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The question of whether or not women should be ordained set apart for religious leadership and/or to administrate certain religious rites has been present within Christian and Jewish groups since early in U.S. history. Women are regularly ordained within some religious groups. Others restrict ordination to men. Others continue to debate the question.

Though U.S. Protestants did not first ordain women until the 1800s, women had for a long time prior to that been religious leaders both in their churches and in the public square. Perhaps one of the most famous examples of this is found in the story of Anne Hutchinson, who in the 1630s in Massachusetts challenged male authorities by holding meetings with women to discuss her pastor’s sermons. Her actions led to a trial, a conviction, and banishment to Rhode Island. While many women during this era exercised religious leadership, it was not until the mid-1800s that a woman was formally ordained to Christian leadership. Congregationalist Antoinette Brown was ordained in 1853 when she was called to become pastor of a church in New York. Unitarian Universalist leader, Olympia Brown, was ordained about a decade later, in 1863, and AME Zion minister, Mary Jane Small, was ordained in 1898. These ordinations of women and others that followed are indicative of significant changes that occurred in the mid-1800s and early 1900s in the roles of women in religious and public life. These changes were not without controversy as exemplified by the contentious debates that emerged as some groups supported and others vehemently opposed the ordination of women.

The theologies and/or polities of some Christian groups and denominations afforded women early access to ordination. For example, the Quakers’ insistence that all people are equal before God provided support for those who sought gender equity in churches and society; as a result, though Quakers did not formally ordain anyone to ministry in favor of “recording ministers,” they did acknowledge women as authoritative preachers. The group known as the Shakers that emerged in the 18th century not only sprung up under leadership of a woman, Ann Lee, but also believed that Jesus would return to earth as a woman. Northern Baptists (later known as American Baptists) likewise demonstrated early support of women as preachers by supporting the ordination of Edith Hill in 1897, setting the stage for a continuation of the practice within that Baptist group. Also, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many Holiness and Pentecostal groups regularly ordained women.

In addition to these “pioneers” in the movement are other traditions, including Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and the United Church of Christ, who in the twentieth century engendered and then formalized support for the ordination women. These traditions often faced inner conflicts over the question of ordaining women. In the late 1960s, for example, three Lutheran bodies (the Lutheran Church in America, the American Lutheran Church, and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod), held a consultation on the ordination of women but were unable to reach a consensus. Both the Lutheran Church in America and the American Lutheran Church eventually approved the ordination of women. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod experienced significant upheaval over the issue and over other issues having to do with scriptural authority and interpretation. The conflict resulted in the formation of a new denomination, the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, formed in 1987 by a merger of the Lutheran Church in America, the American Lutheran Church, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church, from its inception ordained both women and men. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod continues to limit ordination to men.

Other Christian groups, for example, many Baptists and the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, have consistently opposed the ordination of women. Many Baptist groups and congregations also deny women ordination, though Baptist polity allows for each local church to determine its own belief and practice. In 1964, Addie Davis became the first Southern Baptist woman to be ordained. In the early 1980s, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) passed a resolution stating that offices requiring ordination are restricted to men. Supporters of this resolution point to sections of a denominational statement of beliefs, The Baptist Faith and Message, that states the following: “[The church’s] scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture” (The Baptist Faith and Message, 2000). While this is an official SBC stance, neither denominational resolutions nor Baptist Faith and Message statements are binding upon local congregations. Thus, decisions about ordaining women finally reside with each SBC church.

Groups who oppose women’s ordination do so primarily on the basis of their interpretations of biblical texts. Arguments include, generally, the perspectives that the New Testament does not report the existence of any women pastors, that pastors who represent the people before God should, like Christ, be male, that New Testament guidelines for church order do not include instructions that specify women, and that some New Testament texts forbid women to be pastors or have roles of authority over men (i.e. I Timothy 2:11-12).

Those who support women’s ordination also voice arguments based on biblical interpretation. For example, evidence exist in Old and New Testament texts of times when women exercised leadership over both males and females; and Paul stated clearly in Galatians 3:27-28 a theology of gender equity (“aˆ¦there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus”). A number of biblical scholars and theologians, including feminist scholars, have emphasized biblical examples of women’s leadership and gender equity. Some Hebrew Bible scholars argue on the basis of their reading of Genesis 1 and 2 that both genders are created equally in God’s image. Protestant supporters include in their arguments the traditional Protestant emphasis on the priesthood of all believers.

The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have witnessed a resurgence of the debate over women’s ordination. By the end of the twentieth century, many Protestant and Jewish groups accepted women in the role of pastoral leader or rabbi. Some groups, however, continued to oppose women’s ordination and for some of those groups the debate has intensified. The 2000 revision of the Baptist Faith and Message, cited above, has reignited and intensified the debate amongst Baptists as proponents of ordination argue that the 2000 language about women leaders is anti-woman and opponents insist that the revision only underscores a biblical mandate that while women and men are of equal value, the role of pastor is restricted to men. The 1963 Baptist Faith and Message, which the 2000 version revises, does not include a statement limiting the pastoral office to men. Moderate Baptist groups such as the Alliance of Baptists, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and the American Baptist Churches, U.S.A. take a more proactive and supportive stance toward ordaining women.

In recent decades, the debate has also intensified within the Roman Catholic tradition. Throughout the 1970s, Roman Catholics debated whether or not the priesthood should be open to women. A final ruling on this question was published in the Vatican’s 1976 “Declaration on the Question of the Admission Women to the Ministerial Priesthood”; the Declaration stated that “the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith judges it necessary to recall that the Church, in fidelity to the example of the Lord, does not consider herself authorized to admit women to priestly ordination.” Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, support nevertheless grew for the ordination of women to the Roman Catholic priesthood. Early in the 1990s, Vatican leaders began to take actions they hoped would quiet public support for women’s ordination. These actions included pronouncements against ordaining women as well as disciplinary actions against individuals who advocated openly for women’s ordination. Pope John Paul II issued a statement in 1994 underscoring the teaching of the 1976 Declaration and further stating that the teaching was not open to debate. The 1990s also saw debate sparked within the ranks of those Roman Catholics who supported women’s ordination. Notably, feminist biblical scholar Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza argued at a 1995 Women’s Ordination Conference that women should aim not for ordination but rather for a “discipleship of equals” that resisted the overwhelming patriarchy of the Roman Catholic Church (Schussler Fiorenza, 1983). Others at the conference maintained a stance in favor of women’s ordination. In the initial decades of the twenty-first century, the debate over women’s ordination continues within the Roman Catholic Church.

The issue of women’s ordination has also stirred controversy within Jewish communities. The question was first posed in 1889 by Mary M. Cohen in Jewish Exponent: “Could not our women be ministers?” (Nadell, 1988, 1). In 1972, many years after the publication of this question, the Sally Jane Priesand became the first female rabbi within Reform Judaism in the U.S. Amy Eilberg in 1985 became the first woman received into the rabbinate within Conservative Judaism. To date, no women have become rabbis within Orthodox Judaism, though debate over the question continues within that Jewish sector.

Other religious groups in the U.S. also debate what roles women can hold. For example, a controversy currently exists among Muslims over to what extent women can act as imams; most agree that while women can lead a gathering of women in prayer, women cannot lead a mixed gender group in prayer. Jehovah’s Witnesses consider all persons “ordained” upon public baptism. Women are commonly appointed as full time ministers in order to evangelize or to serve as missionaries. However, the roles of deacon and elder as well as the authority to perform baptisms, funerals or weddings are restricted to male Witnesses. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints does not ordain women but the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints adopted the practice in 1984.

Several organizations have emerged over time to support women clergy. One of the earliest was the Woman’s Ministerial Conference, founded in 1893 in Boston, Massachusetts. The International Association of Women Preachers was founded in 1919 by M. Madeline Southard, a Methodist minister from Kansas. Both of these groups supported women who believed they had a call to preach and advocated publicly for women in religious leadership. The Women Church movement, which began in the U.S. in the 1970s primarily to support Roman Catholic women who sought ordination, has kept alive ecumenical dialogue about the ordination of women as well as about other ecclesial and societal issues that impact the lives of women.

–Jill Crainshaw

See also Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Feminism, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Southern Baptist Convention, Women-Church Movement.

Sources

Keller, Rosemary Skinner, and Rosemary Radford Ruether, eds. Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.

Keller, Rosemary Skinner, and Rosemary Radford Ruether, eds. In Our Own Voices: Four Centuries of Women’s Religious Writing. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1995.

Nadall, Pamela. Women Who Would Be Rabbis: A History of Women’s Ordination, 1889-1995. Boston: Beacon Press, 1988.

Reid, Daniel G., ed. Dictionary of Christianity in America. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1990.

Schussler Fiorenza, Elisabeth. Discipleship of Equals: A Critical Feminist Ekklesialogy of Liberation. New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1983.

The three Abrahamic Religions do have some things in common, such as the belief that there is only one God, but they have some differences too. Beliefs in profits, beliefs in who is the real God and things such as those make their religions different.

A first major difference between the religions is the book they study and follow and how they treat this book. The Islam’s have a book they call the Qur’an. The Jewish population has a book called the Talmud, and the Christianity religion has a book name The Bible. What are the differences in these books? Well first of all, they all treat them differently. The Islam’s never put the Qur’an below themselves. They think of this as if they were saying, I’m higher than God, and I’m more important than him. They also take very good care of it. When they aren’t using it they have it wrapped up inside of a cloth and set it on a high shelf. Also, no one else can touch their Qur’an without permission from an Islamic believer. “The Qur’an itself states that only those who are clean and pure should touch the sacred text.” About.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2013. . The Jewish population studies a book called the Talmud. They read over this book, memorize it, and sometimes go into major detail of what something in it means. “The Talmud is made up of six sections, called Sedarim (orders). Each Seder contains several books called mesachot or ‘tracts’ (singular: mesachet).” “The Talmud.” Bje.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2013. . There are eleven mesachot in the Talmud. Each of them deals with many of the different Jewish laws. Lastly, there are the Christians, who study The Bible. The Bible to Christians is like a book full of different ways to live your life. Most people don’t treat their bible like a special sacred book. People toss them around, lay in on their nightstand next to their beds, and other things such as that. The Bible has many different sections, some of these sections are in the Old Testament, and some are in the New Testament. Within these sections, there are many, many chapters, and within the chapters there are verses. For instance, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” -Philippians 4:13. Philippians is the section, 4 is the chapter, and 13 is the verse. As you can see, these books are all very different within each religion. They study them differently, treat them differently, and the text within them is very different.

They also have different beliefs in the coming of God and who Jesus was. The Jewish religion believes that the messiah has yet to come, whereas Christianity and Islam believe than Jesus was the messiah. The Jewish believe that messiah will come later in life and they will be taken with him. The Christians and Islam’s believe at the second coming of Jesus, Jesus will leave the Jewish people behind and only take true believers as to let the Jews accept the fact that this is the second coming of the messiah, then he shall later come back and bring the Jewish people with him. The places where the three religions think they will be taken after Jesus takes them with him are all different also. The Islam’s think they are going to an “eternal paradise”. Jews believe one of two things, either they are going to heaven, or they think there is no afterlife. Lastly, Christians believe they will have an “eternal heaven”. They also have a specific view on a bad afterlife. Islam’s and Christians both think they will go to “eternal hell” whereas Jews think they will go to “either eternal Gehenna, reincarnation, or no afterlife.” They also have different outlooks on the birth and death of Jesus. Christians and Islam’s believe Jesus was born from a virgin birth, meaning Mary just randomly by Gods will had a child she was to name Jesus. The Jewish people on the other hand think Jesus came by a normal birth, saying that Mary and Joseph had a child together. Then there’s the death of Jesus, which they don’t agree on either. Islam’s believe that Jesus “did not die but ascended into heaven during crucifixion.” The Jewish and Christians populations believe that he died by crucifixion. “Comparison of Islam, Judaism and Christianity.” Religionfacts.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2013. .

Then each religion has an outlook upon the other two religions. The Islam has something to say about Jews and Christians, Christians have something to say about Jews and Islam’s, and Jews have something to say about Christians and Islam’s. The Islamic people think that “Jews and Christians are respected as ‘People of the Book,’ but they have wrong beliefs and only partial revelation.” This means that Islamic people think that the other two religions are respectable by what the Qur’an says, but they think that the beliefs of these people are wrong. Jewish people think that both “Islam and Christianity are false interpretations and extensions of Judaism.” This means that the Jews think that Islam’s and Christians are completely wrong in what they do and that they are not following or believing what they actually should. The y think that the other two religions should do exactly what the Jewish people do and then they would be following what they need to be. Then there is Christianity. They think that “Judaism is a true religion, but with incomplete revelation.” Christians believe that Jewish people are right in what they believe in, but they don’t think they have full grasp of everything they need to believe in. They also think that “Islam is a false religion.” Christians believe that Islam’s are wrong in everything they do and what they are doing is completely wrong. They are against anything Islamic people do, and would never partake in any of it. “Comparison of Islam, Judaism and Christianity.” Religionfacts.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2013. .

Not everyone in this world can believe the same things, do the same things, or even partake in the same activities, but that doesn’t mean they can’t sometimes get along. These three religions don’t hate each other, they just don’t always necessarily agree with one another. It’s like they are siblings fighting over where to go out to eat. One of them wants seafood, one wants barbecue, and the other wants Italian. Christians want Jesus to come take them away so they can go live an eternal life in heaven, Islam’s want their God to come save them so they can have an eternal life in paradise, and the Jewish people want Jesus to have his first coming and save them. They all have disagreements on what’s right and what’s wrong, but they can sometimes get along. For instance, they all believe in one God and worshiping that one God. They all believe that there should be a certain day on which they worship, even though these days are not the same. They all believe in a hell and demons along with angels. They all have a special book of their own that they study, and in that book is the word of that religions God. So you see, they may have many, many differences as the three Abrahamic Religions, but they do have some things in common that they agree about also.

About.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2013. .

“The Talmud.” Bje.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2013. .

“Comparison of Islam, Judaism and Christianity.” Religionfacts.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2013. .

In 1 Corinthians 13 verses 1-3 we are told that, even if we were given to give all the possessions to feed the poor unless we love have love we are nothing and have gained nothing. Even if we give our bodies to be burned, its profits us nothing without love. Every area of service to others is sacrificial. It entails the use of money, time, energy and perhaps even the loosing of life itself. Paul was so motivated by love that he she could wish himself accursed for the sake of his fellow Israelites.

Suffering in the Christian Life

One of the most widespread ideas in our land today about the Christian suffering is that we should be able to change people by our activities. The thinking is apparently this if young people are given the right upbringing, in good homes, as members of the good church, then all will be well. They will grow up to be good people. And we must agree that a good upbringing is a tremendous start in life in dealing the suffering.

