By Mario Toneguzzi
Calgary Herald
October 2, 2010
http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/Patriarchal+conspiracy+debunked+University+Calgary+scholar/3613206/story.html
Da Vinci Code a perpetual myth, says professor
| Evidence collected in recent decades reveals women had a much more active role in early Christianity than was assumed, says University of Calgary religious studies professor Anne Moore. |
For a long time there have been many theories circulating in society about women and Christianity.
One of those major theories was that there was a "patriarchal conspiracy" that restricted women in leadership, says Anne Moore, associate professor in the department of religious studies at the University of Calgary.
"Recently, one of the points that has been made is we've come to that conclusion partly because we've been looking at -- to be facetious -- liturgy that has been written by men, for men and interpreted by men. And we've looked at literature rather than looking at the material culture, i.e., inscriptions, frescoes on the walls, folklore. Other stuff that's out there that could give us a different glance of what women were actually doing at one point in time."
On Monday, Moore will give a lecture in this area entitled Imaging Women in the Early Church: The Visual/Material Clues to Women's Leadership. It will be held at 7:30 p.m. at St. Andrew's United Church, 924 Heritage Dr. S.W.
The lecture is sponsored by the Chair of Christian Thought in the department of religious studies at the University of Calgary.
A brochure describes the lecture in the following manner: "For several decades, feminist theologians and historians have clawed their way through the centuries of male-orientated texts, scholarship and interpretations in an effort to recover the stories of women within the early church. Recently, scholars have begun to incorporate elements from early Christian material culture and they are finding a complex picture of women's leadership and involvement.
"Catacomb images suggest women's participation as ritual specialists; various frescoes indicate a Mediterranean-wide interest in St. Thecla; and inscriptions list women as deacons, presbyters and bishops. If a picture represents a thousand words, then this evidence speaks volumes about female activity in early Christianity."
Moore says those clues tell us that women had a much more active role in early Christianity than has been assumed in the past.
For example, there are a number of gravestones of women who are often referred to as deacons.
"We know in the literature that there were deaconesses who could baptize women and teach women, but these are deacons," says Moore. "The way to think about this is that it would be similar to when Kim Campbell was prime minister. We didn't suddenly change her title to prime ministress with the implication that she only represented women.
"So the idea is that the gravestones indicate that women were teaching both men and women. We also have again gravestones that indicate women were presbyters, which is the designation that later becomes priest. We also have one inscription that may indicate that we also had a female bishop."
Moore says we also must keep in mind that the Christian institutions weren't fully developed in the early days.
"One shouldn't be looking for our version of Christianity back there," she says.
"People are quite curious because part of it is unfortunately -- speaking as a religious scholar -- the Da Vinci Code and books like that perpetuated this myth that the patriarchy was out to get women and crushed women's involvement quite quickly.
"People are quite fascinated to find out that no, that wasn't the case. That women were active in ways that we didn't know about."
Contact: mtoneguzzi@calgaryherald.com
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