unit one
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Exercise 1.Read Inter Insigniores and its commentary as indicated in the right column.Read these documents with a notepad at your side, and jot down what you believe are the main scriptural texts referred to. |
1. The traditional position
For the greatest part of Christian history, Sacred Scripture has been understood as excluding women from ordained ministry in the Church. It is important for us to have a look at this traditional interpretation, in order to focus more clearly at the issues we need to address. The Roman Catholic Church is the largest body of Christians in the world. Its central teaching authority in Rome, the Pope himself and the Congregation for Doctrine then under Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, have steadfastly defended the traditional interpretation of Scripture as the correct one. We will take the opinions expressed by this teaching authority as the basis for our assessment in this first lesson.
Two official documents will serve as our main source material. They can be read in full here:
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Section Two | |
Exercise 2.
Keep a record of your thoughts here. They will come in useful later in the course when you reflect on what you have learned.Exercise 3.Imagine you have been asked to take part in a debate about the ordination of women. You have been asked to present the traditional point of view. Muster your arguments! |
2. A summary of the traditional interpretation of ScriptureThe traditional interpretation that excludes women from leadership in the Church bases itself on seven clusters of scriptural texts.
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Reading listThough Inter Insigniores is our main source text, familiarise yourself with the following Vatican documents that reiterated the same position:
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Return to the overview of the lessons? |