Baptist Women in Ministry http://www.
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Carolyn Goodman Plampin http://home.netcom.com/~cplampin
Series-Subjects Relevant to an Informed Opinion about Christian Women in Ministry
Theological Arguments
for and against
the Ordination of Women
First created in January, 1996, Revised January 10, 2007
Baptist Women in Ministry http://www.bwim.info/index.php/welcome
c/o McAfee School of Theology
3001 Mercer University Drive
Atlanta, GA 30341
(678) 547-6475
Questions, comments, or suggestions
of bibliography or sites to include may be sent to
Carolyn Goodman Plampin
Coordinator Subjects Relevant to an Informed Opinion
1220 Vienna Dr., #504
Sunnyvale, CA 94089-2007
(408) 734-5141
Master of Teaching, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil, March 20, 1968
Master of Divinity, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, June 2, 1978
Missionary to Brazil of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1957-1988
Academic dean (without title) and professor, Instituto Biblico Batista, A.B. Deter and
Seminário Teológico Batista do Paraná, Curitiba, 1959-1979
Academic dean and professor, Seminário de Educacao Crista, Recife, 1980-1986
e-mail: cplampin@ix.netcom.com
We urgently need to study the historical and contemporary arguments made that women can or cannot be ordained, and also ordination itself. After doing a survey of the courses on women in around one hundred seminaries of all denominations, I have found NO information that leads me to believe that seminaries are studying this question.
Jewett Deals with
the Three Historical and Current Arguments
- Argument from the Nature of Women that woman constitutes a sexual
temptation. "If a man stands in a pulpit the average woman is not unduly
affected by his appearance: but if a woman stands there, men being men, will
often find that their thoughts are less on the word spoken than on the
speaker," p. 8.
- Argument from the Nature of the Office that the woman's incapacity for
ministerial orders is due to her subordination to the man in the God-ordained
structures of life. "And this is so, ultimately, whether one assumes a
sacramentalist or an evangelical theology of ordination. The basic question is
really not whether one speaks of a 'sacrament' that conveys the 'indelible
character' of the 'priesthood,' or whether one repudiates the thought that
ordination is a 'sacrament' and refuses even to use the word 'priest' to
describe the Christian minister. All Christian churches teach in one way or
another that God must give his enabling Spirit to those on whom hands are laid
in ordination if they are to have the inner spiritual strength to serve him
effectively as ministers of the church. Therefore, to argue from the nature of
ordination that women cannot hold the ministerial office implies that they are
incapable of receiving that divinely given spiritual endowment symbolized by
the laying on of hands in ordination.
If one does not wish to say that this incapability is due to some inferiority in the woman, then what is the reason for it? The answer to this question comes as no surprise to those who are familiar with the literature: the woman's incapacity for ministerial orders is due to her subordination to the man in the God-ordained structures of life. This is why we have said that it ultimately does not matter whether one has a Roman Catholic view of ordination, in which the essential element is the sacramental commissioning of a priest to celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass, or whether one has a Protestant view, in which the essential element is the setting apart of a minister to preach the gospel and shepherd the the people of God. In both traditions it is the woman's relationship of subordination to the man that disqualifies her for ordination.
- The Argument that the Masculinity of God Entails a Male Order of Ministry
in the Church. This is the longest part of Jewett's book and it is not
possible to do it justice with short citations, nevertheless, we will look at
a couple of passages. "However, this likeness, this 'analogia relationes,' as
Barth calls it, between the human fellowship of male and female and the
eternal fellowship of Father, Son, and Spirit, should not be pressed so as to
suppose a sexual distinction in God. The theologians have always known and
admitted as much, yet they have hardly been consistent in applying this truth.
They have assumed that God is not female, but that God is not male either has
been much less clear to them. It would be easy to attribute this inconsistency
to their bias as men, and such a charge would by no means be unfounded. Yet
there are other factors which obviously must be taken into consideration in
accounting for the tendency of the theologians to think of God as a male
Diety. For one, the Scripture uses predominantly masculine language in
speaking of God. Furthermore, this God who reveals himself in Scripture as a
Father, sent his Son to redeem humankind from their sins. This Son, in turn,
became incarnate in the man Jesus of Nazareth. And this man, Jesus appointed
the original apostles to speak in his name, all of whom were men, pp. 26-27.
Nonetheless, an affinity between maleness and divineness remains the basic assumption behind every argument from the nature of God for the exclusion of women from the office of the ministry. ... As we have already observed, if God is a fellowship of Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), and the human creature a fellowship of persons (male and female), then humanity is like God as man and woman rather than as man in distinction from woman."
