Be subject to “one another” out of reverence for Christ
(Ephesians 5:21. RSV)
Christianity had also seen women rise to the fore even since its
inception and origin. There are traces of such assertion in the Bible
which recorded the germane roles played by women in the ministry of
Jesus Christ (from whom Christianity originated). Owing to the effective
participation of women in the ministry of Jesus Christ, the courtesy of
being the first to see Jesus after resurrection was granted Mary
Magdalene (Mark 16:9. RSV). Despite such important roles of women in the
emergence, sustenance and spread of Christianity, women were in-between
adjudged to be marginalized as they were restricted from occupying
sensitive positions in the Christendom. In the classically organized
churches, women were prohibited from occupying sensitive leadership
positions. Basinger (1988) espoused traces of such restrictions in the
Roman Catholic and other Orthodox churches where only men were allowed
to serve as priests or deacons and in other leadership positions such as
pope, patriarch and bishop.
Down the line, the case is in comparison to the past relieved of such
static analysis as currents and undercurrents of women’s roles and
agitations for inclusiveness and emancipation have found a basis.
Christian women are now at the forefront of administration or share the
same pace as men with the emergence of Protestantism. Since 1970s, there
has been the drastic shift in the doctrine of the orthodox churches such
as the Roman Catholic and Anglican where women were initially relegated
(Bollag, 1992). Brook (2018) presented that Ludmila Javorová, a Czech
Roman Catholic woman (who worked in the underground church during the
time of communist rule in Czechoslovakia and served as a vicar general
for bishop Davidek) was adjudged the first ordained female priest. She
is known for being one of a number of Czech women who underwent an
ordination ceremony as a priest, despite the dispute generated by such
action.
Since then, facts have emerged on women being ordained to occupy the
highest position of a parish in the doctrine of the Roman Catholic such
that in 2002, seven women were ordained Roman Catholic priests (Brook,
2018) by Bishops Ferdinand Regelsberger and Rómulo Antonio Braschi.
Though seen as a radical act, these individuals championed the course of
history in the empowerment of women as these seven women are believed to
be among the first to be given the right to oversee a parish since after
the 70s (Brook, 2018).
Contemporarily, numerous women priests and bishops have emerged and more
are still expected with the advent of advocacy democracy which has led
to the awakening of women to the equal (or superior) role they play in
comparison to men in the society. The place of Christian religion in the
empowerment of women is central as Turpin (2018) posits that;
The very first college in world history to offer a bachelor’s degree to
women, Oberlin, did so in 1837, with the goal of training more people
(women) to spread the evangelical gospel. In other words, theologically
conservative Christians pioneered women’s higher education for religious
reasons (Turpin, A.L. 2018. Women’s Higher Education was
Pioneered by Evangelical Christian Leaders).
Pertinently, Christian theology has not been the same since the
emergence of the protestant denominations and this has most often
heralded calls to shift church authority, with the aim of balancing same
among men and women. Subsequently, women have ridden on the back of
religion to rise to prominence in the contemporary world- a somewhat
herculean shift without religion. Bimbo Odukoya, who through Fountain of
Life Church became a world renowned personality with over 60
international awards and recognition until her demise. Owing to her
exploit through religion, she was one of several individuals chosen by
Samsung to represent Nigeria in carrying the Olympic Torch in Athens,
Greece at the 2004 Olympic Games (Ranker, 2018).
In a similar manner, religion had over the years accelerated the journey
of notable women to the echelon of fame and recognition albeit
empowerment as through religion, Margaret Idahosa (the archbishop of
Church of God Mission) became the first Nigerian woman to be ordained as
archbishop in 2009 and the first female chancellor of a university in
Africa-Benson Idahosa University, Benin city, Nigeria. A fit realized
through the contribution of religion.
The controversy in the church has been undergirded by the gender of
clergy inadvertently justified (explicitly or implicitly) by the gender
of God. This theology of exclusion appears to have been justified by the
ways men in authority use the Christian Bible, but such orientation is
gradually finding oblivion as the above examples present an empirical
evidence of the place of religion in the empowerment of women which has
taken roots in the contemporary society owing to several factors chief
of which is the advent of the age of inclusion (Pillay, 2017), awareness
creation and state deregulation of societal institutions to include
women in several positions of authority.
Theoretically, the origin of Protestantism (which is embedded in
agitation) saw to the somewhat involvement of thought-radical and
ideologically stimulating aspect of religion which has ensured greater
participation of both genders through awakening. The emergence of New
Right (Haralambos et al, 2008) introduced a more thought-provoking
process geared towards the assurance of greater individual rights.
People as a result of this began to realize more and more the depth of
their rights and their ability to participate in societal reforms.
Women began to look beyond their age-long role as commonhousewives and were poised to make economic change and command
relevance. Religion became the ready-made tool for such attainment hence
their greater participation which has contemporarily yielded more gains
as those women that attained relevance became trailblazers, role models
and decision makers in the other spheres of the society as well.