Examine why there are different Christian views about the place of women in Christianity (AQA, June 2018)

Dissenting Christian views on the place of women in Christianity refer usually to differing views of the role of women in the Church. The Catholic and Orthodox churches affirm the equality of women in the church but nevertheless maintain that the priesthood is restricted to men. Many modern Protestant church, such as the Church of England, take that principle of equality and extended it to the ordination of women. The Catholic and Orthodox churches refer to 1 Corinthians 14 where St Paul exhorts that a woman is not to be permitted to teach in a church, a role traditionally associated with that of a priest. Those Protestant churches however argue that any one passage of the Bible should be read within the context of Scripture altogether, and what the Bible preaches is a message of radical equality - typified by Jesus' inclusion of sinners and the extension of the disciples' mission to include the Gentiles. What Paul says, therefore, about women should be understood as culturally relative misogyny and not indicative of the biblical ethos altogether.
What these different views betray are dissenting views between Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches on the nature and purpose of scriptural exegesis, and what additional sources of teaching there might be apart from the Bible. Catholic and Orthodox Christians - and for that matter Protestants broadly until the mid-20th century - affirm that the Bible is the inspired word of God and possessing, therefore, a unique authority in informing teaching; therefore whatever Paul says about the role of women should be taken as truth in and of itself, without additional interpretation. Ironically, Protestants historically went further in affirming that Scripture is the actual word of God and therefore Paul's exhortations should be taken as the very will of God. For Catholics and Orthodox there is the additional consideration of apostolic succession, the idea that Jesus' teaching is preserved and passed on in the all-male succession of bishops through the centuries. The integrity of that inheritance is jeopardised by the admission of women to the priesthood and then episcopate. Many modern Protestants however have abandoned that Scriptural testimony, as the philosopher Charles Taylor has commented on. For them, modern notions of egalitarianism trump a literal reading of Scripture. This is no doubt due in part to the historical scepticism with which they view the Bible, doubting therefore any claims to being the inspired or literal word of God.