But the problem with that idea of the Church activities is that often does not work out in practice. In spite of the entire fine teaching they have had, they have gone right off the rails in time of suffering and trails. Our Christian faith involves far more than the good church activities, however commendable those activities might be. The very different misunderstanding about Christianity faith, is that you can escape from the evil bias inside you which makes you break the rules and disregard God’s commandments, by retreating into a safe hiding – place.

I know what immediately springs to mind. Some think at once of the monks in their monasteries. Alright, I agree that monasteries were invented to try and escape from the moral pollution and temptations of the world. The heart of the problem is the problem of our hearts, your heart and my heart. And this why Paul writes, Be strong in the Lord, and his mighty power. You and I do need something else, we need a dynamic extra in our lives to face the suffering in our Christian life.

The Reality of Suffering as the Christians Respond

The letter to the Ephesians is like that. There is no need to try and guess what Paul means by God’s mighty power. If you read through the letter you will find God’s mighty power looking out at you from the words again and again. There are two extremes which you and I must avoid. On the other hand, there are people who say that to be a strong Christian, to be strong in the Lord; you must simply have a positive attitude to life. Then you will be strong in the Lord but that leaves out God completely. Plenty of people take that line. Many of them are fine people and live reasonably good lives. But god power does not feature in their living. They may be being strong but they are not being strong in the lord, and in his mighty power. If you have certain experience of the Holy Spirit, then you will find you can overcome all your problems. God will fight the battle for you. Just hand yourself over to him, and all will be well. The bible never tells us that life will be easy if we hand ourselves over to God, or that all battles will be won without our exerting ourselves. How much is my strength, my will power, my effort, in me fighting wrong, and how much it is God’s might, in my fight against wrong? If we answer, the Lord Jesus Christ was both man and God. He was perfectly human, and yet truly divine. His two nature blended in such a way that those who spoke with Christ were speaking with a real man, yet those who came and knelt before him were kneeling before the Lord God. Christian in order to be strong in the Lord , have to realise that two natures are going to be at work in them. On the other hand we have to exert our human all our human power to resist evil and to follow Christ. On the other hand, we can only do this because the divine spirit is at work in us. The human and the divine blend together mysteriously in all we do when we are Christians.

The Need for Perspective

Paul commanded here to be stronger and to be stronger in the Lord. There is one more thing we must notice before we moved on to being equipped with the armour of God in time of suffering. If we are not growing spiritually stronger, then we must be dead spirituality. Stronger in Christ at home, work or at college, stronger in him at the church, stronger in him in your street. This will make stronger in our Christian faith when we face the suffering on this earth. This faith in our suffering will surely advance if more of us were growing stronger in the Lord, both in our activities within the church and in our living outside it.

The people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits. When you and I know God and remember that in order to understand what it means to be strong in the Lord we began in Ephesians 1, nothing the acts of God, Father, on and Holy Spirit, on our behalf, – when we know our God, that we cannot help but be encouraged and so grow stronger in the Lord.

The Lord encouragement is the great gift. In the dark days of the last war, when everything seemed lost, Churchill would speak on the radio, and the sound of his voice would put heart into the whole nation. Nothing has changed. The outlook was still desperate. But just Churchill speaking brought encouragement. How much more about God speaks those who know God shall be strong and do great exploits. We must grow stronger by feeding upon Christ. By exercising, that is, by constantly using his Holy Word. and by encouraging ourselves in God. That is how his mighty power will increase in us as we give him everything we have, holding nothing back. Paul is about to unfold to us the secret of victory in the battle against evil powers. Some churches think they have succeeded just by staying open for another year. But victory is when we face all Satan powers, and we are not bowed, but stand firm. To do that, we actually need more than only to be strong in the Lord, and his mighty power. We need protection because at our very strongest, you and I are weak. Satan knows all our weak points, even when we are strong. And even the strongest man and women needs to put on the whole armour of God. Think of many great Old Testament characters such as Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samson, David, Elijah. At some point in their lives they all failed and fell, with consequent pain and suffering to themselves and many others. Every one of them, though they were truly might men.

Suffering of Theology in the Church of Oprah Winfrey

Ms Winfrey’s used of her Christian heritage in defining suffering. In one of her show time might be something of a false teaching. She said about suffering that her theology of self- help experts believes that suffering being beneficial. She turned the black’s church ethos into the exaltation of suffering itself into the face of suffering. According to her “by making all experiences of suffering into occasion to improve oneself” which she means that suffering can be a desirable experience. Her teachings suggest that strong women by their own will and of therapy transcend failure. As her teaching suggested that the people are the only themselves to blame for tier own misery

Conclusion.

The picture is of someone who is strong in the Lord, joyful, true and faithful to the saviour. There may be a strong Christian, but without the full armour of God, he is in mortal danger, for all his courage and joy in Christ. The bible warns us that the devil goes about like a roaring lion, ready to devour the unwary, unguarded Christian (1 Peter 5:8). Lovely Christian people serving Christ enthusiastically, but suddenly knocked on the back of the head with one swipe of the devil’s horny hand, and so sent reeling, crashing to the ground. Put on the full armour of God. Paul repeats it in verse13: Therefore put the full armour of God. Without it, we will most certainly fall. But with it, by God’s grace, we can stand firm. God’s will for us is that we should be more than conquerors, victorious in the fight so he may help us all. And here is perhaps the most encouraging truth of all. When we put the armour of God that is completely honesty, righteousness that is holy living, peace that is the testimony of changed lives. His great strength is with us as the attack begins and in this fight , he never leaves our side, but is always there. That is why we can be victorious and withstand in the evil day. That must be our aim to stand our ground , and after we have done all to stand.

I personally believe that suffering in Christian living is important as it makes our own faith and walk closer with God. It just remind that someone there where we can trust where we can share our suffering as we going through. Suffering reminds us about the God own love, how he has gone through when he was on this earth. As the bible talks that those who follow Christ, has to suffer temporary then the reward is in heaven when we pass this earthy life. It just reminds our own life and even our own faith, how much we are closer to our saviour. I personally believe that the follower of Christ who are not suffering in this world should ask question within themselves are they really following Christ or just n name sake. Suffering bring the true glory to Christ as it reminds us about the love of Christ on the cross which he has paid for our sins.

Faithful Christians all around the globe believe in the same story that is presented in the book of Genesis in the Holy Bible; The Story of Adam and Eve. This story supports the creation of the first two humans to walk on earth and why we have the ability to sin. Not everyone believes this though, throughout the years there have been many different interpretations of the Adam and Eve story. The main types of differences in interpretations are: some people believe in the story, some think the story has no value, and some think there is another meaning to the story instead of the one we all describe now. With this taken into consideration, there are many interpretations of the story of Adam and Eve in Christianity that gives different insight to the story.

Starting with the creation of this story, it is located in the book of Genesis. The story was created by the Samarians who passed it down to the Babylonians. The story states that there were two humans, Adam and Eve, who were created by God. God first created Adam. One day Adam told God he was lonely and wanted a companion. God then created animals to keep Adam company to take care of them. Adam again said he was still feeling lonely, so God took one of Adams ribs to create Eve. They were told to live in a garden called The Garden of Eden. This was a beautiful garden where everything was supplied for them to live and prosper. God had one rule only for them, to not eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge, if they did there would be serious consequences. As Adam and Eve explore their new home Eve finds a serpent in the tree of knowledge, this serpent represents the devil. The serpent convinces Eve to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. Eve could have thought it was careless fun and nothing bad would come of it. “Giving into temptation may be fun at first, but the consequences are never worth it.”(Campus Life,2001)Suddenly Eve starts to see the consequences of her action. Adam and Eve do not know they are naked at this time, but Eve soon realizes Adam and she are naked. She convinces Adam to eat the fruit with her and they both now have disobeyed God. God returns and finds Adam and Eve hiding in a bush. He asks them why they are hiding from him. Adam and Eve reply they are naked and need to cover themselves. God knows that they had eaten from the forbidden tree. God punished them by having each child born from Adam and Eve to be born with original sin. God also had them banished from The Garden of Eden and to live among the animals. This story has been around for thousands of years, meaning there are plenty of ways to interpret this tale. This shows that “What we have sought to affirm through the centuries in pointing to the GenesisA storyA is human solidarity.”(Arraj & Tumulty, pp.21)

The literal interpretation of the story is one the most believed and most taught around the world. It states many things, first it says God created Adam and Eve in his own image. This is self explanatory since it is stated almost exactly like that in the text. As God takes the rib from Eve it shows that they will be joined together forever as God creates Eve in his own image. Once Eve was created she was considered the mother of all things living and Adam was considered the father. Basically, the story is saying they started all of humanity. Another literal meaning from the story is that Eve was deceived by the serpent who was the devil. This showed that the devil is always trying to tempt us to go his way instead of towards God. As we Christians move away from doing good works they are reenacting when Eve took the forbidden fruit. Once this was discovered God banished the devil from the Garden of Eden, therefore overcoming the serpent. In the end Jesus came and saved the Christians from sin by overcoming the “serpent”.This interpretation of the story is what people get from the text without going into greater detail of the meaning through the eyes of a faithful Christian.

Some argue that the stories in the Bible are just for spiritual growth and comfort. Regarding the story of Adam and Eve, there are multiple signs that give people spiritual comfort. With the creation of Adam and Eve we were created in the image of God, showing that we are all equal and beautiful in the eyes of God. To show God our thanks Christians worship him in church, which also has come from God. Just like Adam, God , figuratively speaking, took one of his ribs and created a church. Which is now church considered God’s home, or the Mother of Spirits, and was built for our spirits to be forgiven. This directly relates to Eve who is the mother of mankind. As she was deceived by the devil so was the church. This made it harder for the Church to be spiritually reborn. Then Jesus arrived and overcame the devil and the church was reborn. This meaning is what is suppose to be taken from the story according to the Bible. “The Bible warns us not to be literalistic. “We should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.” (Romans 7:6)” (“What The Bible Says About…”) Everything from the Bible is spiritual and good lessons of ways to live life.

Spiritual and literal interpretations of the story of Adam and Eve both have valid points. Each gives a background taught to Christians around the world. One type of interpretation we don’t hear often is how this story could be a story commemorating the two people who formed their first society. “It seems Adam and Eve story in Garden of Eden could be an actual and normal event, and not the Creation story of Adam and Eve as the first couple on the surface of the earth, but rather the first couple who founded a tribe which their decedents were remembering them.”(Gollestani, The Truth Shall) This makes sense, showing that Adam and Eve could have been nomads wandering until they found the perfect spot to develop a community. With a community comes rules and regulations. God could have been a nomadic leader or king that set the first ground rules of civilization. For example, no killing, no stealing, and a judgment before a prosecution must be held. Now the story of Adam and Eve was found manly from Mesopotamian tablets and the holy Bible. So the Mesopotamian people could have been the ones telling a story to show there thanks to Adam and Eve for the creation of their community. These show that this story could have actually been to thank the creators of a nation instead of having a true moral meaning.

With science being one of the biggest phenomenon’s of the modern day, it helps us decide what is possible and what is not possible. Can science overtake the way people believe in religions today? Many scientists do believe this and even have a say in the story of Adam and Eve. As already known, people who are strict believers in only scientific means think that the world was created by the big bang theory and everything evolved from evolution. This is already against popular belief of most people in the world, since Christianity is believed by 2.1 billion people. Adam and Eve were created by God, in the image of God, and to start all mankind stated by Christian beliefs. As stated in an article by Christianity Today, ” Reports claim of recent genetic research that the human race did not emerge from pre-human animals as a single pair, as an “Adam” and an “Eve.” The complexity of the human genome, we are told, requires an original population of around 10,000.”(Christianity Today, pp.61) This interpretation has no belief of religion or faith just the justification of science. It’s hard not to believe in facts that have been scientifically proven. People have started to believe more and more in science and religion that they even started a new one called Scientology. Scientology believes in pure scientific means of religious beliefs.

All Christians and other religions that believe in God, whole heartedly believe God is everything and would never do anything to harm us. In this interpretation of the Adam and Eve story , it seems that God setup Adam and Eve. The part of the story where God is explaining to Adam and Eve that they are not allowed to eat from the tree of knowledge, it makes it seem as if God wants them to eat from it. “He plants this special tree in the middle of the gardenaa‚¬”on display.”(Emerging Truths, 2011) It shows that God says not to eat from it but in reality he really wants Adam and Eve to eat from it. There is a point as stated by Emerging Truths that says God “winked” at the reader saying watch they will eat it right now. Continuing the story, the serpent was thrown in there to have someone tempt Eve into eating from the tree, if the serpent was not in the story then the curiosity of Adam and Eve would have gotten the better of them and they still would have eaten from the tree. Even though it is somewhat bizarre to hear that God was trying to purposely trick Adam and Eve into eating the fruit, it is another way to view a legendary story with many interpretations.

The story of Adam and Eve will stay alive for as long as this earth is still spinning. As one of the cornerstones of the human race, it is hard to forget something like that. Five interpretations for this story are very little compared to the amount of information and opinions out there. The truth of the matter is we will never know what the true meaning of this story was. It is good to have different views on the story so everyone can use it for self improvement and entertainment. The people who created it have a meaning and it is up to us to take it how we want. As the Bible stated, do not take the stories literally. The story of Adam and Eve will always be around to interpret by generations to come.

Spirituality is an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality. The essence of spirituality is the search to know our true selves, to discover the real nature of consciousness. In other words, it is a constant discovery of the incredible, our real self, and a quest of our true being, why we are, who we are and where we belong. This has been a part of the eternal quest of man from times immemorial. These questions have been answered differently by many but are subject to one’s own belief interpretation and perception.

Sri Aurobindo in “Indian Spirituality and Life (1919)”says “Man does not arrive immediately at the highest inner elevation and if it were demanded of him at once, he would never arrive there. At first he needs lower supports and stages of ascent, he asks for some line of thought, dogma, worship, image, sign, and symbols, some indulgence and permission of mixed half natural motive on which he can stand while he builds up in him the temple of spirit.”(Sri Aurobindo, Indian Spirituality and Life, 1919) Man’s quest of truth, reality and peace has been unending. Overawed with the infinite nature, whatever he could not comprehend he attributed that to the glory of nature. Man’s intellect cannot accept anything that is unknown, unseen and has no fixed shape or form. Thus to satisfy his intellectual curiosity man gave physical form to the divine being.

Spirituality is our attempt to become aware of our spirit. “Spiritual architecture’ refers to any building system that facilitates this awareness. It is, an act of highlighting or bringing forth the self, not by rejecting matter but by manifesting it in matter, at various levels and in multiple forms. E.V. Walter in Placeways, defines spiritual space as aˆ¦ “a specific environment of phenomena that are expected to support the imagination, nourish spiritual experience, and convey spiritual truth” (Walter,E.V., Placeways: A Theory of the Human Environment, 75).

