Religion and Theology

Religion is as result of the search for satisfaction and the fulfillment of the vacuumed hearts of many. People have always asked themselves why some things or phenomenon existed. Scientists have also tried to answer the question but to some extent they were not able to give a proper account as to why the fear of the unknown was always overriding the universe. These questions have been left to the different religions to respond to. This is the reason as to why there are the various religions including Christianity.

Christianity entails the commonness of faith on the promotion of moral teachings of a Christ like character and behavior of sanctity in the world. The Christians worship centers are the churches. The church is believed to have developed from a humble beginning to the present widespread faith all over the world almost covering up to 80 of worshipers in a nation. In the church, it is believed that the woman has played a key role in the growth of the Christian faith and the church as a whole. Women are a powerful tool, by virtue of their obedience, through which Christianity has spread since the beginning of the church (Bell, 126).

It is important to first find out the reasons as to why majority of the women in the olden days preferred Christianity to other forms of religion such like the Islamic religion, paganism, idolatry among others.  Even though the women were usually claimed a secondary role in the church since time immemorial, they have a reason for being in the church.  It is thought that women favored Christian worship because of the consolation they obtained from it.

First, the Christian teaching in the New Testament has refuted divorce which had existed in the Jewish worship.  Women were oppressed by this kind of laws and up on the introduction of Christianity they felt recognized and they turned to Christianity in numerous numbers. Another reason as to why women would converts to Christianity is that the religion sought to promote widows, barren, humiliated and condemn polygamy, bestiality, incest, and rape which were and are the most common social problems that surround the women fraternity.

There are women who are believed to have done quite memorable work in the influence of the development of the early church as well as the present church. To start with, the early church started with the birth of Christ who the Christians associate with. The first woman to influence the growth of the church was the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, who by admitting to the role of a mother to the redeemer of the world and taking care of him amidst conflict and threats accomplished her role to its fullest. Virgin Mary was seen at many instances with Jesus in ceremonies like the wedding at Cana in Galilee when she asked for more wine for the celebrants and due to her influence people got to learn more on the kind of the messiah they were dealing with.

Another influential woman in the early church is Anthusa, who lived in Antioch at the period between 330 A.D. and 374 A.D., and widowed at twenty decided not to remarry but take care of her only son and a daughter. She is credited for having brought up the boy in a righteous way advising him on the church moral teachings, which he grew up on. He later became a great preacher of the word of God and a great leader of the early church in the 4th century. The boys name was John Chrysostom who late on grew up to be a priest and later on a Bishop at Constantinople. John acknowledges his mother for her good teachings on the bible virtues and her role model character (Boer, 13). He also became an inspiring priest of the old and encouraged many followers of the church and it is surprising that even the church today uses some of his prayer items that he generated during his service.

According to the Gospel of Luke, 81-3 it is important to note that although the Jewish women had their place in the kitchen, they played a major role in the spreading of the gospel and the development of the early church. For example, Mary Magdalene who is said to have found the tomb open and reported to others that Christ was risen and was no longer among the dead, was one of the followers of Christ. It is true that women were the first to message of resurrection of the crucified Jesus. Other well known women followers of Christ were Sussana and Joanna.

The early church used the woman to spread the gospel. For instance, when one adulterous woman was brought to Jesus to judge her, Jesus gave a moral teaching by the use of the woman as a teaching aid. He asked the Jews to stone her, if they had not sinned and they all left one by one and Jesus forgave her (Hodges, 19). Thus, through her, many people learned the art of forgiveness and self judgment.

Scholars admit that the early church comprised of the majority women followers even though in most cases they were never mentioned because the Christianity was introduced in a male dominated community in terms of leadership. For example, when Jesus fed 5000 men, it is indicated that there were more women and children. Also, St. Paul is seen addressing the issues of women in the church as pertains their need for submissiveness and descent dressing in the church (Green, 42).  Some of the women had taken leadership roles in the early church because it is said that brethren shared duties and responsibilities depending on their talents and abilities not according to gender disparities.
The early church however, was full of controversy, in leadership positions for women in the church. Women would not be allowed to baptize, preach, or minister openly in the church because it was believed that they were weak and incapable of leadership. This trend changed with time, until at some time when women were allowed to form religious groups like the nuns or other small prayer groups but still they would not be allowed to take an active role in making important decisions of the church (Donald, 32).

Women assisted in the proclamation and the spread of the gospel through the acts of hospitality.  For instance, Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus who was raised by Jesus amidst their desperation Martha paid hospitality by preparing a meal in the kitchen while Jesus preached and Mary listened to his word. However, Jesus commended Mary for listening to the word of God rather than the hospitality by Martha.

The Holy bible, in Acts 219, states that Phillip had four unmarried virgin daughters who were prophetesses. This is a clear indicator of the leadership roles that the women of the early church assumed (Zagano, 55)they would play an intervention role as well as prophetic role in the church. More is emphasized by St. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians 115, when he tells the women to cover their heads when they pray or make prophecies because they would disowner their heads by not covering them.

Also in Luke 236, it is said that Phanuels daughter, Anna was a prophetess and had only lived with her spouse for seven years after marriage. The Cenchreaean church acknowledges the deaconess Phoebe, who offered service to the church with dignity and admiration. The Samaritan woman is not to be left behind after spreading the gospel of the God given messiah who revealed all the actions that she had done. The Samaritan woman had been asked for some water by Jesus from the well of Jacob while Jesus had the intention of teaching the importance of the everlasting life that he would offer rather than the short-lived life that was offered by natural water that the people took (Donovan, 7).

This woman was used as a sign of unity between the Samaritans and neighboring other communities.
Finally, it is worth noting that all was not well with the women in the early church because they needed to work extremely hard if their efforts were to be recognized in the church. Most of their roles were performed under restrictions due to the cultural influences of the communities within which majority of the early Christians lived. It is good that most of the men who lead the church were mentored by their mothers to follow the way of Christ.