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Church History: What Do We Learn about Women in Public Ministry?

By Gender & Faith, Women No Comments

“It was the feminist teachings of the past few decades that first spurred Christians to try to argue for [women in public ministry]. Like it or not, the two schools of thought are intertwined.” – Christian blogger

“The role of women in church ministry was simply not a burning question until it asserted itself in recent decades in conjunction with the modern women’s movement” – Men and Women in Ministry: A Complementary Perspective,p. 20

When I took some doctoral courses in history, I read numerous primary documents which revealed that the question about women in public ministry in the church has been burning since long before the U.S. Women’s Movement. So, I set out to determine when it actually started.  

I thought maybe it began with the American and French Revolutions with the cry for individual rights. But then I read documents like the pamphlet that Margaret Fell Fox …

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Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

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Today I finished Bonhoeffer:
Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy,
by Eric Metaxas—the same author who told John
Newton’s story in Amazing Grace.  Considering that Metaxas released this
book about three-and-a-half years ago (it was ECPA’s 2011 Book of the Year), I know I’m not exactly on the cutting edge
of book-review timing here. But who cares? This book has a timeless appeal, as
it tells the story of a man who laid down his life for what he believed.   
 
A friend insisted that the audio version of the book was
preferable to the print one, so I took her advice and learned passively as I drove
to and from work and to appointments. I also learned some German pronunciation.
I regret, however, that I had no way to underline in order to capture amazing
quotes. Bonhoeffer had much wisdom, especially on the subjects of being single,
heaven, ministry to
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Why I Study Greek and First-Century Ephesus

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“I would say that a clear understanding of the character of earliest Christianity—its beliefs, its practices, its struggles and challenges—are essential if we are to understand who we are as Christians and who we ought to be and to be about. The church today is suffering from a sort of amnesia; it has forgotten the rock from which it was hewn, and so it fails to understand its own identity. The past, as Lightfoot would say, is not mere prologue; it is the foundation of our faith and on it we must stand. Lightfoot reminds us again and again that history matters, that nothing can be theologically true that is historically false, that a gnostic sort of spirituality that divorces itself from the original Greek text and context of Acts is not a Christian approach to spiritual formation but a heresy against which the church fathers fought vigorously.”

—Ben Witherington …

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