The Roman Catholic Church maintains that it cannot ordain women to the priesthood due to a lack of biblical warrant. The Church therefore relies upon the traditional concept of a Bridegroom-Bride relationship (read: Christ and His Church), which they say can only be maintained if a male priest serves as the representative of the invisible Christ for his Bride during the Eucharist. In this essay, we shall explore the role and treatment of Mary Magdalene and women in early texts and show that they actually did have prominent positions within at least some early Christian communities. Texts were altered, and selected for reasons that did not always have to do with doctrine. Therefore, the tradition of the Bridegroom-Bride relationship ought to be reconsidered as the later development it was, and the Church should reconsider not only its presentation of Mary Magdalene but also the possibility of women within the ordained priesthood.
","abstract_html":"<p>The Roman Catholic Church maintains that it cannot ordain women to the priesthood due to a lack of biblical warrant. The Church therefore relies upon the traditional concept of a Bridegroom-Bride relationship (read: Christ and His Church), which they say can only be maintained if a male priest serves as the representative of the invisible Christ for his Bride during the Eucharist. In this essay, we shall explore the role and treatment of Mary Magdalene and women in early texts and show that they actually did have prominent positions within at least some early Christian communities. Texts were altered, and selected for reasons that did not always have to do with doctrine. Therefore, the tradition of the Bridegroom-Bride relationship ought to be reconsidered as the later development it was, and the Church should reconsider not only its presentation of Mary Magdalene but also the possibility of women within the ordained priesthood.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Bishop, Richard"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"M.A.","degree_level":"Masters Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Gregory Robbins, Ph.D.","Alison Schofield","Ann Dobyns"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2009,"date_issued":"2009-06-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2009-06-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:02:11Z","subjects":["Catholic","Magdalene","Mary","Ordination","Tradition","Women","History of Christianity","Religion","Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
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"],"dc:subject":["Catholic","Magdalene","Mary","Ordination","Tradition","Women","History of Christianity","Religion","Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion"],"dc:title":["Sub-Ordination: Mary Magdalene, the Church, and the Ordination of Women"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.A."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:02:11Z"}