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Women/Women in the Church

Faith Q&A › Metropolitan Youssef › The Church › Women/Women in the Church

The question

What are your thoughts concerning these quotes, because this is pretty shocking to me?

Woman is a temple built over a sewer. – Tertullian, “the father of Latin Christianity” (c160-225)

[Women's] very consciousness of their own nature must evoke feelings of shame.– Saint Clement of Alexandria, Christian theologian (c150-215) Pedagogues II, 33, 2

Nor are the women to smear their faces with the ensnaring devices of wily cunning... The Instructor [Christ] orders them to go forth “in becoming apparel, and adorn themselves with shamefacedness and sobriety, subject to their own husbands.”  – Saint Clement of Alexandria, Christian theologian (c150-215), The Instructor

In pain shall you bring forth children, woman, and you shall turn to your husband and he shall rule over you. And do you not know that you are Eve? God’s sentence hangs still over all your sex and His punishment weighs down upon you. You are the devil’s gateway; you are she who first violated the forbidden tree and broke the law of God. It was you who coaxed your way around him whom the devil had not the force to attack. With what ease you shattered that image of God: Man! Because of the death you merited, even the Son of God had to die… Woman, you are the gate to hell. – Tertullian, “the father of Latin Christianity” (c160-225)

For it is improper for a woman to speak in an assembly, no matter what she says,
even if she says admirable things, or even saintly things, that is of little 
consequence, since they come from the mouth of a woman. – Origen (d. 258), Fragments on First Corinthians, 74

Woman does not possess the image of God in herself but only when taken together 
with the male who is her head, so that the whole substance is one image. But 
when she is assigned the role as helpmate, a function that pertains to her
alone, then she is not the image of God. But as far as the man is concerned, he 
is by himself alone the image of God just as fully and completely as when he and 
the woman are joined together into one. – Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo Regius (354-430)

What is the difference whether it is in a wife or a mother, it is still Eve the temptress that we must beware of in any woman… I fail to see what use woman can be to man, if one excludes the function of bearing children. – Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo Regius (354 – 430)

The answer

Unfortunately, the verses you quote are from the teachings found on agnosticism and atheism websites. Many critics of Christianity use verbiage out of context to try to spread negativity and mislead people. Although the era of early Christian writers was not favorable to the rights of women, in general, apostolic Christianity documents the contribution of many women, saints, and martyrs during this epoch and until now, with honor and respect.

Men and women hold responsibility in how sin entered into the world. Each of them, along with the cunning serpent, were given just punishments. However, God raised the state of women and elected to bring salvation to the world through a woman. Though our church is patriarchal in the liturgical rites and roles, women are involved in many ministries and contribute to many discourses. This is not new ideology. The Holy Scripture—Old and New Testaments, diligently notes many woman and their positive and godly roles.

In the Pascha Evening Litany Prayers, we pray for the protection of women. We need to understand that the protection of women also means to refute negativity against women. We must also be vigilant against the attack on Christianity, which employs various means and deliberate misinterpretations to cause confusion and doubt in faith.

Tertullian was married and was very clear in his adoring words to his wife, whom he cherished. St. Augustine praised his mother, Monica, for the tears she shed for his repentance. Concerning men and women, St. Clement wrote the following:


"The virtue of man and woman is the same. For if the God of both is one, the master of both is also one; one church, one temperance, one modesty; their food is common, marriage an equal yoke; respiration, sight, hearing, knowledge, hope, obedience, love all alike. And those whose life is common, have common graces and a common salvation; common to them are love and training. "For in this world," he says, "they marry, and are given in marriage," in which alone the female is distinguished from the male; "but in that world it is so no more."


Resource:
http://www.copticchurch.net/topics/patrology/schoolofalex/IV-StClement/chapter2.html

Answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab)

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