The Importance of Women in the Rise of Christianity

Despite the struggles of modern women in obtaining parity within many Christian denominations, women had a significant role in the development of the early Christian church and the shift from paganism to Christendom in the ancient world. According to Rodney Starks 1995 article, Reconstructing the Rise of Christianity: The Role of Women, women were, in fact instrumental in proselytizing the new religion. In fact, for Stark, women hold one of the keys of explaining how Christianity shifted from a rather small and obscure corner of the Roman Empire to replace classical paganism altogether.

First, because women (compared with pagan religions) had higher status and more influence in the early formulations of Christianity, they were more apt to convert to the new faith. But they did not necessarily marry Christians. In fact, the higher percentage of women in the religion and the social compulsion to marriage often meant that their husbands were non-Christians. Women thus had a great influence from behind the scenes of the family in encouraging acceptance of the new religion.

Stark finds this a far more persuasive and socially and historically supported argument than the idea that mass conversions were the reason for the success of Christianity. One problem in understanding how the Christian religion spread is the fact that so many of its adherents are sincere believers who accept wholeheartedly the accounts in the gospels of mass conversions, and view the acceptance of Christianity as part of Christs miracle in and of itself.

This is highly problematic, however, as it means social science and historical documentation has little to offer in understanding the history of religion. But what can be substantiated outside of the gospel narratives was the fact that the pagan Roman Emperor Valentinian specifically prohibited Christian missionaries calling upon women within their houses (Stark, 1995, p. 231). The fact that the greater status offered to women within the religion was so appealing and the fact that the Emperor saw fit to prohibit contact with women (particularly within the home women men might not be present) is telling.

Men significantly outnumbered women in the Roman Empire at the time, which was another factor. Female infanticide, given the desirability of producing a male heir, was partially responsible for this. Additionally, Stark notes, abortion in the ancient world, far from being liberating for women was often practiced in a manner that was barbaric and deadly, in stark contrast to modern, safe abortions (Stark, 1995, p. 232). By prohibiting both common methods of reducing the...…Even many Romans of the time considered consummating such practices to be cruel.

Although some versus in the epistles of Paul are against the speaking of women in church, there is also evidence in the Pauline epistles that women were community leaders, as well as the stress that all people, regardless of gender, are equal before Christ. The consensus is upon scholars of Christianity that women held positions of honor and authority in the ancient church, before a male hierarchy of leadership became institutionalized (Stark, 1995, p. 239). Once again, this helps explain the appeal of the new religion to women, despite the tendency today to view evangelical Christianity and Roman Catholicism as dogmatic in its view of gender and repressive towards female sexuality.

Finally, the fact that the early Christian patriarchs sanctioned marriage between non-Christians and Christians cannot be underestimated. Men wished to protect their wives (even if the wives were Christian) and the scarcity of women in general (as well as the greater power women had in ancient Rome versus in ancient Athens) enabled women to leverage that power to encourage husbands to convert to Christianity, or to at least tolerate Christian teachings in the household. In short, according to Stark, without women, Christianity simply could not have gained the foothold it eventually had to…