Why is God male? Why are women associated with sin? Why can't women be priests? Drawing on early Christian literature, we will explore key conflicts over sex and gender in the early church—what they were and what was at stake. These ancient conflicts have shaped contemporary Christianity and its promotion of male exclusivity and superiority in terms of God, church leadership, and the bed.
We will uncover old aspects of Christianity before later doctrines and dogmas were imposed upon the churches and the earlier teachings about the female were distorted. The female was systematically erased from the Christian tradition. The distortion and erasure of the female is the result of ancient misogyny made divine writ, a holy misogyny that remains with us today. |