ministries. With its change of status into the state religion of the Roman Empire, however, it became highly patriarchal. It was shaped by Roman political structures for several centuries and still remains under the influence of its imperial past. The Vatican is a political state and the papacy itself is an absolute monarchy. Popes are supported by a hierarchical power structure of its ordained males that equates to an aristocracy.
As I discuss in detail in Jesus and Women, the revolutionary attitude of Jesus towards women is in stark contrast to that of the institutional Church, transcending time and place to such a degree that it provides further evidence of his divinity.
Q. Your latest book, Jesus and Women, argues that women are vital to the survival of the Church in the 21st. century. What led you to this conclusion?
A. Women were always the main supporters of Church attendance and in the early Church –as well as in Jesus’ ministry – overall, the most drawn to his preaching and teaching. The beginning of a large falloff in Church attendance in the mid-20th century was partly due to male and female disillusionment with hierarchical political and religious institutions stemming from the Second World War.
However, second-wave feminism was the main cause of church attendance falloff for women – due to the sexism of institutional Christianity. There are female campaigns now for the achievement of equal female ministries in the Church, and also great female theology to guide it. Due to Jesus’ lovingly egalitarian treatment of women, the Church must eliminate its sexism by granting women equal authority. If it does, there will not only be a massive renewal of church attendance, but a modern version of the ideal Pauline church whose communities were totally equal, regardless of social class or gender. Such a reform will pave the Church into a much more spiritual and loving version of Christianity. A version that will also impact on the public sphere to gain social justice for all and will be as lovingly liberating for males as for females.
Q. What significant roles have women historically played in the development and spread of Christianity?
A. From the era of the Pauline church, women were great preachers and teachers of Christianity. The Jesus movement in that era spread rapidly throughout the Roman Empire thanks to the initiatives of the Pauline church females who included female prophets, evangelists, missionaries, and heads of house churches in an era before there were church buildings. Also, there were women deacons; one of whom, Phoebe in the Pauline church, is mentioned by Paul in a letter to the Romans.
At that time women found a level of power in Christian communities that they lacked in the Roman Empire. Lots of them also converted their pagan husbands to Christianity. Pope Benedict XV1 acknowledged as much in 2007 when he said, “The history of Christianity would have turned out very differently without the contribution of women”.
It was only after the 4th century, when Emperor Constantine established Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire and Christianity went from a radical underground movement to the mainstream state religion, that religious roles officially available to women dramatically decreased. On a related note, Constantine is said to have been Christianised by his mother, Helena.
Q. What theological arguments support the full inclusion of women in all aspects of church leadership and ministry, including ordained positions?
A. In Genesis, it is said that God created males and females equally in his image and likeness, and gave them equal dominion over creation. It’s clear that it was God’s will that the world would be ruled and moulded by the complementarity of male and female characteristics.
It is so clear from Jesus’ loving and egalitarian treatment of women that he favoured female equality in an era in which such a concept was unheard of and unimaginable. He is now often defined by theologians as the “first feminist”. Unsurprisingly, the risen Christ appeared first to Mary Magdalene, the leader of his female disciples who had remained by his side throughout his crucifixion. He told her to proclaim the good news of his resurrection to his male disciples, which made her the ‘Apostle to the Apostles’ and the first preacher of Christianity. The status of women in the ideal, early Pauline church reflected their treatment by its founder; they shared a wonderful diversity of ministries with males, including supervision of the Eucharist leadership.
As we have seen, this situation changed when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire but it’s clear that Jesus wanted female equality in the church which would include all ministries, including ordained and leadership ones.
Q, How does the inclusion and empowerment of women within religious institutions enhance the overall diversity of richness of the Christian community?
A.Women pastor/priestly ministers are, perhaps, more caring and sensitive in a practical sense to their male counterparts. When someone loses a family member, a female minister will tend to display more heartfelt compassion and sympathy.
They also, frankly, understand the family unit better, which is demonstrated by how much they care for children, taking an active role in advising mothers how best to raise them as virtuous Christians and organising many family events outside of Sunday worship.
Q. What are the unique perspectives and spiritual insights that women bring to theological discourse and religious practice?
A. Women have always had a greater understanding of the ministry and divinity of Jesus than males do.
The greatest female campaigners of theological discourse and religious practice were the wonderfully courageous and innovative medieval female mystics, including the famed German abbess Hildegard of Bingen and the English anchoress Julian of Norwich.
By preaching and teaching mysticism, and helping the poor and the ill, they truly reflected of the loving and compassionate ministry of Jesus. Also, their direct and loving relationship with God caused them to preach that the only mediator between us and God is Jesus. In other words, that we don’t need clerical mediators. They understandably wanted reform of the male hierarchical church structures, which attracted huge hostility from the male clerical hierarchy. Their open desire for reform led to most of them being terrorised into silence and some were executed.
Now is the time to make reparation, for their great contribution to church history and great theological writings. They were way ahead of their times in many respects, anticipating the reforms of Martin Luther by preaching and teaching in a way that had no clerical/lay divide. They also anticipated the work of great 20th century theologian Karl Rahner, who declared that the Christian of the future, thanks to the impact of science on human consciousness, will ‘be a mystic or will not exist at all’. The fact that it was women who anticipated in their lifestyles this historical development is no coincidence and is indicative of one of the most important ways in which women can transform Christian practice.
Q. In what ways will female leaders within the church serve as role models and mentors for future generations, both male and female.
A. They will exemplify the loving ministry of Jesus, who so served and loved his followers, including, and as Jesus made clear to his disciples, the important point that no adult believer should hold authority over another adult believer. There should be mutual submission among all believers. Such an example will successfully impact on the elimination of church hierarchies.
Also, they’ll preach and teach males and females about Jesus’ revolutionary, lovingly egalitarian treatment of women. They will reveal how institutional Christianity has denied, misrepresented, and distorted Jesus’ revolutionary treatment of women. This new phase of Christianity will need to be mainly guided by ordained females and feminist theologians, and will lead in the church to the restoration of the harmony between the sexes as depicted in Genesis. This will be followed by the wonderful impact of the complementarity of male and female characteristics on the church, which will also be a great example for the public sphere.
Q. How will the representation of women in key decision-making bodies within religious organisations help bolster the church to remain relevant and adaptable?
A. The world is now changing drastically due to massive scientific progress. Our era is the first to experience the God-given power and freedom to build a far greater world or to destroy it, for science has the power to do great good or catastrophic harm. As scientific theologians point out, if scientific and technological advances are developed and applied within a philosophical/theological context that perceives the person as spiritual and transcendent as well as finite and earth-bound, humanity will achieve wonderfully higher levels and forms of social existence, which will provide the individual with greater freedom, earthly and spiritual.
As I discuss in detail in Jesus and Women, the cusp of a theological revolution means that the female perspective – due to women’s gifts of love, empathy, and compassion – will now be necessary to ensure that the scientific and moral progress work in tandem for the good of humanity.
Jesus and Women: Beyond Feminism by Niamh M. Middleton is available via Amazon, priced £20 in paperback, £19.08 as an eBook and £59.09 in hardcover. The book can also be purchased directly from The Lutterworth Press. For more information visit www.niamhmiddletonauthor.com.