The landmark work Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood has a gem of a chapter tracing the history of women in various ministries throughout church history. For a short essay, it covers a lot of ground. The author is William Weinrich, and the title is “Women in the History of the Church: Learned and Holy, but Not Pastors.” Weinrich’s thesis is simply that women have exercised significant and important ministries throughout the church’s history. Nevertheless, those ministries did not include the office of pastor. Weinrich summarizes:
Women have done almost everything men have, and have done it just as well. The significant exception to that generalization is that, until the very recent past, the “office” of teaching and of the sacramental ministry, with the jurisdictional powers this implies, has been reserved for men. Of course, there have been historical anomalies, and there have been sects and peripheral groups that accepted women preachers who may also…