Spiritual spaces can be found in nature or they can be a constructed space. A spiritual space found in nature is a place designated by individuals or groups as such a place. It is a distinct space, a place whose character sets it apart from its surroundings. They are distinct from typical or commonly found places. The designation of a place as spiritual comes from the human need to establish a connection with inner truth. A place that is spiritual to one person or group of people may not be spiritual to others.

Architecture of a space can invoke all the senses, help one concentrate one’s positive energies to calm a disturbed mind and take a peaceful stable mind beyond the physical. It is an inevitable part of life. It attempts to reflect man’s source and the reason of being in several varied ways. Architecture is more than mere physical shelter or symbolic artefacts. They are catalyst towards our “dwelling”, between our being and the world. Architecture, together with the other arts, has, since time immemorial, been one of the most powerful means to pursue and realize this quest and give it physical-symbolic expression: how to create an identity and a place for our being from within the vast, shapeless and infinite extent of time and space; how to affirm our presences and gain a foothold, in the universe. (Gunter Dittmar, Upon the Earth, Beneath the Sky: The Architecture of Being, Dwelling & Building, 2001)

Successful architectural expression is one, which is able to do both; provide an enriching experience and an unforgettable image. It becomes more important while expressing spirituality in material to provide for an experience of, both the form and the formless, one perceptible by the senses and other beyond senses.

Since sacred spaces are separate from everyday places in a designated precinct, value is placed on the journey and arriving at the sacred place. The path and the ritual journey are part of the sacred experience.

It is a universal goal of mankind to seek or to create spiritual spaces. What is a spiritual space, and what are the qualities which describe that space? What defines spirituality and the space it makes and how does this form relate to us today?

RESEARCH QUESTION

What are the attributes of spiritual spaces?

1.2 NEED FOR JUSTIFICATION

The current crisis of environmental degradation is also a crisis of places. People are systematically building meaningless places. We must develop a way of understanding the built environment and the natural landscape. True renewal, will require a change in the way we structure experience for understanding both the natural land and the constructed world.

Since, the spiritual dimension and moral obligation have been discarded by the modern. Materialism divorced from ethics has corrupted the society. Therefore, more and more people are turning to Spirituality, Yoga and Meditation. Religious people are searching for the lost grid of spirituality in religion. Thus, there is a growing need of buildings to cater this need of people.

There are spatial qualities and architectural elements based on experiential background and emotional attachments.

To identify and define these connections, one has to go beyond the basic observation of signs and symbols, and analyse the spatial qualities and architectural elements which stimulate senses.

1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

A brief study of design tools, which are capable of making the experience soul stirring. These include – form, space, volume, geometry, scale and proportions, light and colour.

Historical and symbolic aspects of spiritual spaces have already been discussed. (Stella Kramrisch, The Hindu Temple, Vol. 2; Sir Banister Fletcher’s a History of Architecture, Sir Banister Fletcher, Dan Cruickshank; Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Period), Percy Brown) Thus this study will be focused towards the very fundamental architectural criterion and spatial impression on individual’s mind.

The study does not discuss in detail many issues, like evolution, construction, etc. But focuses on the internal design aspects, concerning the designing of a spiritual space, which are known and acknowledged.

Study should avoid commenting on the beliefs and rituals of various religions, but should debate towards the evolution and change of spatial qualities and form.

1.4 LIMITATION FOR THE RESEARCH

Study of sacred spaces of all faiths is not possible within the limited time frame.

A study of the built environment shall be undertaken which shall include only the spiritual aspect, the qualitative parameters and not the technical evaluation of the built form.

Considering the time frame provided for the completion of the study, primary case studies taken are done from Delhi only.

It would have been desirable to study how sacred can be woven into the everyday as well.

1.5 METHODOLOGY

The study is intended to be broken into subheads that will make it easier to understand the topic that talks about spiritual dimensions in sacred spaces and architectural qualities influencing human behaviour.

STAGE 1

IDENTIFYING NEED FOR THE STUDY

Trying to find the objectives of study.

Setting up the scope and limitations.

STAGE 2

LITERATURE SURVEY

Through the survey of all possible data related to the topic or on architecture and human behaviour. This stage of the research includes collecting data that is directly or indirectly related to spiritual aspect of architectural spaces. This has been done through the printed form or from the internet, articles and discussions of peoples relating to the study.

Literature survey aims at sorting out case studies both inside and outside India and also at getting an review of what are the recent developments and events that are taking place in the field of spiritual architecture.

STAGE 3

LITERATURE SURVEY 2

A study has been undertaken to understand the mental conditions of a man in different spaces and its relation with the creator. Through this the topic got defined and the question got framed.

STAGE 4

INTERRELATING DIFFERENT SACRED STRUCTURES

As our concern is on human being, the structures affecting human mind around the world should have similarities. Search for the overlapping of spatial qualities in sacred structures around the world.

STAGE 5

FRAME WORK

To make a framework of different issues and principles studied which can be applied on case studies. List of issues formulate questionnaire for the case studies and interviews.

List of issues:

Open and closed space

Portal or entrance

Path and surrounding landscape

Destination point

Form, geometry, proportion and scale

Articulation and symbolism

Light, colour and sound

Touch, smell and taste

STAGE 6

Fig 1.1 ISKCON Temple, New Delhi

Fig 1.2 Cathedral Church of Redemption, New Delhi

Fig 1.3 Jama Masjid, New DelhiCASE STUDIES

ISKCON TEMPLE, NEW DELHI
CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF REDEMPTION, NEW DELHI
JAMA MASJID,NEW DELHI

Case studies are selected to understand the sacredness and the spiritual consciousness through the built, the purpose behind it. Case studies will throw some light on the spatial qualities of spiritual spaces. Suitable case studies will be undertaken to examine the need of the topic and its negligence in present day scenario.

STAGE 7

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF CASE STUDY

All the information collected so far was then analysed thoroughly. An analysis of experiencing the sacred buildings to out the design tools that an architect can employ to create the desired spiritual experience.

STAGE 8

DESIGN IDEA FORMULATION

After assimilation of all matter and analysis of material collected, conclusions are derived, as to, how an architect can use design tools to stimulate all the senses and make the experience of a spiritual space spiritual.

CHAPTER 2: SPIRITUAL ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR
2.1 SPATIAL QUALITIES AND HUMAN MIND

The sacred is never intentionally chosen, but in some way or the other revels itself.

-Eliade (1963)

The meaning of structured space, a meaning which we believe lies in its dynamic relationship to its human personality and to our mental health.

Fig 2.1 The self- Hindu thought (Source: Prof. H.D. Chayya)The environment in which humans operate has an important influence on their wellbeing and performance. Our structured environment is so important and, influence direct or indirect, on the shaping of personality and the choice as well as the attainment of goals. Emotional design and tangible interaction are compelling forms of enhancing user engagement. The combination of these modes of interaction can create a new dimension of human experience when physical movement in space or the manipulation of objects triggers emotions within an individual. By seamlessly integrating expressive tangible interaction techniques with ambient intelligence, that is, by creating environments that are sensitive and responsive to human gestures, meaningful experiences can be constructed.

Leon Festinger, Stanley Schachter and Krik Bach found in their detailed studies of one urban situation, that physical spaces play a very large part in the formation of community relationships aˆ¦and even minor architectural feature, such as the position of staircase and mailboxes, had important effects on the social life of people. “The architect who builds a house or who designs a site plan, who decides which direction the houses will face and how close together they will be, also is, to a great extent, deciding the pattern of social life among the people who will live in those houses.”(Strengthening Weak Ties: Social Networks and Student Housing, Thesis, B. Design in Architecture, University of Florida, 2011)

Geoffrey Scott’s book “The Architecture of Humanism”, 1914, he said,” The architect models in space as a sculptor in clay. He designs the space as a work of art; that is, he attempts through his means to excite a certain mood in those who enter it.”

The view has been elaborated by others, among them Bruno Zevi, Architecture as Space, 1957: “the facade and walls of house. Church, or palace, no matter how beautiful they may be, is only the container, the boxaˆ¦; the content is the internal space.’

As Geoffrey Scott suggests,” Space itself is not obvious, cannot be visually perceived; one sees only objects in space; or the structural members that encloses the space. Space itself can only be sensed- that is, felt; its quality is apprehended by means of the senses, but its effect is upon the emotions, and cannot readily be rationalized, measured or depicted.

One can only gauge and describe accurately enough the adequacy or structural soundness, its provision for warmth, ventilation, sanitation, light, and other physical factors.

One can criticize its components in terms of proportion, texture, colour and other aesthetic considerations.

Fig. 2.2, 2.3, and 2.4 (Source: F.D.K.Ching, Architecture – Form, Space and Order 3rd edition)

Fig. 2.5 Non-sign II-art installation by Annie Hans and Daniel Mihalyo But beyond all of these, there is an overall effect exerted upon one’s consciousness by architectural space which defies precise definition.”(Scott, Geoffrey, The Architecture of Humanism, 1914)

Architecture truly conceived, is nothing less than the conscious and careful determination of our whole structured environment and leaves an impression on individual’s mind, which can be controlled. Like a stage setting that controls the movements of actors and defines where and under what circumstances they can meet, our habitat channels our movements and influence our contacts. If we think of buildings at all, it is usually when we are jolted by some outrage, such as a stalled elevator or a leaky roof, long columned corridor, a double height space. (Walter, E.V., 1988, Placeways: A Theory of the Human Environment)

Table 2.1 The concept of the spirit of a space (Source: Author)Some of the architectural integrant which affect human psychology are:

Five senses
Hearing
Touch
Sight
Taste
Smell
The basic elements

Space

Air

Fire

Water

Earth

Instruments of perception (to acquire inward)

Ear

Skin

Eyes

Tongue

Nose

Work organs
(to act outwards)

Speech communication (exit)

Hands work (finger)

Feet mobility

Anus discard

Genitals procreate

Control centre force

Mind (flow of thoughts and emotions)

Intellect (power of discrimination)

The presiding force (“PRANA” or the life force)

The cosmos consciousness or the supreme energy

Architecture

Silence

Climate

Light

–

Plumbing

Landscape transformation

Acoustics

Weather

Colour

–

Cooling

Related technological fields

Vibrations

Texture surfaces

Texture forms

–

Repose odour

Emotional Design

Emotion is a fundamental aspect of what makes us human; it shapes our cognition, perception, memory, and learning and it colours our past, present, and future experiences. Emotional value is important in design for enhancing user experience as Donald Norman explains: “Our attachment is really not to the thing, it is to the relationship, to the meanings and feelings the thing represents.” Emotional design then, provides an aesthetic interaction that engages users on an emotional, meaningful, and psychological level. Whereas affective computing focuses on the system recognizing and adjusting to what it believes the user is feeling, emotional design focuses on the emotional experience.

Physical and Tangible Interfaces

Human movement is often spurred by intention and motivation within people. Tangible user interfaces allow users to interact with virtual information by sensing and manipulating physical environments through objects, surfaces, and spaces.

Relation of architecture and human psychology is far interrelated. Appropriate use of various architectural components has the capacity of enlightening the atmosphere whereas inappropriate use does the opposite. The building forms, the functions incorporated in it, colours, negative and positive spaces in and around it may be the few points but architecture is directly attached with human psychology from conscious to subconscious level.

2.2 PLACEBO EFFECT: SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION

For decades, scientists have tried to understand the mysterious power of what is called the “placebo effect.” Placebo studies prove how powerfully we are influenced – not just emotionally but physiologically – by how we perceive the world around us.

Articulation and architectural conditions in homes can have powerful and long-lasting psychological impact. The placebo effect offers a clue that points to how we might create curative environments.

The placebo effect as a therapy, the fact that believers in a wide variety of ancient “faith” systems also claim similar effects, as have modern scientists who study mind/body medicine.

Fig 2.6 Illustration of the interrelationship of stress, belief and how they may impact on the placebo effect and the relaxation response. (Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com)In other words, it impacts an ancient part of our brain which we share with many other species. Endogenous opioids, which are naturally produced by the brain in small amounts and play a key role in the relief of pain and anxiety, have been implicated in placebo analgesia.

CHAPTER 3: SACRED SPACE AND SPIRITUALITY
3.1 OPEN SPACES: AS SACRED SPACES

Does spirituality needs sacred spaces and vice versa? Does spirituality really is incomplete without architecture? Is it not the quality of the inner life, open to a virtual dimension that transcends the sensible, that matters?

Fig 3.1 Lodhi Garden, New Delhi (Source: Author)Open space has two different meanings that work together to create sacred places that are inclusive and aware of many elements that may be exclusive to any potential user of the space. An open space is open to the public, meaning anyone of any race, faith, culture, or belief is able to enter the space. The space is for the whole community of different people rather than just one particular group. Or, an open space is one that feels welcoming and non-threatening to those that spend time in it; it feels like home for the soul. The design of the space and the placement of features such as portals, paths, universal symbols that have meaning across all religions, nations and ethnic groups, lend to the openness of the space by inviting those outside of the space to enter it. The combination of a space being open on both a physical and spiritual level is what makes up “Open Spaces, Sacred Places.”

3.2 ATTRIBUTES OF A SPIRITUAL SPACE

Architecture is the first pioneer on the highway toward the adequate realization of inner self. For this means it levels space for self-realization, informs his external environment, and builds a fit place for the aggregation of those assembled having similar faith, as a defence against the threatening of tempest, against rain, and savage animals.

Besides the variety of buildings and design approaches in the effort to create a space where man can feel spirituality, there can be found some common design tools that help to create the soul stirring experience. The following discuss some of these parameters.

The portal or threshold is the entryway into the sacred space, which helps to separate the space from the greater surrounding space and invites you to step inside. A portal can be created with a hardscape such as a gate or a portico, or with simple planting.

Fig 3.2 Portal to Garden, (Source: http://www.luminous-landscape.com)

Fig 3.4 Open space, (Source: http://www.luminous-landscape.com)

Fig 3.3 Pathway in a Garden, (Source: http://www.luminous-landscape.com)The path invites exploration and discovery along the route. It meanders through spaces, fuels the imagination and entices one to see where it may lead.

The destination point is an end point within a space that inexplicably draws visitors. It may be a resting place, such as a bench, or a beautiful natural feature, such as a gurgling fountain or rain curtain. It is a point within the sacred space where those who visit always end up. Sacred spaces may have more than one destination point.

Space and Volume

Fig. 3.5 Space defining elements, Source: F.D.K.Ching, Architecture – Form, Space and Order 3rd edition) Space, whether of the individual or the universal, possesses a unique quality of experiencing. It is hyper sensitive, besides being super potential. Sense of surround defines the space as separate and apart from the overall outdoor environment. Visitors who enter the space feel as though they are entering into a room. There are natural or man-made boundaries (or a combination of both) that delineate the space within the greater environment. These boundaries provide a subtle feeling of shelter, enabling people to feel safe and enjoy their time spent in the space. (Nicolas, W. Robert Leo A Daly, 2004, building Type Basics for Places of Worship)

By generating a continuous flow of spaces, each act movement becomes an experience. Each component of architecture becomes important and provides for this linkage. It can be by repetition of elements, alteration in scale and proportion, staggering, light, texture, and colour and also by using perspective as a device to accentuate the drama. (Robinson,J., 1979, Religious Buildings)

Fig. 3.6 Form and Space, Source: F.D.K.Ching, Architecture – Form, Space and Order 3rd edition) Form and Geometry

Architectural form is the point of contact between mass and space “Architectural Form required to fulfil its functional requirements for that is the reason for its being – both physical and spiritual.” (Saarinen, E., op.cit. pg 14)Every form conveys a meaning. It is important to understand how form can transmit a spiritual meaning. Certain shapes and forms are conventional associated with certain meanings.

