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by Ida Raming, Lit Verlag Münster 2002. ISBN
3-8258-5579-1.
This
very welcome book is an updated and enlarged edition of Ida Raming’s
classic work: “Der Ausschluß der Frau vom priesterlichen Amt,
Böhlau Verlag, Köln 1973.” For those who are not familiar with
the original work, here is, first of all, a brief summary of its valuable
contribution.
Raming’s original book presents a very thorough research on the ordination
of women as it occurred in the Decree of Gratian and other, early, Church law
books. The detail of research provided here has not been equalled since its
original publication in 1973. Raming carefully documents all the passages in
the ancient “Corpus Iuris Canonici” that dealt with the position of
women in the Church. She describes how each of the passages was formulated in
the Decree of Gratian and analyses the sources in earlier Church documents on
which Gratian relied. In each single case, full references are provided to both
the original publications of the ancient texts, and relevant scholarship of our
own day.
Raming also examines how these passages concerning women are further treated in
the early medieval commentaries on Church Law. For this she presents the work
of influential early Church Lawyers such as Paucapalea, Rolandus Bandinelli,
Stephen of Tours, John Faventinus and 15 others. The book presents clear
evidence on the origin of the hostility towards women found in Church Law from
its official codification in the 12th century. The medieval scholars and Church
lawyers who composed the original collection of laws, were adversely influenced
by the Fathers of the Church, by negative decisions in local Church councils
and, perhaps most of all, by their acceptance of the legal principles enshrined
in Roman Law that ascribed a secondary status to women. Since women had very
few rights either in civil society or in their homes, it was natural to assume
that women could not hold any office of responsibility in the Church either.
Joined to all this was a deeply rooted cultural prejudice that considered women
inferior to men and that saw menstruation as a possible source of contamination
by women ministers, of the sacred precincts.
Raming successfully shows how this hostile view of women, once it had been
incorporated in Church Law, could not help but become a major factor in the
exclusion of women from the ministries, in particular from the priesthood.
In
the ‘dogmatic part’ of the original book, Raming discusses in depth
the traditional reasons for excluding women from the ministries, for instance
the opinion that women are not entitled to “represent Christ”. She
shows that the traditional view is untenable, on account of the faulty
interpretation of the scriptural passages involved, the opinions of the Fathers
and the legal presumptions of the medieval canonists. She also raises the
important question of whether women should not now, in the changed
circumstances of our own age, be given the full rights as equal members in the
body of Christ, - rights that have been denied to them unjustly through the
misconceptions of Church leaders in previous centuries.
This
book, as I explained before, was originally published in 1973 and it has
remained a classic ever since, on account of the precious presentation of the
sources and a meticulous discussion of their meaning. However, the book has now
been amplified with a new bibliography, ranging from 1973 to 2001. It also has
a new introduction that places the book within the context of the latest
documents from Rome and the continuing debate in the Catholic Church. Raming
has also added some new material in a final section. It contains a discussion
of the latest arguments brought against the ordination of women by
traditionalists in the Church and sketches the development of women’s
consciousness in the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council.
This
book which has now appeared in German, will shortly appear also in English. It
is an absolute must for anyone who studies the ordination of women from an
academic point of view. For many decades the book was, unfortunately, only
available in a few limited copies. Now it is in our bookshops once more.
Libraries of all major seminaries, theological colleges, adult faith formation
centres and houses of religious formation should acquire a copy while they are
still available.
John Wijngaards
Read also:
- (German) Table of contents of the book
- More information about Ida Raming
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