Reviews
of The Ordination of Women in the Catholic
Church
Reviews in English:
NewWomen, NewChurch (USA)
Spring 2002. “No person should graduate from seminary without reading
this book . . . It should be required reading for everyone training for
priesthood. This book is appropriate for courses in church history,
ecclesiology, and theology of ministry.” Diana Wear.
The FURROW (Ireland) 53
(2002) pp. 316-317. “An easy-to-read book on theology and the history
of theological ideas, very up-to-date in presenting its evidence . . . amazing.
Incontrovertible in its conclusion that there is no sustainable argument in
scripture or tradition against the ordination of women”. Bernadette
Toal.
The Tablet (UK) 27 October
2001, p. 1530. “The author demolishes, in a lucid, lively and
persuasive book, the key arguments against the ordination of women. He leaves
us with the conclusion that the continued ban has no authentic roots in
Christian tradition, but results from the perpetuation of base, pagan
prejudice.” Judith Champ.
Australian Reforming
Catholics (Australia) December 2001, p. 5.
“Systematically, in clear language, with great scholarship, Wijngaards
refutes Rome’s arguments . . . I recommend The Cuckoo’s Egg
warmly!” Jim Taverne.
The Times Literary
Supplement (UK) 11 January 2002, p. 28. “This is a valuable
book, crisply and accessibly written and presented.” Archbishop Rowan
Williams.
Catholic Women’s
Network (UK) no 69, December 2001, pp. 20-21. “Scholarly
and well-documented . . . I would recommend this book both to those who are
already committed to women’s ordination - it will furnish them with clear
and well-supported arguments - and to those who are as yet unconvinced.”
Pat Pinsent.
The Church Times (UK,
Anglican) 24 August 2001. “One of the most potent cases yet made
against a male-only priesthood”. Rupert Shortt.
The Catholic Citizen, (UK)
Spring 2002, pp. 26-28. “Wijngaards provides us with a definitive
status quaestionis . . . The official Church maintains that the matter
has been decided ‘infallibly by the ordinary universal magisterium’.
Wijngaards in a long passage establishes that this is theological nonsense, and
unhappily, can only be regarded as bully-boy tactics.” Bruce
Stewart.
THE EXPOSITORY TIMES (April
2002 p. 247) “An important book which highlights the situation and the
need of women in the Roman Catholic Church for support from their brothers and
sisters in other denominations”. Natalie K. Watson
RRT (April 2002) pp. 184 -
186 “This book serves a valuable purpose in outlining the issues
clearly and passionately. The book will be ideal for use in the classroom or as
a resource for church groups, and any others who wish to explore and discuss
the issues surrounding the question of women's ordination.” Isabel
Wollaston.
ANVIL 19 (2002) no 4, pp. 316 -
317. “This is a fascinating book. Called a 'landmark book' it is
written by a Roman Catholic biblical scholar and church historian who suffers
the displeasure of the hierarchy for his persistent and pursuasive presentation
of the case for ordaining women to the priesthood.” Roy Barker
Renew March 2002 p.
10. “Wijngaards finds the reasons given to the exclusion of women to be
unconvincing and reeking of misogyny. He lists the teachings of the Church
Fathers stating that women were deficient human beings, liable to go, and to
lead others, astray because of their lack of understanding; divinely ordained
to be subject to men, impure because of menstruation and sharing the guilt of
Eve for the Fall. Such things are no longer said openly, but there persists
among some clerics a tendency to downplay or ignore our common humanity and see
us as mysterious aliens, safe only when pigeonholed as virgins or mothers . . .
The book is a meticulously researched and cogently argued account.”
Josephine Way