Scale and Proportion

Fig. 3.7 Vastupurusa (Source: Charles Correa, Vistara; Architecture of India)

Fig. 3.8 Vitruvius Man (Source: Leonardo Da vinci.stanford.edu)Scale refers to the size of something compared to reference standard or size of something else. Deciding the scale of a sacred space is a common design concern. Some blend into the fabric of the neighbouring community and landscape; others stands out as landmarks, easily recognized for their special purpose. Generally the sacred spaces take monumental scale to create an atmosphere of awe, mystery and magnificence. The scale of the interior spaces, the size and weight of doors, and the exposed structural columns and beams all serve to denote the special quality of the sacred space.

Fig. 3.9 LeCorbusier modular Man (Source: Corbusier, The modulor)Proportion refers to the proper or harmonious relation of one part to another or to the whole. While the designer usually has a range of choices when determining the proportions of things, some are given to us by the nature and the man himself.

Human body proportions are used not merely as numbers with an inherent harmony, but as a system of measurements that could govern lengths, surfaces, and volumes. It can lend itself to an infinity of combination; it ensures unity with diversity; the miracle of numbers.

Proportional buildings and scale link spiritual architecture to the mathematical structure of the cosmos. The building should relate well not only to the human scale but also the psyche.

Light and Colour

Fig. 3.12 Khajuraho Temple (Source: Kota Kesava Karthik)

Fig. 3.11 Prayer at Church (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org)Light is regarded to be the most important component in definition of space or the manifestation of form in an architectural space; it not only defines the space but also gives meaning to it. In this study one looks at how light can create a place of worship; how to make a quiet, enclosed, isolated space, space full of activities, filled with vitality.

Fig. 3.10 Khirki Masjid (Source: Jegmet Wangchuk)

Colour is the attribute that most clearly distinguishes a form from its environment. We respond to bright colours, for instance red, with the emotional part of our brain. First, our muscles get tense, and then we lean towards the colour. Our respiration and heart rate goes up and the blood pressure starts rising. The opposite reactions occur when we see light colours such as blue. Our muscles relax, the heart and respiration rate drops and the blood pressure lowers.

It also affects the visual weight of a form. Gradation of colour exist; from pale to brilliant; from cold to warm. Thus colour expression is also full of meaning.

Texture is an important asset of colour. It is the visual and especially tactile quality given to a surface by shape and arrangement, and the proportions of the parts. Texture also determines to which the surfaces of a form reflect or absorb incident light. It gives an expression to the surface, thereby contributing to the overall impression.

Color
Colors Characteristics
Color’s Actions

Red

Stimulating, exciting, provocative, dynamic

Increased enthusiasm, interest, and energy

Pink

Happy, sweet, spirited, romantic, youthful

Calm and relaxing feelings

Brown

Wholesome, rich, durable, rustic, sheltering

A connection with the natural earth and the stability this brings

Orange

Friendly, vital, tangy, energizing, inviting

Increases creativity and gives relief from things becoming too serious

Blue

Dependable, cool, serene, constant, quiet

Broadens your perspective in learning new information

Green

Refreshing, healing, fresh, soothing, nature

Gives freedom to pursue new ideas

Purple

Sensual, elegant, mysterious, regal, spiritual

Calms over activity or energizes from depression

Black

Strong, classic, elegant, powerful, mysterious

Opens the door to mystery and prepares for the unknown

Yellow

Warming, sunny, cheerful, luminous, enlightening

Gives clarity for decision making and sharper memory and concentration skills

white

Pure, bright, innocent, lightweight, pristine

Starts a fresh beginning

Fig. 3.13 Colours in Culture (Source: www.informationisbeautiful.net)

Table. 3.1 Concept of Colours (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org)Symbolism

Symbolism

We can identify iconography depicted in architecture of these buildings as the signs and symbols and the inspirations taken directly from some other structure or theories and thoughts spread across the world.

A symbol is the juxtaposition that is, a co-optation of visible forms brought forth to demonstrate some invisible matter. One needs to identify with one’s religion that is where symbols play an important role.( Jose’Pereira, 2004, The Sacred Architecture of Islam)

Table. 3.2 Iconography in major religions (Source: Jose’Pereira, The Sacred Architecture of Islam, 2004)Sacred symbolism is considered to be present in every major religious building, around the world. Iconography of sacred geography in three major religions of the world:

TEMPLE
MOSQUE
CHURCH
MOUNTAIN

Shikhara

Minaret

Lofty towers

STONE

Idol

One that in Kabba

Altar

TREE

Present in courtyard

Cross

WATER

Sarovar

Ritual ablutions in courtyard

Place of Baptism

But is it signs and symbolism only which draw an impact on our behaviour. When we get in to some space, is the aesthetical and visual perception only gets conceived in our mind.

Fig. 3.15 Temple Bells (Source: Author)

Fig. 3.14 Prayer at church (Source: http://www.mlive.com)

Fig. 3.16 Reciting Quran in Mardrsa (Source: http://www.mlive.com)SOUND

The reverberant sound quality created by the proportions and the materials of sacred spaces set them apart from the ordinary. Sacred music, singing, chanting, the ringing of temple and church bells and intoning of prayers characterize specific rituals. The change in sound quality from the cacophony of the street to the harmony resonant silence signifies entry into a sacred space.

TOUCH

The experience of touch identifies a sacred space; the weight of the door handle, the textures of materials on walls and seating, and the hardness of stone underfoot. A change in temperature, such as the transition from the blazing heat of a busy city street into the cool and solitude of an interior can also denote a sacred space.

Most of the textures are touched by vision, iconography, formed an integral part of a temple and a church architecture to convey the complete narrative.

Though the following two are not translated into architectural terms, but they form an indispensable part of a complete spiritual experience.

SMELL

Fig. 3.20 Garlands for devotees (Source: Author)

Fig. 3.18 IItr, scented oil

Fig. 3.19 Votive Candles (Source: Author)

Fig. 3.17 Agarbatti (Source: http://www.mlive.com)Incense is used extensively in the Roman Catholic and Buddhist traditions as a symbol of prayers going up to the deity. The smell of agarbatti and the flowers offered to deity are indispensable parts of the rituals for Hindu as well as many other faiths. The incense sticks are used even in meditation centers as the intoxicating smell stimulates your senses to the positive and calms you down.

TASTE

Fig. 3.23 Christmas cake (Source: www.google.com)

Fig. 3.22 Korma (Source: Author)

Fig. 3.21 Laddo (Source: Kota Kesava Karthik)Though this sensory experience is missing in many of the architecture, it still is an integral part of many religious experiences. All the Hindu temples have Prasad and Chanramrit (sweet water) as an indispensable part of the worshipping ritual. Some believe that this custom of sharing sweets is a memorial of the sweetness of the deities. Christians offer holy water in a similar manner. The prasad is obligatory in the Gurudwara too.

3.3 SPIRITUAL DIMENSION IN EXISTING BUILDING TYPOLOGY
3.3.1 THE HINDU TEMPLE

The Hindu temple is essentially the “House Of God”. It is not a place for congregational worship. Though congregation for religious ceremonies do take place, but the worshipper’s communication with the divine is his own personal experience. The worshipper goes individually to the house of God and invokes his blessings. Stella Kramisch, in her book, “The Hindu Temple” says,” the intellect of the age, absorbed largely in divine contemplation, is reflected in the temple idol

The practice of terminating pregnancy based on the predicted sex of the baby is called Sex Selective abortion. Practice of sex selective abortion is very common is India, China, Pakistan and some other countries as well. The most common reason for the performing this act is to have male child instead of female one where their cultural norms value male child more over female child. This is about abortion, of course but it’s also a much larger problem: the worth of a woman’s life. In a culture where sons inherit properties and they carry on family name but daughters don’t, more ever girls are more vulnerable to infanticide, abuse and neglect. (CHLOE, 2011).

This paper presents how ethical is the abortions that are sex selective and what are the steps taken to prevent such practices. This will also focus on the beliefs of people of India.

Background

The incidents of female fetuses’ abortions are recent phenomenon due to the change and development in the medical technologies and diagnosis processes. But their roots can be traced to the female infanticide. The British rulers in India noted their experiences into their diaries during their travel to India. In 1835, one of the British officials James Thompson, while speaking to the landowners of Utter Pradesh, addressed one of them to be a son-in law of other. That comment created a sarcastic laugh among the farmers. When asked for their laughs, they said that he could not be son-in-law as there were no daughters in village. Thompson added that it was considered to be a most serious calamity to have a female child. And female children were seldom allowed to live. (Miller, 1983)

Most abortions are done because of unplanned pregnancy or having a child causes danger or crisis to woman.

Therapeutic Abortions – Therapeutic abortions result from a medical reason where giving birth to a child may endanger woman’s health and life.

Selective Abortions – Selective abortion are those small fraction of abortion that occur in the cases where particular fetus is perceived as having undesirable characteristics. There are few reasons why the selective abortion is practiced.

The unborn child is a girl, and parents due to cultural or other reasons, want a boy.

When the fetus is defective.

The pregnancy is intended to give birth to a child with specific genetic properties, and fetus doesn’t have them. (Selective abortion)

According to the study published in journal The Lancet, the number of the abortions due to reason of the sex of child has been increasing in last few years and the increase in numbers are alarming. The researchers state that there have been 4 to 5 million sex selective abortion performed during last three decades and the problem is still worsening. (CHLOE, 2011)

From 2001 census of India, it’s very clear that there has been an unusual high sex ratio for the young children that have sparked the concern about the use of sex-selective abortions to satisfy parental preferences of sons. According to National Family Health Survey, also known as NFHS-2 , sex ration of male to female child is abnormally high that is 107-121 males per 100 females in 16 of India’s 26 states. There has been an extensive use of ultrasound technology and amniocentesis during pregnancy, particularly in Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab. The study also showed the ‘masculine’ SRBs and worsening or persistent female mortality disadvantage despite overall mortality decline, the reasons behind that are female child neglect and the wide spread use of female infanticide in above mentioned and other places in India (Rajan, 1999). In a study conducted, the researchers stated that after firstborn girl, selective abortions of girls have been increased in India. And most of the population of India lives in the states where selective abortions of girl child are common. (Prbhat Jha, 2011)

The future mother and father’s families attend the sex-selection testing procedures and many a times the abortion is done against the will of the mother. The government has shown red eyes to those families pressurizing the expecting mother to undergo abortion. (Quinn, 2012)

fig.1.jpg

(Natrajan, 1972)

Ethical views on Abortions and Sex-selective abortions

As Rosalind Hursthouse states, any action is considered right given certain circumstances, from a virtual ethical perspective if and only if it is what the moral agent would do in same kind of circumstances. Here we will consider the case of pregnancy, when considering that when the one’s decision to abort of not is called a ‘right action’ when compared to its alternatives actions? (Caouette, 2012)

A difficult case for the defenders emerges when there is a case of abortion for the removal of unwanted fetus because the fetus is of unwanted gender: Sex selective abortion. Sex selective abortion has always meant to be the elimination of female fetuses. In some countries it is not limited to fetuses, it also extends to infanticide. Abortion means killing a person, Warren states for instance, is no more serious than killing a guppy then abortion of human because of sex differences would be permissible. Many defenders would feel uncomfortable by such a conclusion. Many thinkers hold that abortion in general is morally problematic. However some arguments against sex-selective abortions can be understood based on the only assumption that human fetus is not a person with rights, but this assumption is related to abortion in the general only not to sex-selective abortion. (Kaczor, 2011)

As here we are talking about India, we would focus more on the issues in context to India. Even though India has been worshipping Goddesses since long, some of the expectant mothers from India have been pressured by family and culture that privilege males into aborting their female fetuses. The government is becoming very strict now; new law makes the entire family to have a jail for at least 7 years, if the reason is found to be the female gender of fetus for the abortion. (Quinn, 2012)

There has been always a role of the clinician to get these all deed done. So government has also decided to fine the clinicians involved in the cases of abortion due to gender discrimination. In some less-developed part of India, a daughter is seen as a financial burden to the family members in future. The reason behind this is considered to be the culture of giving dowries at the time of marriage of the daughters. The author adds that, there are ethical questions regarding the abortions of female fetuses. The number of men in India outnumbers the number of women by 40 million. Indian government wants the women population to grow but on the other hand it is restricting the woman’s reproductive rights of allowing her what she wants to do with her body. (Quinn, 2012)

Moral and Ethical principles

According to Mettanando Bhikkhu professor at Oxford and Harvard university, there are five fundamental questions that divide the thinking, moral principles and ethics to individuals. They are:

Who am I?

What is this world?

Is there any afterlife?

What is the meaning of my life?

Why this has to happen to me?

According to the answers one give o above mentioned fundamental questions, the people can be characterized as either from a modern society or from a traditional society. The modern society believes scientifically and the traditional one has the religious views.

Abortion is considered as a eternal controversy. There have been two different views from the moral principles of the different groups.

Pro-life: The human life is very sacred. Abortion is considered morally wrong and should be criminalized as it is equal to murder.

Pro-choice: this group thinks that woman has right to terminate the pregnancy regardless of the reason for that. (Bhikkhu)

Whatever the specific reason for the abortion, most feminists believe that the women concerned are in the best position to judge whether the abortion is an appropriate response to the pregnancy or not. Generally the woman never wants abortion that is influenced by the sex of fetus. The women should get entire control on their reproductive lives and be free from male dominance or family dominance. (Dickens, 2002).

