Recognizing women's initiative in the development of Christianity

Women initiated many of the pivotal events and much of the theological doctrine that formed the historical basis of the Christian religion by instigating and supporting the endeavors of historical male figures. Furthermore, the ecclesiastical structure of the Church was shaped by women, in that, on a psycho-spiritual level, the creative-biological functions of their capacities to birth and nurse humanity were ritually and symbolically assumed into the formation of the Church as it developed its identity as the spiritually creative and sustaining body of Christ.;Through a methodology that integrates feminist literary hermeneutics with a cultural analysis of the symbols and values that underlie religious texts, this dissertation focuses on the initiative of women in the early historical phases of Christian formation. From the Hebrew Scriptures, the initiative of Miriam and Zipporah, whose ritual activities and associations indicate that they were priestesses of the ancient goddess of fertility and cosmic regeneration, were cryptically assumed by Moses before he "delivered" the ancient Israelites. In the Christian New Testament, Mary instigated Jesus' ministry by initiating his first miracle at the wedding in Cana. Eventually, as the Virgin Mother of God, Mary's biological ability to give sacred birth was assumed by the Church as it developed into a patriarchal hierarchy.;The early Church directly appropriated its ability to spiritually nurse its followers from the early female Christian martyrs Perpetua and Felicity, who were executed in the arena after graphic accounts of their lactation that was mystically assumed by the male Christian God. In the Christianized Roman Empire, Macrina the Younger established the monastic order and mystical form of prayer that her brothers were credited for, and lent the Church its spiritual identity as a female virgin seeking spiritual union with a male godhead.;Women not only initiated many of the events of Christian history, but they were also instrumental in the formation of the religion to the extent that the power of their natural female biological function was perceived as sacred and appropriated by the men who developed the Christian concepts of God, Jesus, the Church, and the priesthood.