Female Pastoral Leaders as Caregivers

There is evidence in the biblical and historical record that women--even, or especially, marginalized women--have been accepted and valued as religious ministers. Structuring the highest ministerial and clerical offices along patriarchal lines was an innovation of Western ecclesiastical history. McKenzie cites accounts of female spiritual leadership that appear in both the Old and New Testaments, though she explains that, as a product of a patriarchal culture whose values were largely uninterrogated well into the modern period, "the Bible has been antagonistic to modern female identity" (55).

But the Bible reveals more about female spiritual potential than traditional interpreters may think. With examples of such role models as Deborah, Naomi, and Miriam in the Old Testament and Mary, Mary Magdalen, and Phoebe in the New, McKenzie develops the idea that contemporary women can strengthen th

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Approximate Word count = 884
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page)