In the previous post concerning priestesses in the Church, I discussed the biblical idea of headship. Now I am sure that many people reading that post find it difficult to talk about ideas like “headship.” After all in modern debate headship has connotations of sexism and male domination. Yet as I argued in my previous post headship is terribly important to the Biblical-narrative of salvation history. For if we reject the idea of headship it is hard to imagine how women and even creation itself can be saved. This is the irony of the current debate, once you do away with headship for fear of ostracizing, belittling, and marginalizing women; you have all but made it impossible for women to be saved.
Now there are a few options out there if one were to reject the idea of headship. First, one would have to say that Jesus was not necessarily a man, but rather he was accidentally a man. And if one rejects that man can represent women as headship implies, then one must conclude that since Jesus was a man that God the Father only wanted to save men. Many Gnostic groups in the early church believed and taught such a doctrine, but my guess is that many who advocate for women priests would strongly disagree. There is a way around that problem, at least from the perspective of the author who wrote the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, which the Gospel of Thomas actually says the God will turn all women into men in the end so that they might be saved. However, I think that this too would be problematic for those seeking egalitarianism in the episcopacy. Though it is curious that those who want female priests do in fact refer to them in the masculine “priest” versus the feminine “priestess.” It is as if those who argue most vehemently for the inclusion of women to the priesthood (including women who argue this position) do in fact want to maintain the masculinity of the priesthood.
One is left with the question if one were to reject headship: how could Jesus save women? Can they be saved? It almost seems hopeless, but there is one way for one to reject headship and still believe that women themselves are not only saved but also welcomed into the priesthood. In modern feminist and liberal theologies one can find the early Gnostic doctrine that Adam prior to the creation of Eve was in fact a hermaphrodite. Thus, when God created the “Man” Adam, he in fact contained both sexes. All one has to do following that line of thought is remind people that Jesus is the second Adam and speculate that He was a hermaphrodite and therefore restored males and females to their rightful place. The problem, besides the lack of Biblical or Traditional support, is once again very few people advocating female priests would want to presuppose such a thing.
In the end, the acceptance of female priests comes only at the denial of the historic, theological, sacramental, and biblical view of headship. And this headship is not just about the role of men in our society, as advocates for women priests argue, but also about the headship of Jesus in relation to the Church and to the World. To deny one is to deny the other. In some way I hope that I have given, albeit briefly, the theological implications of female clergy and why Catholics must stand against such innovations. For such innovations not only affect the future but also the past.