Jewett, THE ORDINATION OF WOMEN. AN ESSAY ON THE OFFICE OF CHRISTIAN MINISTRY, pp. 35-36.
Clanton, Jann Aldredge. "Why I Believe Southern Baptist Churches Should Ordain Women," BAPTIST HISTORY AND HERITAGE, Vol. XXIII (23), No. 3, July 1988, pp. 50-55.
Coriden, James A., ed. SEXISM AND CHURCH LAW, EQUAL RIGHTS AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION. New York: Paulist Press, 1977.
Humphreys, Fisher, THE CHRISTIAN INDEX,
- "Professor Reviews Biblical Teaching on Ordination of Ministers, Deacons," July 12, 1984, p. 3.
- "Some Basic Theological Assumptions Lie Behind Our Ordination Practices," July 19, 1984, p. 13.
- "Ordination an Institutional Activity; It Is Also a Community of Faith Act," July 26, 1984, p. 5.
- "Professor Summarizes Ordination Findings," August 9, 1984, p. 5.
Jewett, Paul K. THE ORDINATION OF WOMEN. AN ESSAY ON THE OFFICE OF CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1980.
Langley, Ralph H. "The Role of Women in Church," SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY, Spring 1977, pp. 60-72. This issue is on Baptists Deal with Controversial Issues.
Melton, J. Gordon, ed. THE CHURCHES SPEAK ON WOMEN'S ORDINATION. Official Statements from Religious Bodies and Ecumenical Organizations. Detroit: Gale Research, 1991.
Micks, Marianne H. and Charles P. Price, eds. TOWARD A NEW THEOLOGY OF ORDINATION: ESSAYS ON THE ORDINATION OF WOMEN. Somerville, MA: Greeno, Hadden and Co., 1976.
Morris, Joan. "Appendix V, The Ordination of Abbesses," in THE LADY WAS A BISHOP, THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF WOMEN WITH CLERICAL ORDINATION AND THE JURISDICTION OF BISHOPS. New York: Macmillan, 1973, pp. 130-139.
"On the Early History and Modern Revival of Deaconesses," CHURCH QUARTERLY REVIEW, Vol. 48, 1898-1899, pp. 302-334.
Patterson, Dorothy Kelley. "Why I Believe Southern Baptist Churches Should Not Ordain Women," BAPTIST HISTORY AND HERITAGE, Vol. XXIII (23), No. 3, July, 1988, pp. 56-62.
Raming, Ida. THE EXCLUSION OF WOMEN FROM THE PRIESTHOOD: DIVINE LAW OR SEX DISCRIMINATION? A HISTORICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE JURIDICAL AND DOCTRINAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE CODE OF CANON LAW, CANON 968, PARAGRAPH 1. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1986.
Resolution No. 3 - "On Ordination and the Role of Women in Ministry," PROCEEDINGS, 1984 SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION, pp. 65-66.
Rossi, Mary Ann. "Priesthood, Precedent, and Prejudice, On Recovering the Women Priests of Early Christianity" (Containing a translation from the Italian of "Notes on the Female Priesthood in Antiquity," by Giorgio Otranto.), JOURNAL OF FEMINIST STUDIES IN RELIGION, Vol. 7, No. 1, Spring 1991, pp. 73-94.
Sappington, Jessie Tillison (Mrs. Richard Lee). FROM MY POINT OF VIEW ON THE ORDINATION ISSUE. M & M Printing Company, 3470 Ella Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77018, n.d. (Mrs. Sappington writes the history of her efforts to make motions in the Southern Baptist Convention and the Texas Baptist General Convention against the ordination of women.) Stendahl, Krister. THE BIBLE AND THE ROLE OF WOMEN, A CASE STUDY IN HERMENEUTICS. Translated by Emilie T. Sander. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966.
Swidler, Leonard and Arlene Swidler, eds. WOMEN PRIESTS, A CATHOLIC COMMENTARY ON THE VATICAN DECLARATION. New York: Paulist Press, 1977.
Tetlow, Elisabeth Meier. WOMEN AND MINISTRY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT: CALLED TO SERVE. Lanham: University Press of America, 1980.
World Council of Churches, Department on Faith and Order and Department on Cooperation of Men and Women in Church, Family and Society. CONCERNING THE ORDINATION OF WOMEN. Geneva: World Council of Churches, February 1964.
World Council of Churches, Faith and Order Secretariat. THE DEACONESS. Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1966.
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