Religious views:

Hinduism:

If we talk about life according to Hindu scriptures, it is basically a dualistic model consisting of atam (spirit) and prakriti (matter). According to carak samhita, a Hindu medical text, at the time of conception only the soul is already joined. Though there are different opinions regarding ensoulments in Hindu scripture. According to the Garbh Samhita, the encoulments take place in the seventh month of pregnancy. Though there are some different opinions regarding the consciousness in to the womb. Vishnu puran, a famous hindu scripture, describes the consciousness in the womb. (Moad, 2004)

The practice of abortion is negatively described in ancient Hindu scriptures, The Vedas. In the text Rg Samhit, possibly originating before 1200BC, ‘Lord Vishnu is the protector of the child re-birth’, implying that fetus actually deserved even divine reverence. While Atharva Veda expresses following plea in regard to those who perform abortion:

“With what bonds the overslaughed one is bound apart, applied and tied up on each limb – let them be released, for they are releasers; wipe off difficulties, O Pushan, on the embryo slayer.” VI-112.3

“Enter thou after the beams, the smokes, O evil; go unto the mists or also the fogs; disappear along those foams of the rivers: wipe off difficulties, O Pushan, on the embryo slayer.”VI-113.2 (Moad, 2004)

Female is seen as Goddess in Hinduism and aborting fetus because of the gender is considered a biggest sin. Evidently, embryo slayer is seen as a killer and a suitable candidate to bear sufferings and sins of the rest of vedic community. In another Hindu scripture Visnudharmasutra, one who performs abortion is similar to attempting the worst sin in Hindu society, killing a Brahmin. (Moad, 2004)

Christian:

Christian and Jewish groups oppose sex-selection abortion very strongly. While the prolife-movements is pushing too hard these days leading to vote on the bill to ban the sex-selection abortions, some Christian churches remained silent on the measure and took positions opposite to it. The church belonged groups Methodist Federation for social Action, justice and witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ and Presbyterian Voices for Justice voiced their opposition to the sex-selection abortion ban. They are also supported by a number of groups including: Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, National Council of Jewish Women, and Union for Reform Judaism, Hadassah, Women of Reform Judaism, .and the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism. (Ertelt, 2012)

The Institute on Religion and Democracy asks why so many churches are not taking any stand to oppose the act of sex-selective abortions. The Institute on Religion and Democracy voted and strongly condemned sex-selective abortion as “as a particularly lamentable and violent expression of sexism.” “Churches should be among first to stand and oppose the act of sex-selective abortions” said IRD President Mark Tolley. Most of the church groups are concerned about issues like social justice and global problems that range from lack of access to drinking water to plight of those persons victimized by sex trafficking, Yet the gender-selective abortion should be considered as global problem only, Mark added. (Ertelt, 2012).

Buddhism:

It is very clear from the sources that sex-selective abortions have been disapproved by Buddhism as well. Superficially, situation seems not unlike the Roman Catholism, where the abortion though disapproved in the strongest terms by the churches drawing a canonical tradition. The most fundamental is consciousness (vi~n~naa.na), the fifth. More ever to specify the consciousness the criteria of moral status is nearly impossible to isolate (Barnhart, 1997).

Sex-selective abortion practice in India

As there has been always a social and Indian cultural demand to have male child, there was high curiosity among the expecting parents to know the gender of fetus. So, sex determination itself became a business for the clinicians. Sex determination became big business in India after it was introduced into 1970s. The billboards were stating that, “Invest Rs.500 now and save Rs.50000 later”. These kinds of advertisements were encouraging the expecting parents and save future dowry (Kusum, 1993). Posters in the train station promoted the sex-determination together with an abortion for just Rs.70. Certain clinicians used to distribute the flyers advertising their services. (Jeffery, 1984)

However not all the clinicians are personally happy by doing these, sex determinations and abortions. (Professional obligations vs Personal ethics)

Curlin_2009_physicians_obligations.png

Courtesy: (Professional obligations vs Personal ethics)

Social Context:

To understand the practice of sex-selective abortion in India, one has to thoroughly understand the roots of cultural norms and basis of son preference in India. The concept of ‘Son Mania’ in India is multi-faceted and deeply embedded in Indian culture (Ramanamma, 1980). In the ancient India text Athrva Veda, there are mantras written to change the sex of fetus from female to girl. A son’s birth considered to be ‘a sunrise in the abode of god’ and ‘to have a son was as essential as to have food once a day’, where as daughter’s birth was considered a cause for greatest sadness and disappointment (Ramanamma, 1980).

Indian society is patrilocal, patriarchal, and patrilineal. The sons are supposed to carry family name. Sons are also charged with the duty and task to support their parents in old-age. Whereas on other hand daughters get married and become part of husbands’ family, they don’t make any further contribution to birth parents. There is a saying in India that, “bringing up a daughter is like watering to neighbor’s plant.” (Jeffery, 1984).

Since most reasons for the preference for sons are economically based, it is really very ironic to find that the extreme level of sex-ratio that is more boys to girls are found into the higher casts who tend to have wealth (Miller, 1981).

Since come into the practice, the physicians always have been a strong support to those parents who want the sex-selective abortion done. This argument also involves the right to let the families make their personal decision. If we think a case of a woman having two or three daughters and still she deliver a girl child then her life will become difficult and she will have too many daughters. One of the famous Bombay gynecologists state that, “How can you deny the mother to have a son instead of daughter? Who are we to take away her right to decide that she should have a daughter or son? It is better to get rid of the unwanted child than to suffer the whole life” (Kusum, 1993). Although practitioners might have interests in this because of financial interest, its considerable that their views will be their interest oriented rather than in the interest of overall ethical situation.

Government’s Response

Since the problem of male to female ratio is worsening, India has shown the history of activism and policy attention to Female -selective abortions. It started all the way in 1988 from the state of Maharashtra. Maharashtra banned the use of amniocentesis for the purpose of sex-determination. Fines and prison were made mandatory for those who administer the test as well as woman and her family undergoing the test. Within the same year, there were doubts raised regarding effectiveness of the ban on the sex-determination, because the private sector remained unregulated. The lack of government action was cited by a group of activist in Mumbai, which advertised the sex-determination and sex preselection. (Miller, Female-Selective Abortion in Asia: Patterns, Policies, and Debates, 2001)

The Indian government has opposed the practice of female infanticide and the practices of sex-selective abortions, but has been very slow and ineffectual in applying the law strictly around the country. The dowry prohibition act was passed by Indian government in 1961 itself approximately a decade ago the sex-determination techniques were introduced in India. Despite its revision in 1983 and 1985, this law has been poor in implementation (Bumiller, 1990).

Maharashtra state provided the first policy model to take serious steps against these kind of practices. (Miller, Female-Selective Abortion in Asia: Patterns, Policies, and Debates, 2001)

The salient features of Maharashtra Regulation of Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act are as follows (Kusum, 1993):

Pre-natal diagnosis is permitted only to detect any kind of fetus abnormalities that includes sex-linked genetic diseases.

The test can only be undertaken by a high risk pregnant woman who should meet one or more of the following criteria:

Age over 35 years

History of 2 or more abortions or miscarriage

History to the exposure to any hazardous substances

Hereditary genetic disorder

The uses of all kind of prenatal diagnosis techniques are banned for the purpose of determination of sex of fetus.

Three authorities were made to operate all these policies, State Appropriate Authority, State Vigilance Committee, and Local Vigilance Committees.

The woman who experienced two or more therapeutic abortions in past technically becomes eligible under this act. Secondly, while determining the ex-linked genetic disorder the can theoretically reveal the sex of fetus to the physician. So needless to say, corruption, increased in illegal practices made the practice of sex-determination unabated. (Kusum, 1993)

Conclusion

Sex-selective abortion should be best called Female-selective abortions. India is a very large democracy. The laws in country are very difficult to apply thoroughly because of the corruption and such other issues in Indian government. The clinicians, most of them never apply their own ethical and moral principles to such cases, everyone is busy collecting wealth. Morally my own beliefs, my faith in my religion, my nation never allow me to attempt such sin. A son and a daughter should be considered equal. We are living in 21st century, where there is nothing that a woman cannot do and a man can do.

Personally I believe that the sex-determination should not be banned but there should be awareness among the expecting parents about the importance of life. The woman should be made think that what if her mother had aborted her?

Everyone has got right to live, to take lives, is not in our hands. There is no country in the world that has placed sex-selective abortion high on its policy agenda, though the United Nations included pre natal sex selection in its Program of Action in Cairo Conference on Population and development in 1994 (Miller, Female-Selective Abortion in Asia: Patterns, Policies, and Debates, 2001)

We should respect human rights as well. India is a developing nation and it should be thought that women are an intact part of Indian workforce.

To conclude with, I strongly take my position against the use of sex-determination and the practice of sex-selective abortion around the globe, we all will have to re-think and develop a inner sense of equality and freedom.

Salafism (al-Salafiyyah) is a contemporary Islamic global movement, which is concerned with a search for the pure teachings of Islam as prescribed in the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad’s tradition (sunnah) by rejecting any external influences and human involvement in the interpretation of religious texts. The proponents of Salafism define themselves to be the inheritors of the pre-modern Ahl al-Hadits (people of the Prophet tradition). In their view, this school of thought was the only group that remained faithful to the pure teachings of Islam as prescribed in the Quran and the Sunnah so that it was considered the saved sect. They base their claim on a hadith (the Prophet Muhammad sayings) that the Prophet Muhammad was reported to have said that there would always be a group of his people who remained committed to the truth, whom the Salafis identify as the Ahl al-Hadith (Duderija, 2011). By claiming to be the inheritors of the Ahl al-Hadith and followers of its footsteps, the proponents of contemporary Salafi movement attempt to assert that they have privilege and take pride to be the guardians of the pure Islam in modern period.

The proponents of contemporary Salafism identify themselves, and are proud to be, as “salafi” (plural: salafiyyin), the followers of al-salaf al-shalih(the righteous ancestors). For them, the term “salaf” refers to the first three Muslim generations in the early Islam, who were considered as the best Islamic generations as they were directly guided by the Prophet Muhammad and his Companions. This self-ascription is based on their belief that their understanding and practicing Islam is in complete accordance with the footsteps and methodology of the salaf (manhaj al-salaf). ‘Abdullah ibn Baz, one of the main Salafi authorities, said that Salafi ideology is “derived from the Qur’an, Sunnah and Consensus (ijma`) which govern the method of acquiring din [religion] and understanding the Qur’an and Sunnah according to the principles agreed upon by the righteous predecessors (salaf)” (Cited in Duderija, 2011:54). Due to this strong emphasis on the Salaf as the only model of understanding and practicing Islam, Salafism can be said as a movement of “return to the forefather” (Marshallsay, 2004).

Major Authorities of the Contemporary Salafi Movement

Within contemporary Salafi movement, the most influential proponents are the Middle Eastern Muslim scholars with Saudi nationality or Saudi-educated, university educated, many gained PhDs in Islamic sciences from Saudi universities. These include Nashir al-Din al-Albani (d.1999), ‘Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz (d. 1999), Muhammad ibn Shalih al-Uthaymin (d. 2001), Muqbil ibn Hadi al-Wadi’i (d. 2001), Rabi’ ibn Hadi al-Madkhali (b. 1931), Yahya al-Hajuri, and Shalih al-Fawzan. The dominance of Saudi Arabian or Saudi-educated religious scholars (ulama) asserts the centrality of Saudi Arabia as the birth of modern Salafism. As the main representative of the Salafi movement, these ulama become major references that Salafi leaders and ordinary followers in the Muslim world turn to for guidance and advice in their lives.

Outside the Middle East, leading personalities of Salafism in Western countries such as Jamal Zarabozo and Bilal Philips (Duderija, 2011) mostly become the mouthpiece of these Middle East authorities, translating their Salafi messages for the Western Salafi followers. The same is true for the leaders of the Salafi movement in Indonesia. Most of them went to Saudi and Yemen universities or Islamic religious learning institutions (ma’had) to study Islamic knowledge. These include Abu Nida, Ahmad Faiz, Yusuf Baisa, Jafar Umar Thalib, Ayip Syafrudin, Luqman Baabduh and Muhammad Umar Sewed (Hasan, 2007; 2009). Compared to their locally trained Salafi proponents, these Middle East graduates commonly enjoy more authority and recognition from their followers due to their highly-esteemed learning in Mecca or Medinah, two holy cities of Islam. Yet, all of these Salafi exponents make the Saudi and Yemeni Salafi authorities as major, and to some extent, the only references in learning and preaching Salafi ideas among Indonesian Muslims.

The Middle East Salafi authorities write treatises on Salafi ideas exclusively in Arabic. But, this is not a major barrier for Salafi followers from non-Arabic speaking countries to understand the messages of these Salafi ulama. The Salafi followers and sympathizers have attempted to translate the works of these Salafi ulama into local languages. For this purpose, in Western countries, they have established publishing houses, including Tarbiyyah Publications in Toronto, Invitation to Islam and Al-Khilafat Publications in London, and Salafi Publications and Maktabah Darussalam in Birmingham. Mobilizing the information and communication technologies, they have created websites such as www.salafipublications.com, www.tarbiyyahbookstore.com, http://sunna.com, www.salaf.com, and www.fatwa-online.com. Individual Salafi authorities websites have been also established by the Salafi supporters, such as www.binbaz.com (on the works of ‘Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz), www.rabee.net (on the works of Rabi ibn Hadi al-Madkhali), and www.ibnothaimeen.com (on the works of Muhammad ibn al-Uthaymin) (Duderija, 2011).

The Puzzle of the Origin and Meaning of Salafism

For decades, there has been conviction among Western and Western-educated scholars that history of Salafism is a history of Islamic modernism; that Salafi ideas are regarded as similar to those of Islamic modernist movement; and the Salafis are representatives of Muslim modernist. It is believed that Salafism dates back to the 19th Islamic modernism, which was associated with Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (d. 1897), Muhammad ‘Abduh (d. 1905), and Rashid Ridha (d. 1935), whose principles and ideas include rejection of taqlid (blind following), promotion of ijtihad (independent interpretation), and support of progress and rationality in its responses to the decline of the Muslim world. As Lauziere (2010) identifies, this conception can be seen in the “standard” academic works of Islamic thought such as Brill’s Encyclopedia of Islam, Malcolm Kerr’s Islamic Reform (1966), M. A. Zaki Badawi’s The Reformers of Egypt (1978), and Daniel Brown’s Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought (1996). Some recent studies by scholars of contemporary Islam, such as Ali Hassan Zaidi (2006) and Dumber and Tayob (2011), also connect Salafi orientations with Muslim reformists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

However, this conception is problematic in some respects. First, there is no convincing evidence to the claim of the connection among Salafism, al-Afghani, and ‘Abduh. According to Lauziere (2010), there are no primary sources including al-‘Urwat al-Wuthqa, a flagship journal of al-Afghani and ‘Abduh, that substantially prove the claim that al-Afghani and ‘Abduh coined the term Salafism and used it to identify themselves and their reform movement in the 19th century. It is true that Abduh mentioned the term al-Salafiyyin (the Salafis) in Al-Manar (Al-Manar 5, 1902 cited in Lauziere 2010) to designate Sunni Muslims who were against Ash’ariyyah, a 10th century school of speculative Islamic theology, [1] in terms of theological issues based on their strict adherence to the creed of the forefathers (Lauziere, 2010). But, ‘Abduh clearly did not claim to be a Salafi nor identified his followers as Salafis. He simply referred al-Salafiyyin in the context of theological debates as Sunni Muslims who differed from Ash’arites based on their strict adherence to ‘aqidat al-salaf (the creed of the forefather) (Lauziere, 2010).

