Women In The Letters Of Paul

There is long held desire by the Christian church to maintain one, solitary stance on each issue that is presented to them. The dilemma here however, is that the bible as a source of information does not always seem to hold one consistent view. This is even more so an issue when looking at the letters written by the apostle Paul. Paul is known in his writings to have somewhat confusing opinions which are not always clear cut. While on some issues Paul is very clear, such as his opinion on the necessity for circumcision, other issues have been the cause of disagreement among churches and scholars and even sources of heated debate. One of these widely discussed issues is that of the status of women in the church. In analyzing Paul’s letters, particularly the letters to the Galatians and to the Corinthians, scholars and churches alike have come up with widely differing interpretations of how Paul views the status of women. It is important when evaluating this issue to look at all sides of the argument and to analyze the sections which have caused the most heated debate. Among the most crucial things to understand when grasping the letters of Paul is that these are not written as general passages which apply to all of the christian community, but should be put in the context the time at which they are written and the recipients of the letters. Even after analyzing all of these things though, there are still vastly differing views held on the subject and to varying degrees of severity. the result has been an ongoing struggle of churches and individuals to formulate their own stance on the subject and to find a niche which best suits their opinions. Popular opinions held of women’s involvement and status within the church, and particularly how they relate to men can be divided into two categories, egalitarian and

complementarian1. The former view focuses on the equality of men and women in the church while the latter emphasizes the idea