The Priestly Office of Women: God's gift to a Renewed Church is the English translation of the second edition of Dr. Ida Raming's classic study of the exclusion of women from ordination in the Western Christian Church, The Exclusion of Women from the Priesthood: Divine Law or Sex Discrimination? (SCP, 1976). This new edition includes a bibliography on women's ordination from 1973 to the present plus three recent essays by Dr. Raming and a complete translation of the Latin sources cited by Dr. Raming.

The Roman Catholic leadership still refuses to ordain women officially or even to recognize that women are capable of ordination. But is the widely held assumption that women have always been excluded from such roles historically accurate? How might the current debate change if our view of the history of women's ordination were to change? In The Hidden History of Women's Ordination, Gary Macy argues that for the first twelve hundred years of Christianity, women were in fact ordained into various roles in the church. He uncovers references to the ordination of women in papal, episcopal and theological documents of the time, and the rites for these ordinations have survived. The insistence among scholars that women were not ordained, Macy shows, is based on a later definition of ordination, one that would have been unknown in the early Middle Ages.

The growth of women's ordained ministry is one of the most remarkable and significant developments in the recent history of Christianity. This collection of essays brings together leading contributors from both academic and church contexts to explore Christian experiences of ordaining women in theological, sociological, historical and anthropological perspective. Key questions include: How have national, denominational and ecclesial cultures shaped the different ways in which women's ordination is debated and/or enacted? What differences have women's ordained ministry, and debates on women's ordination, made in various church contexts? What 'unfinished business' remains (in both congregational and wider ministry)? How have Christians variously conceived ordained ministry which includes both women and men? How do ordained women and men work together in practice? What have been the particular implications for female clergy? And for male clergy? What distinctive issues are raised by women's entry into senior ordained/leadership positions? How do episcopal and non-episcopal traditions differ in this?

A fundamental and well-illustrated reference collection for anyone interested in the role of women in North American religious life.

Arranged in chronological order so that the Baptist saga can be understood as a continuous narrative, the book has the added advantage of permitting the reader to cherry-pick chapters that are of particular interest. The Baptist struggles for freedom of conscience, for a believer's church, for including both genders and all races, for fulfilling the Great Commission, and for the separation of church and state--these are only a few of the denominational-shaping turning points one discovers in this book.

An overarching history of women in the Christian Church from antiquity to the Reformation, perfect for advanced undergraduates and seminary students alike A History of Women in Christianity to 1600 presents a continuous narrative account of women’s engagement with the Christian tradition from its origins to the seventeenth century, synthesizing a diverse range of scholarship into a single, easily accessible volume. Locating significant individuals and events within their historical context, this well-balanced textbook offers an assessment of women’s contributions to the development of Christian doctrine while providing insights into how structural and environmental factors have shaped women’s experience of Christianity. Written by a prominent scholar in the field, the book addresses complex discourses concerning women and gender in the Church, including topics often ignored in broad narratives of Christian history. Students will explore the ways women served in liturgical roles within the church, the experience of martyrdom for early Christian women, how the social and political roles of women changed after the fall of Rome, the importance of women in the re-evangelization of Western Europe, and more. Through twelve chapters, organized chronologically, this comprehensive text: Examines conceptions of sex and gender tracing back their roots to the Jewish, Hellenistic, and Roman culture Provides a unique view of key women in the Church in the Middle Ages, including the rise of women’s monasticism and the impact of the Inquisition Compares and contrasts each of the major confessions of the Church during the Reformation Explores lesser-known figures from beyond the Western European tradition A History of Women in Christianity to 1600 is an essential textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in Christian traditions, historical theology, religious studies, medieval history, Reformation history, and gender history, as well as an invaluable resource for seminary students and scholars in the field.

Women’s Ordination in the Catholic Church argues that women can be validly ordained to ministerial office. O’Brien shows that claims by Roman dicasteries for an unbroken chain of authoritative tradition on the non-ordainability of women—a novel rather than traditional argument—are not historically supported. In the primitive Church, with the offices of deacon, presbyter, and bishop in process of development, women exercised ministries later understood as pertaining to those offices. The sub-apostolic period downplayed women’s ministry for reasons of cultural adaptation, not because it was thought that fidelity to Christ required it. Furthermore, extensive epigraphical evidence, from a wide geographical area, references women deacons and presbyters during the first millennium. Restrictive developments in the concept of ordination from the twelfth century onwards do not negate how, before that, women were validly ordained according to contemporary ecclesial understanding. Repeated canonical prohibitions on ordaining women show both that women were being ordained and how those bans were very selectively implemented. These canons were a cultural practice in search of a theology, and the subsequent theological justifications for restricting ordination to men appealed to supposed female inferiority against the background of priesthood as eminence rather than service. O’Brien shows that the assertion of women’s non-ordainability is a matter of canon law rather than doctrine. As such, that law can be reformed.

This collection of essays highlights the thorny and divisive issue of the admission of women into the sacramental diaconal priesthood of the Christian Church from the Orthodox theological perspective. The contributions here stem from scientific papers presented at an international conference titled “Deaconesses, Ordination of Women and Orthodox Theology”, organized in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 2015 by the Center of Ecumenical, Missiological and Environmental Studies (CEMES). They cover almost all the fields of biblical, liturgical, patristic, systematic, canonical, and historical theology. The volume’s main focus is the ancient order of deaconesses, in connection with the overall issue of the ordination of women. Although most papers address the issues from an Orthodox perspective, their sober analysis can provide theological argumentation for the wider Christian community, both the Churches and Christian denominations that exclude women from the sacramental priesthood, and those that have already adopted their ordination.

55 years of struggle for women's ordination in the Roman Catholic Church - this lifelong effort by the theologian Ida Raming - together with her pioneering compatriots, some of whom have passed away - are described in this documentation. She is deeply convinced that a fundamental renewal of the church can only be achieved together with women who are no longer subject to discrimination - and not without them. Beginning with the Vatican Council (1962 - 1965), this endeavor has stretched across several phases of church history all the way into the present. Numerous documents bearing witness to internal church developments, conflicts and international movements are related in a vivid, gripping manner from the perspective of the author. The international Women Priests Movement (RCWP/ARCWP), its inception and development, is also described in this context. This documentation offers an excellent aid in studying the epoch of church history dating from 1962.

Women throughout American history have repeatedly been accused of "stepping out of their places" as many have fought for more rewarding roles in the church and society. In this book, Susan Hill Lindley demonstrates that just as religion in the traditional sense has influenced the lives of American women through its institutions, values, and sanctions, so women themselves have had significant effect on the shape of American religion through the years.