Moreover, Rasyid Ridha, one of Muhammad ‘Abduh’s main disciples, recognized the fundamental differences between Salafism and Islamic modernist school, which his mentor promoted. According to Ridha, following the Salafi creed did not necessarily make one committed to Islamic modernist school. During his time, Ridha identified Salafism as Wahhabism to which he called al-Wahhabiyyah al-Salafiyyah. Later, in 1928 he and some of his disciples declared their passage to becoming Salafis not only with respect to Islamic theology but also in fiqh or Islamic jurisprudence (Lauziere, 2010).

Second, the unconfirmed claim of ideological connection between contemporary Salafism and the early 20th century Islamic modernism can be seen in the issue of how each defines the term Salaf. While the two movements shared the idea of the importance of the pious ancestors, they differ in the issue of to what extent the Salaf is defined and how it should be modelled. The proponents of Islamic modernism conceived that the term Salaf includes virtually the Muslim scholars of all schools of thought in the medieval period whose success and achievements should be contextually propagated and imitated within modern Muslim contexts. The early 20th century Salafism understood the Salaf as Muslim scholars in religious science as well as in ‘secular’ science of the golden age of Islam in the medieval period that should be contextually followed.

In contrast, the proponents of contemporary Salafism restrict the Salaf to the first three generations in the early Islam, namely the companions of the Prophet Muhammad (al-shahabat), those after them (al-tabi’in) and the next generation after them (atba`u al-tabi’in). They also include religious scholars (‘ulama`) in the first and second centuries of Islam who were considered to adhere to the way of these first three Muslim generations, particularly Ahmad bin Hanbal and the followers of his textual school. These Salaf generations and Salafi ‘ulama` were considered rightly guided forefathers and, hence, role models to whom Muslims are obliged to follow their ways in any circumstances. In addition, when the proponents of contemporary Salafism speak about the Salaf, they use it in its narrow religious sense. Practically, they exclude, show suspicion and hostility towards social, cultural and scientific heritage of the Muslim forefathers. In their view, the perfect method of modelling the Salaf in the contemporary Muslim societies is preserving and imitating their footsteps without contextualizing them in the present contexts.

Third, the issue of the unconfirmed ideological connection between Salafism and the late 19th century Islamic modernism can be discerned in differences between them with respect to methodology and objectives. In response to the decline of the Islamic world, the Islamic modernism of al-Aghani and ‘Abduh was committed to islah (reform) in Muslim society through promotion of i’tidal (moderation and balance) by which Muslims were expected to conduct conciliation between Islam and Western civilization. It encouraged the appreciation and adoption of social, political and scientific achievements of Western civilization and at the same rooted firmly in Islamic principles and civilization. In other words, al-Afghani and ‘Abduh’s Islamic modernism was a moderate approach to Islam and Western civilization in that it was able to balance between revelation and reason, and between strict Islamic conservatism and blind following of the West (Lauziere, 2010).

Contemporary Salafism, in contrast, aims to revive the golden age of Islam by adhering strictly to the ways of the first three Muslim generations in the early Islam understood and practiced Islam to protect its purity from forbidden religious innovation. From this perspective, the making of the Salaf as a perfect model requires strict applying the Salaf method in social and cultural vacuum, without contextualizing their ideas and practices within present contexts of the Muslim world. Subsequently, this movement regards revealed texts as the only primary sources so that its proponents tend to be anti-rationalistic approach to revelation. The proponents of contemporary Salafism are also suspicious of anything not textually written in the scripture, taught or done by the Prophet Muhammad, his companions and religious scholars adhered to their ways. Conservatism, or even ultra conservatism, is highly represented in contemporary Salafi movement.

As a result, there is no adequate evidence to claim ideological connection between the late 19th and early 20th century’s Islamic modernism and the contemporary Salafi movement. There is no support that Al-Afghani and ‘Abduh proclaimed they were Salafis or exponents of the Salafi movement or their ideas were in accordance with contemporary Salafism. The modernist conception of “Salafism” substantially differs from the contemporary Salafism’s understanding of the same term. Within contemporary Salafi movement, salafism is conceived first and foremost as label by Sunni purist-literalist-traditionalists to designate their particular approach to Islam.

Conceptual History of Salafism

Undoubtedly, the uncertainty of the origin and meaning of Salafism within modern scholarship has caused the substance of Salafism remain puzzling. Fortunately, a recent study by Henri Lauziere (2010) is helpful in solving this puzzle and gaining relative certainty in the issues of the origin and meaning of Salafism. He argues that the puzzle of the meaning and origins of Salafism is attributable to the “faulty scholarship” and the fact that there is little scholarly attention to the examination of the history of knowledge production of Salafism (Lauziere, 2010:369).

The First Use of the Term “Salafism”

Historically speaking, Salafism as a religious orientation is not purely a modern phenomenon. Rather, it rooted in the Islamic scholarship in pre-modern history of Islam. The early use of the term Salafism (Salafiyyah) as an approach to religious texts is found in a number of religious scholars’ works in the medieval period. For example, Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1238) writes in his al-Fatawa al-Kubra:

As for the Salafiyya it is as [Hamd ibn Muhammad] al-Khattabi and Abu Bakr al-Khatib [al-Bagdadi] and other have stated: The way of the Salaf is to interpret literally the Qur’an verses and hadiths that relate to the Divine attributes (ijra’ ayat al-sifat wa ahadits al-sifat ‘ala zahiriha), and without indicating modality and without attributing to Him anthropomorphic qualities. So that one is not to state that the meaning of “hand” is power or that of “hearing” is knowledge (Cited in Haykel, 2009:38).

However, as Haykel (2009) and Dumbe & Tayob (2011) suggest, the historical precedent of the Salafi orientations even dates back earlier to the 9th century theological and juridical debates between the Ahl al-Ra’y (people of opinion), which was associated with the Mu’tazilah, [2] and Ahl al-Hadith (people of the Prophet Muhammad’s tradition), which was related to Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855), the inspirer of the Hanbali school of law (Hanbaliyyah). [3] Particularly, the early use of the term Salaf and its derivatives in this period can be traced back to the Ahl al Hadits. It is reported that Ibn Hanbal said:

It has been transmitted from more than one of our ancestors (salafina) that they said ‘the Qur’an is the speech of God and is uncreated’, and this is what I endorse. I do not engage in speculative theology and I hold that there is nothing to be said other than what is in God’s Book (Qur’an), the traditions of His messenger or those of his companions and their followers- may God have mercy on them. It is not praiseworthy to engage in theological discussion in matters not contained therein (Cited in Haykel, 2009:38).

These statements not only refer to the early use of the terms Salaf and Salafism within Islamic scholarship, but also points out the way of thinking that the early ‘Salafis’ advocated in regard to theological issues such as the nature of the Qur’an as God’s messages revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. With respect to the approach to the interpretation of religious texts, the Ahl al-Ra`y represented Muslims scholars who sought explanations from personal opinions and borrowings from other cultures and intellectual traditions, while the Ahl al-Hadits sufficed themselves with literal meanings of the texts and tradition of the Prophet and his companions believed as pure and original sources of Islam.

Another corresponding term, madhhab al-salaf (the school of forefathers), is found in the literature of Muslim scholars of medieval period. As Lauziere (2010:372) suggests, written sources also indicate that medieval Muslims scholars used this term primarily in the theological debates within early schools of theology in Islam. The notion of madhhab al-salaf was used to designate those who hold a theological purity in a time when early Muslims were not faced yet with speculative theology (ilm al-kalam) resulted from the encounter of Islam and other world civilizations. The proponents of madhhab al-salaf showed hostility towards Islamic speculative theology (‘ilm al-kalam) which was influenced by Greek inspiration and rationalism such ‘ilm al-mantiq (syllogistic logic) and falsafah (philosophy). Contrary to Islamic theologians (mutakalimin) such as Mu’tazilis and Asharites, the people of the madhhab al-salaf distanced themselves from intellectualizing the divine issues, such as al asma` wal sifat (the divine names and attributes). However, the word Salafi or Salafism was not commonly used by medieval purist Muslims to refer to themselves and their approach to Islam. Instead, the common epithets used to refer to the purists at the period were not derived from the word salaf, but rather from the terms associated with the Prophet Muhammad’s tradition, such as Ahl al-Sunnah (people of the prophetic tradition), Ahl al-Hadist (people of prophetic sayings and sayings) or al-Atsari (the follower of the prophetic report) (Lauziere, 2010:373).

The Origin of the Confusion of Salafism: Louis Massignon and the Salafyah Review

A recent study by Lauziere (2010) revealed the origin of the confusion between Salafism and Islamic modernism in scholarly literature. He argues that puzzle of Salafism lies in the fact Massignon and scholars who quoted him were not aware of the complex development of the Salafi epithets within Muslim scholars in the Middle East. They simply relied on al-Majallah al-Salafiyyah, a monthly reformist journal published by Salafiyya Bookstore in Egypt -whose key role in Salafi discourses will be examined in the following section- that reached overseas including Paris. Being established in 1917, the journal was edited by ‘Abd al-Fattah Qatlan and rendered by him into English as Salafyah Review. The journal was purported to serve as a marketing vehicle for reaching a wider readership of the Salafiyyah Bookstore. More importantly, the journal was created in the period in which the reform spirit overwhelmed the Salafiyyah Bookstore before the coming of the Saudi-Wahhabi influence on the type of literature it published. So, in line with the reform spirit, the journal aimed to spread the achievements of the pious ancestors (al-salaf) in a wide range of scientific, cultural and intellectual fields. In line with this spirit, the content of the journal encompassed various themes such as literature, linguistics, and astronomy in addition to religious topics (Lauziere, 2010:379).

It was through this journal that the term Salafism caught the attention of Western scholars (Lauziere, 2010). Louis Massignon, a well-known French orientalist and the major contributor to the leading journal Revue du monde musulman, subscribed to Arabic journals including al-Majallah al-Salafiyyah. When the first issue of the journal reached his journal office, Massignon provided explanation of the Majallah al-Salafiyyah to the readers of his journal. He said that “the Salafiyyah was an intellectual movement that emerged in early 19th century India at the time of Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi (d. 1931) [and] Siddiq Hasan Khan (d. 1890), the founder of the Ahl-i Hadith movement, had later rehashed its ideas” (Cited in Lauziere, 2010:380). Then, he added that “from there, [the Salafiyyah] was spread by Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Syaikh ‘Abduh and established itself in Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo and even in the Maghrib and Java” (Revue du monde musulman 34, 1916-18 in Lauziere, 2010:380). But, later Massignon abolished the connection of the Salafiyyah with the 19th century Indian movement and focused more on its link with al-Afghani and ‘Abduh. Then, he associated Salafiyyah with a relatively transnational Islamic modernism in the 19th century, whose proponents were committed to reform in Islam and Muslim societies (Lauziere, 2010).

However, Massignon’s claim of Salafism is problematic as it raised questions with respect to conceptual and historical foundations of Salafism he based on. It is not clear how he came to this claim though it is known that he studied Islam in Baghdad and made contacts with some reform-oriented Muslim scholars like Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi. Due to this, it can be said that Massignon misinterpreted the term Salafiyyah and inadequately made Salafism and Islamic modernism of al-Afghani and ‘Abduh synonymous (Lauziere, 2010).

Nevertheless, as Lauziere (2010:381) shows, some leading scholars welcomed Massignon’s definition of Salafism and even took its validity for granted despite its factual limitations. The famous The New World of Islam, published in 1921, repeated this misinterpretation when made reference to Salafiyyah. In 1922, the leading journal The Moslem World published by Hartford Seminary did the same when it translated an article of Massignon from the Revue du monde musulman. This is further misinterpreted by Henri Laoust, a scholar who spread Massignon’s ideas in French, when in his seminal article in 1932 defined Salafism based on Massignon’s conception. Even influential scholar Sir Hamilton Gibb took Massignon’s claim of Salafism for granted in his famous Modern Trends in Islam. Hence, it is through this intellectual transmission that the term Salafism with the sense of Islamic modernist movement was created within Western scholarly literature on Islam.

The Evolution of Salafism

If there is no connection with al-Afghani and ‘Abduh’s Islamic modernism of the late 19th century, who first used the Salafi label as understood today? And how was it defined? As Lauziere (2010) argues, to remedy this puzzle requires considering the origin and development of the term Salafism from the perspective of conceptual history.

According to Lauziere (2010, the growing popularity of Salafi epithets as well as overlap between Salafism and Islamic modernism can be attributed to a key role played by the Salafiyah Bookstore (al-Maktabat al-Salafiyyah). It was established in 1909 in Cairo by Muhib al-Din al-Khatib (1886-1969), a Syrian activist, well-known figure in the Egyptian publishing business, and pupil of “Salafis-cum-modernists” ‘ulama`, Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi (d. 1914) and Tahir al-Jazairi (d. 1920). Al-Khatib’s involvement in cultural and political affairs opened the opportunity to establish the bookstore aimed at spreading his interests in Islamic scholarship and reformist ideas under the label Salafiyyah (Salafism). The name Salafiyyah for the bookstore was inspired by al-Khatib’s mentor, Tahir al-Jazairi, who had inclinations to the madhhab al-salaf (school of the forefathers) with respect to Islamic theology.

But, it seemed that al-Khatib misinterpreted the term Salafiyyah or understood it in a broader sense than al-Jazairi meant (Lauziere, 2010). This is reflected in the way he and his partner, Abdul Fattah Qatlan (d. 1931), operated the Salafiyyah Bookstore, particularly in terms of the type of literature they published. Being motivated by desires to encourage educated Arab readers to rediscover the glory of their religious, social and cultural heritage for the advancement of their society, al-Khatib and Qatlan were not confined themselves in printing and selling books on the Salafi theology. Rather, they published works on progressive nature of Islam’s golden age as well as a wide range of issues not connected to religious reform. They used the Salafi epithets to refer virtually to any Islamic intellectual heritage in medieval period, not in a narrow sense of a particular school of theology. In addition to treatises on religion, the Salafiyyah Bookstore published works on Arabic literature, Arabic grammar, and work of medieval Muslim philosophers such al-Farabi (d.950) and Ibn Sina (d.1037). In short, the literature that the Salafiyyah Bookstore published and sold in the 1910s was in accordance with the spirit and concerns of Islamic modernism (Lauziere, 2010:378).

The selection and publication of this type of literature suggest that al-Khatib and Qatlan attempted to revive the works of the great Muslim scholars and underline the Muslims’s contribution to modernity in the West of modern age. Under the label Salafism, they sought to emphasize the compatibility between revelation and modernity as shown by the works of great and pious forefathers (Salaf) in the past by which Muslims in the modern age should model for the revival and advancement of the Islamic world. In turn, all this resulted in turning Salafiyyah into a common and popular term among producers and consumers of Arabic literature in the Middle East and other Muslim regions (Lauziere, 2010:382). More importantly, an impression built up that the Salafiyyah Bookstore intertwined the term Salafism with Islamic modernism projected to the revival of Arabs and Muslims in the modern period. The label Salafism it used was then considered as to represent the success and greatness of the Islamic past. The bookstore expanded the scope of the term Salafism beyond its initial theological meanings and gradually created the association between Salafism and the project of Islamic modernism (Lauziere, 2010:377).

The later development of the Salafiyyah Bookstore, however, determined the association of Islamic modernism and Salafism and brought about decisive changes in the nature and development of Salafism after the establishment of the Saudi Kingdom in the early 1920s. The bookstore experienced a shift with respect to choices of works for publication. This began with the change in the choice of works for publication. In the early 1920s, al-Khatib and Qatlan began to print works that appeared contradictive to the progressive and rationalist ideas of the Islamic reform movement though they kept promoting Islamic modernism. For example, the Salafiyyah Bookstore published works of those who strongly opposed the secular and controversial works of ‘Ali ‘Abd al-Raziq and Taha Husayn. It also published anti-rationalist treatises by Hanbali and his school followers ordered by Saudis. This shift in the choice of publications was more clearly discernable in the establishment of the Saudi branch of the Salafiyyah Bookstore in Mecca in the late 1920 initiated by Qatlan in partnership with a Hijazi Muhammad Salih Nasif (d.1971). In 1928, to suit the local needs, this Saudi branch began to publish works on Ahmad ibn Hanbal and his supporters as well pro-Wahhabi books such a theological treatise by Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya (1292-1350), which was printed with the request and fund from Ibn Sa’ud (d. 1932), the first monarch of Saudi Arabia (Lauziere, 2010:383).

This shift within the Salafiyya Bookstore’s choice of publications, according to Lauziere (2010), should be seen in the context of political change in the Muslim world in the mid 1920s. The fall of the Ottoman Empire and the abolition of Islamic caliphate in the early 1920s brought about political and cultural turbulence within the Muslim world. At the same time, however, the rise of the Saudi Kingdom in Hejaz offered Muslim ummah (global Muslim community) a great hope of social and political renaissance in the Muslim world. Therefore, many Muslims intellectuals and religious scholars, including Rasyid Ridha, supported the young Saudi state and turned toward religious conservatism, particularly Wahhabism, [4] founded by Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792), and endorsed as an official school of Islam and promoted by the state. Al-Khatib showed the same response to these circumstances. He opted to support the young Saudi state and showed respect to the Wahhabism and its proponents. These religio-political stances influenced the activities of his Salafiyyah Bookstore. This was reflected in the change of choices of editing and publishing when it began to publish the Wahhabi treatises and pro-Saudi works.

Although Lauziere missed to capture the complexity of social and political transformation in the Muslim world in the first quarter of twentieth century, his argument was sufficient to overcome to the puzzle of Salafism by making sense of the evolution of Salafism. By publishing pro-Wahhabi works to cater the religious and political needs of the Saudi elite and proponents of Wahhabism, the Salafiyyah Bookstore brought its commercial label Salafism closer to Wahhabism. Though the Cairo Salafiyyah Bookstore still published modernist themes, the popularization and commodification of the Salafi epithets by the Saudi branch of the Salafiyyah Bookstore had brought the Wahhabi religious orientation to the fore. The unfounded intellectual association between Salafism (Salafiyyah) and al-Afghani and ‘Abduh’s Islamic reform as well as the absence of the monopoly over Salafism as a marketing brand that al-Khatib and Qatlan might have opened opportunity to the proponents of the Wahhabi-oriented purist movement kept using Salafiyyah as the label of their publications ignoring any modernist agenda as initiated by the original Salafi Bookstore in Cairo (Lauziere, 2010). It can be added that given that they shared the strong reference to the pious forefather (al-salaf al-shalih) with respect to theological issues with the Salafiyyah Bookstore, at least in its early years of operation, the proponents of Wahhabism had no difficulties in taking the advantage of using Salafism as their label of spreading the purist ideas of Ibn al-Wahhab.

Through these religious-political processes, consequently, the Salafi epithets experienced re-definition and counter-definitions. More importantly, this gradually created the impression that the term Salafism and Wahhabism of Saudi Arabia were synonymous. The opening of the Saudi-connected Salafiyyah bookstores outside Saudi Arabia, such as in Syria and Pakistan, enforced this impression (Lauziere, 2010). Undoubtedly, this evolution of Salafism explains the state of the contemporary development of the Salafi movement with Saudi Arabia as its major supporter. Due to the fact that it is a contemporary phenomenon that assigns the epistemological value to traditions, Adis Duderija (2007:2011) labels the proponents of this contemporary Salafism as “Neo-Traditional Salafis”.

In its later development, in the 1960s Wahhabi-inspired Salafism encountered with religious-political ideas brought by the Islamic activists who fled from their ruling governments’ repression and persecution found Saudi Arabia safe haven. This has to do with the Saudi Arabia’s policy under King Faisal (d. 1975) to support Islamic solidarity in its attempts to oppose Egypt’s pan-Arabism promoted by President Jamal Abdel Nasser (d. 1970), which was regarded as a threat to the existence of the kingdom (Lacroix, 2010).

Among these refugees were the members of al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun (the Muslim Brotherhood), a religious-political movement that first emerged in Egypt in 1928 and then spread to the Muslim world. The political aspects of the ideology of al-Ikhwan al Muslimun encountered with the puritanical ideas of Wahhabism (Wahhabiyyah) brought about an intellectual hybrid identified as al-Sahwa al-Islamiyya (th

Edward Schillebeeckx and Louis-Marie Chauvet both provide insight and theological discourse on the sacraments. However, their approach and core theology is quite different. Edward Schillebeeckx’s Christ: the Sacrament of the Encounter of God provides a strong personalist understanding of the sacraments. Louis-Marie Chauvet, on the other hand, concentrates on the symbolic order of the sacraments working through models. He calls these models objectivist, subjectivist and the Vatican II model in his book The Sacraments: The Word of God at the Mercy of the Body. This paper compares their diverse approaches to the sacraments; highlighting the specific areas of concentration: institution, grace, service (diakonia), mystery, Trinity, and use of the Emmaus story, as found in their two books.

Biographical Summary

The Belgian-born theologian, Fr. Edward Cornelis Florentius Alfonsus Schillebeeckx, O.P. (1914 – 2009) focused on dogmatic theology, although his doctoral thesis was on the redeeming economy of the sacraments. The original version of his text, Christ: The Sacrament of the Encounter with God, appeared in 1960 during the early and preparatory phases of Vatican II.

Fr. Louis-Marie Chauvet was born in the Vendee region in west central France on January 26, 1942. Ordained in 1966, he is a French Roman Catholic Priest and a professor of sacramental theology at l’Institut Catholique in Paris, France. His earlier work, Symbol and Sacrament, was published in 1995 and The Sacraments: The Word of God at the Mercy of the Body was published two years later, in 1997.

Contrast in Overview

Schillebeeckx’s publication that appeared during the early preparatory phases of Vatican II was underscored by his personalist understanding of the sacraments. His preliminary releases and conceptual theological analyses were very influential in the composition Lumen Gentium. Much of his work places significant emphasis on the people of God. For Schillebeeckx, the sacraments are an intersection of faith and life. He operates out of an understanding that the human person is unique and of irreducible value and dignity. The sacraments fulfill the need to create and distinguish the singular human gift of encounter. In Christ, God became human. We are therefore compelled to recognize that there is a distinct divine character about being human. For Schillebeeckx, human beings are essentially special because they are made in the image of God.

In contrast, Chauvet’s views include an emphasis on causality and symbolic order. Although he expresses his view that grace is received in the sacraments he is careful to avoid a commitment that it is the sacraments that are the cause of grace.

Chauvet does not view human beings apart from language nor see them as inventing language. He states, “aˆ¦ one cannot be a human being without language.” He equates language to a mother’s womb stating, “aˆ¦ in relation to the subject, language is no longer regarded as an instrument but as a womb: the subject arises and is maintained within it.”

For Chauvet there is an order of language, which creates the possibility of dialog concerning the sacraments. This points to a symbolic order that allows Christians to attain their identity. As he states, “This symbolic womb, within which each person is born as Christian through initiation, is unique. One becomes a Christian only by adopting the ‘mother tongue’ of the church. Sacraments are an important element of this tongue.” For Chauvet, the sacramental rites are not the direct causality of grace. They are faculties that allow access to God through an act of ritual, which allows the encounter. Human beings encounter God through the symbolic rituals of the Church (i.e., the Body of Christ) through language, scripture, rite, and symbolic exchange. As Chauvet states,

If symbolic exchange is part of what allows the young human to become and perdure as a subject, it is constitutive of the fact of being human; it is irreducible to a simple ‘experience’ from which, by analogy one could approach the mystery of communication between God and humanity. This means that the relation of believers with God is not only as in symbolic exchange but is inscribed in this type of exchange that structures the subject. Again the theological takes ‘place’ in the anthropological.

In contrast Schillebeeckx views sacramental symbols quite differently. He sees sacramental symbolic action as ecclesial worship. This concept is summarized,

The ecclesial acts, in which Christ, through his eternally actual redemptive act, makes himself here present, are in their human religious form, precisely this kind of act of ritual symbolism performed by the religious community which is the Church. Because they are the Church’s activity in worship through symbols, St. Thomas calls the sacraments the insigne’s of the Church.

Sacraments are ecclesial symbolic actions; the Church herself receiving a visible bestowal of grace from God. The Church is the body of Christ, giving human love for God through worship, and also receiving the body of Christ through the Eucharist. The Church’s grace adds nothing, but instead shares in the fullness of the grace of Christ. Schillebeeckx identifies the symbolic action of the sacraments as, “aˆ¦ acts of Christ in and through his Church.”

For Schillebeeckx, the substance of a sacrament is in part an epiclesis, “aˆ¦ in the form of a request (in forma deprecativa) that is to say, a prayer in which we plead with the Father by the power of the Spirit and together with Christ.” Chauvet agrees. He discourses on the inseparability of Christ with His church in his particular view of the Eucharist. For Chauvet, “aˆ¦ the Church cannot offer Christ-in-sacrament without being itself offered through and in him.” This notion of the subjective anamnesis from Chauvet runs parallel to the notion of Christ as the sacrament of encounter purported by Schillebeeckx. Schillebeeckx also views a twofold element and the second part is, “aˆ¦ a definitive bestowal (in forma indicativa).” In comparison, Chauvet’s “second sense” speaks of, “Christ-in-sacrament by the church.”

Institution

Schillebeeckx views the sacraments as an office and charism of the Church. He defines them as an “aˆ¦ official act of the Church as redemptive institution.” The Church is the locus where grace and redemption become visible. It is also the visible saving activity of God in Christ, which allows the Church to be a saving institution. This locus becomes visible in two ways; institutionally and through charism in an; “aˆ¦ outward manifestation of inward communion in grace with God.”

On the other hand, Chauvet does not embrace the hierarchical notion of the institution of the sacraments. It is for this reason that he rejects the idea of a sacrament as an instrument, a channel or a germ. This rejection hinges on the notion that the sacraments appear as representations of the efficacy ex opre operate as equated with and as “a corollary of the ‘power’ of the priest.”

Chauvet does embrace the institution of the Church as the minister in the name of Christ, when it comes to the administration of the sacraments. As he writes, “Christian identity is not self-administered; to obtain it, one must receive baptism and one does not baptize oneself; one is baptized by another person acting as the minister of the church in the name of Christ.”

Grace

From Chauvet’s perspective, grace is freely given. Like the manna in the desert, it is underserved, free of charge, and unable to be quantified or calculated. Grace is not only the gift given freely by God, but it is also the return-gift given by the one who receives the underserved grace. There must be some level of gratitude from the recipient. By way of example, Chauvet states, “aˆ¦ this does not mean that the presence of Christ in the Eucharist depends on the subject’s disposition, since it is God who through the Holy Spirit realizes it.”

What the human subject would return to God is faith and love. However, if one was not disposed to do so, God’s gift of grace would decay like the manna in the desert. Chauvet accepts Karl Barth’s rejection of “ex opre operato” (i.e., from the work accomplished) as a correct response. This is an appropriate response by Chauvet only if Barth’s fears are valid and the subjectivist model, which purports that the sacrament is an instrument for the production and transmission of grace, effects the negation of the freedom of God in salvation. Barth respects the freedom of God’s word in salvation and Chauvet concurs, but asserts that the sacraments are still instruments. A sacrament is either an objective instrument for the production of grace, or an instrument for the transmission of grace.

Grace is important, central, and permeates most of the text throughout Schillebeeckx’s discourse. This is demonstrated by the fact that the word grace, appears more than 500 times throughout his book. Schillebeeckx understands grace as an unfailing gift based on the foundation of Christ’s love for the Father. He describes how grace works in the sacraments using words such as infallible, ecclesial visibility, and the encounter with God. He states, “aˆ¦ only in grace does God’s presence in man blossom forth into an intimate and living communion.”

Grace comes from one mediator, who is Christ! Christ Himself is the Church and therefore Jesus is the visible realization of divine grace. Christ is grace. Because of this, divine grace is tied to the human saving acts of Jesus. Still, “aˆ¦ the Church is the visible expression of Christ’s grace and redemption realized in the form of a society, which is a sign (societas signum).” Schillebeeckx calls sacramental grace, “aˆ¦ a ‘curative’ grace-one which restores us to health-and as such has the additional effect of actually compensating for any lack or impotence on our part, so long as our disposition remains sincerely religious.” Grace is like a seed. When we submit to the grace of God, this seed can take root. In so doing, Christ Himself corrects what is at fault with us, therefore allowing us to transcend our own weakness.

Service (Diakonia)

The notion of service for Schillebeeckx is rooted in Christ’s service as the Son of God. This is true, not only from the standpoint of Jesus’ life, but also by His sanctifying sacrifice for the salvation of humanity. Human service is restricted to acts in praise of God, through “aˆ¦ ritual worship of the community.” This is supported by Avery Cardinal Dulles, who, referring to observations by Richard McBrien, agrees “aˆ¦ that in some of the early presentations, such as Schillebeeckx’s Christ the Sacrament of Encounter with God, there is a narrow sacramentalism that accords insufficient place for diakonia (service) in the Church’s mission to the world.”

Service is mentioned 32 times by Schillebeeckx in his book, but not in relation to human diakonia. For Schillebeeckx, service is what the Church does as manifest in the servant model or change-agent model of the Church, seen “aˆ¦ primarily as an instrument of social change whose task is the wise and courageous allocation of its own moral and material resources for the sake of the Kingdom of God among humankind”

Chauvet embraces St. John’s theological model of the ethics of service to others. He specifically mentions how the,

aˆ¦ fourth Gospel intentionally substitutes the washing of the feet for the institution of the Eucharist; it replaces the command concerning the ritual memorial of the Lord Jesus (‘do this in memory of me’) with a command concerning his memory translated into acts: ‘I have set you an example that you also should also do this as [kathA?s] I have done to you (John 13:15).’

The notion of diaconal service as a response to the primary gift, which is God’s love, is important to Chauvet. He states, “In the measure in which the ethical life of service to others is lived as a response to this primary gift [God’s love], and therefore takes its source in the sacraments, in that same measure it finds its Christian identity. [aˆ¦] This is why it would be absurd to think or say that one could be a Christian without the ethical concern for othersaˆ¦”

Mystery

Chauvet believes, “aˆ¦ the Bible is replete with mysteries or sacraments in conformity with the use of ‘mystery’ in the Jewish writings of the apocalyptic current replete with revelatory signs of God’s secret design for the world.” On the other hand, he does not claim that he can explain the mystery of God’s communication with humankind. He believes that in theology, “aˆ¦ no question should be silenced by the excuse of ‘mystery.’” He turns to the paradigm of scriptures, then to theological discourse and finally the sacraments. Chauvet states, “Under the paradigm ‘Scriptures’ we can classify everything that pertains to the knowledge of God’s mystery revealed in Jesus Christ.” Chauvet does admit that mystery is valid in both the incarnate Word, who is Jesus, and through the hypostatic union. Mystery for Chauvet is primarily Christological, both in the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery. He purports that it is also Trinitarian. In addition he believes that mystery is neither to be used as an excuse to forgo theological discourse and investigation nor evoked as excuse to discontinue the quest for understanding the scriptures.

Schillebeeckx certainly accepts the Christological centered mysteries as well as the Trinitarian mystery. He also views the seven sacraments as a celebration-in-mystery of the life of Christ. Jesus is both human and divine. His human acts of redemption have temporal significance. Avoiding any docetic tendencies, Schillebeeckx asserts, “His human existence itself is wholly and entirely a presence of God among us.” He clearly ties the mystery of the life of Christ to the mystery of the Church in the sacraments. As he states, “Just as Christ through his risen body acts invisibly in the world, he acts visibly in and through his earthly body, the Church, in such a way that the sacraments are the personal saving acts of Christ realized as institutional acts in the Church.”

Schillebeeckx and Pope Pius XII coincide, as he points out in his reflection on the encyclical Mystici Corporis. Schillebeeckx also touts the merits of Dom Casel’s work in this regard. For Casel, Christ is personally present in the sacraments. In the Eucharist, Christ Himself is present through transubstantiation. In the other sacraments however, His presence is by virtue of His act of redemption. For Schillebeeckx, the presence in mystery of the sacraments rests on the personal acts of Christ.

Trinity

Schillebeeckx refers to the Trinity a number of times throughout his book. The Trinity dominates many areas of his sacramentology and is reflected in many of his theological preponderances. As an example, there are statements such as, “aˆ¦ that absolute generosity which the Trinity simply is remains the universally dominant background of the mystery of saving worship in Christ.” It is the ex opre operato where the “aˆ¦ sacramental reality of the mystery of the redeeming Trinity in Christ” is manifest in Passover and Pentecost.

He believes it is impossible to understand and grasp the “essence of redemption” without understanding that redemption is the “historical revelation of the mystery of the Trinity.” For Schillebeeckx, both baptism and confirmation are necessary in order for initiation to be “aˆ¦ fully achieved by incorporation into Christ both as Son of the Father and as co-principle of the Spirit.”

Chauvet, on the other hand, confines his discourse on the Trinity primarily within one section of his book. He continually separates the sacramental mystery from the Trinitarian mystery. He links Christ and God the Father, through the Paschal Mystery and the Parousia of the Ascension. Chauvet also creates a clear diagram for the Paschal Mystery of Christ, but he focuses on the sacramental grace within the power of the risen Christ through the Spirit.

In Chauvet’s words, “aˆ¦ we must think of God as somehow human in God’s divinity, [which] leads us back to the cross of Jesus (relation Father/Son) and to the Spirit (without which the relation Father/Son is theologically unthinkable)”. Chauvet understands the relationship of Father and Son within the context of anthropology, while the Holy Spirit is drawn from a cosmological context as pneuma. In this context, the Spirit transcends all boundaries (“blows where it chooses”). Chauvet maintains a polarized view of the sacraments: One is a “Christological pole [aˆ¦] and the other is a pneumatological pole”. For Chauvet, it is in the Christological pole that one beholds the “pole of humanity”. It is in the pneumatological pole where one discovers the “aˆ¦interaction of the pole of God.”

Use of Emmaus

Both Chauvet and Schillebeeckx refer to the road to Emmaus in their texts. For Chauvet, the Emmaus encounter, which we find in the Gospel of Luke, provides three levels of framework: the geological, the theological, and the symbolic. It is within the context of the symbolic that the two disciples encounter their conversion. It is a “round trip” that leads them through their experience of gaining faith and a new vision, which opens their eyes to the risen Christ. It was imperative for them to abandon their own “tomb of death” and understand the primacy of Jesus as the Messiah and not simply a prophet. Chauvet understands that the eyes of these disciples were not opened at the Eucharistic table during the Last Supper. For these two disciples, it was when they, were able to “assent to the mediation of the Church” on the road to Emmaus that their eyes were opened.

Chauvet also creates a diagram demonstrating that it is inside the circle of the mediation of the Church that salvation can take place. This diagrammatic representation in his book depicts the Church encircling faith, as gained from scriptures and ethics in the human function. In his diagram, Jesus Christ is positioned above the Church to empower faith by grace through the sacraments. The circle of the Church is not closed; it is a dotted line, since the world is wider than the Church.

Schillebeeckx refers to Emmaus as, “aˆ¦ our hidden road [aˆ¦] on which we are accompanied by our Lord.” He aligns his thinking with St. Ambrose who understood the sacraments as the place where Christ encounters us face to face. As Schillebeeckx reflects, “It is the mystery of Christ’s sanctification in and through His Church, and is expressed in God’s agape, His condescending and generous love in Jesus Christ, in the love of His Church as the bride of Christ, and in man who as a believer emerges from himself and transcends his own limitations.”

Schillebeeckx is clear,

With regard to substance, a sacramentally structured evangelization or catechesis presents a Jesus Christ who is not simply an ‘example’ but the genuine ‘sacrament’ of God. To present a Christ who would be first of all an example to imitate is to veer toward a path of moralism, a discouraging, even a fraudulent path since the example to imitate is inimitable. Christ must be announced primarily as the sacrament of God (and as a consequence he is to be “imitated” in a way completely different from that promoted above). As a sacrament, that is to say, as the gratuitous gift of God and, more precisely, as Savior. He is our ferryman to God’s shore. We do not have to desperately run after him to join him: he himself comes toward us, as at Emmaus, and takes us in his boat to carry us to the other shore. It is, before all else, this truth that the sacraments are witnessing to us; a pure gift from God deposited in our hands (the body of Christ-Amen).

Summary

Chauvet believes that the sacraments are ritual symbols. This begins with the understanding that man is a linguistic creature. Humanity does not exist except in communication and this communication is permeated by sign and symbol. Human beings are not organisms from the start, but individual persons, and therefore ontogenetically the human being is compelled to be a being in relationship. This personal relationship unfolds from language and therefore Chauvet posits that sacraments are the language and the communication of God with humanity. Chauvet reaches the operational level of the sacraments by first understanding the role of language as mediation and womb and this then brings him to the symbolic order. It is only within the Church that humanity can encounter scriptures, sacraments, and ethics. This is done through participating in sacramental and liturgical rituals. The Word of God is truly at the mercy of the Body of Christ, who is the Church.

It is logical and natural that Chauvet would conclude his book on the sacraments with a discourse for pastoral ministers. His challenge is to accept the pastoral task for preparation of those seeking baptisms and weddings, accept the task of confronting those received into the Church with the Gospel and the profession of faith, and avoid falling into rigorism by remaining pastorally prudent.

Schillebeeckx honestly admits that all of his efforts to define the sacraments provide only a pale outline. It is in the sacrifice of the Mass and in the sacraments where we meet our Lord in His concealed presence creating a, “aˆ¦ longing that we must turn at once into Christian action.”

Reflecting on Schillebeeckx’s theology of the sacraments, Richard McBrien, author of Catholicism provides a clear summary when he states,

Apart from the sacramental principle, there is no basis for contact (encounter) between God and the human community. God is totally spiritual, and we are bodily creatures. Thus, it is only insofar as God adapts to our material condition that God can reach us and we can reach God. The embodiment of the spiritual in the material and the communication of the spiritual through the material is the sacramental principle. [aˆ¦] The essence of the Church, therefore, ‘consists in this, that the final goal of grace achieved by Christ becomes visibly present in the whole Church as a visible society’. The Church is not only a means of salvation; it is the principal sign, or sacrament, of salvation. It is not only an institution but a community. Indeed, it is an institutionalized community. The important missionary implication is not whether the whole world enters the Church but whether the Church itself gives credible witness to the presence of Christ and of God within the community.

For Schillebeeckx the sacraments of the Church are how the Church provides the reality of Christ to humanity. God unites Himself to humanity in Christ, who is humankind’s undeserved gift and greatest sacrament. Through this unity we are given the gift of identity as well as the gift of communication by which God can address us. The Church then, as the body of Christ, is and remains as sacrament for humanity. In our corporeal existence, we are therefore given access to the institutional sacraments, which are both significant, visible and accessible events as well as a means to our salvation.

Endnotes

So lets define the difference between apology, forgiveness and reconciliation. The following definition is from the Webster Dictionary. Apology is a formal justification, defense, excuse; an admission of error accompanied by an expression of regret. It implies an attempt to avoid or remove blame or censure. Steve Cornell posted on the web a really great insight into the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. Here he summarizes a key distinction:

“It’s possible to forgive someone without offering immediate reconciliation. It’s possible for forgiveness to occur in the context of one’s relationship with God apart from contact with his/her offender. But reconciliation is focused on restoring broken relationships. And where trust is deeply broken, restoration is a process-sometimes, a lengthy one”.

So why the importance of distinguishing the difference? Steve continues to explain why recognizing the difference is important:

“The process of reconciliation depends on the attitude of the offender, the depth of the betrayal, and the pattern of offense. When an offended party works toward reconciliation, the first and most important step is the confirmation of genuine repentance on the part of the offender (Luke 17:3).” So another word that can be used for reconciliation is ‘Transformation’. So when we sin we separate ourselves from God’s love or put a barrier between God and ourselves. We have deliberately, by our own free will, performed an act of disobedience against God. We can apologize to God, but it does not hold the person accountable to change or transformation of oneself. But if we ask for forgiveness resulting in reconciliation, we then are asked by God for a commitment to change in which a transformation takes place of ones lifestyle.

The sacrament of reconciliation can also be used as a sacrament of healing. A healing of not only our spiritual self but also our emotional and psychological being. Sin leaves ugly scars on a person. These scars can be emotional and psychological which can have physical effects. A person can go to a physician and be healed from the physical aspect but if the scars go deeper into the spiritual being of a person then one is not completely healed. A good example are women who have had an abortion. No term can adequately express the heartbreak that abortion causes, but for the purposes of identification we will call it Post-Abortion Trauma. Common feelings associated with Post-Abortion Trauma include guilt, grief, anger and regret. These feelings frequently manifest themselves through anti-social, self-destructive, and other abnormal behaviors. Many who suffer from Post-Abortion Trauma experience flashbacks, nightmares, and varying degrees of depression. The woman who holds a Christian worldview is very likely to begin, at some point after her abortion, to feel like a “second-class citizen” in God’s economy, even though she may know this to be incompatible with Scripture. She usually will either turn away from the church completely or try to “prove herself” by being good long enough until God will finally forgive her. Many post-abortive women, as we have already described, are secretly convinced that their transgressions are literally in a class by themselves, beyond the reach of God’s forgiveness. The more important task, then is to accept on an emotional level what they may already know on an intellectual level: that God’s forgiveness is already available, and that they must decide to reach out and grasp it firmly. There are three important aspects to this “firm grasp” on forgiveness: (1) knowing Who ultimately has paid the debt, (2) allowing intimacy with God to be restored and (3) understanding the difference between punishment and consequences.

The Bible clearly teaches that God has made provision for the forgiveness of wrongdoing. But the post-abortive woman often has a very difficult time believing that forgiveness is available for her selfish and catastrophic choice. Thus, in apparent contradiction to (or ignorance of) her own theology, she cannot accept God’s forgiveness. Instead, she continues to live in a compartmentalized state in which her head knowledge and her heart knowledge do not match. Like the person described in the Matthew 18 parable, she has been told of her Lord’s forgiveness; but her guilty emotions still demand that she pay her debt herself.

Restoring intimacy is the second aspect of forgiveness, and it is perhaps best understood in the parent-child relationship. When a child chooses to do something wrong, a healthy, loving parent needs only to know that the child is genuinely sorry for her actions for reconciliation and intimacy to be restored. In the same way, God only needs for us to verbalize our responsibility and sorrow for our action in order to restore intimacy with Him.

Finally, the third aspect of forgiveness has to do with understanding the difference between punishment and consequences, which are all too easily confused. For the post-abortive woman. a consequence might be infertility. It is tempting for her to interpret this as a sign of God’s continued judgment and rejection. Instead, she needs to understand God’s care for her, and His limitless capacity to redeem the fallout from unwise choices in a fallen world. God, as a loving parent, is as grieved as we are about the losses brought on by our choices. But living with the consequences of our choices is a key part of the uncoerced relationship God desires to have with us.

The sacrament of confession unveils us and humbles us before God. Confession removes barriers of sin so that the love from the Father can be completely received by us and then we in turn are strengthened to return that beautiful unconditional love back to the Father and share it with others around us, particularly our spouse. Christ conquered the death of sin at the cross- He became sin itself, died and defeated it through the resurrection. Ironically, it is through Christ, that our sin brings us to new life. The more we reveal of ourselves, the more we are forgiven- where there is much forgiveness there is much love and gratitude. Our anger dies, our bitterness dies, our resentment dies, our critical spirit dies, and our desire for revenge dies. We are now set free so that we ourselves may forgive and live a joyful, fulfilling marriage in and through the grace of Christ. It may be that at one time or another we have found the sacrament of Reconciliation a burden. Perhaps we even can remember an occasion when we said, “I wish I didn’t have to go to confession.”

But certainly in our saner moments we find Reconciliation a sacrament that we love, a sacrament we would not want to be without.

Just think of all that the sacrament of Reconciliation does for us!

First of all, if a person has cut himself off from God by a grave and deliberate act of disobedience against God (that is, by mortal sin), the sacrament of Reconciliation reunites the soul to God; sanctifying grace is restored to the soul.

At the same time, the sin itself (or sins) is forgiven. Just as darkness disappears from a room when the light is turned on, so too must sin disappear from the soul with the coming of sanctifying grace.

When received without any mortal sin on the soul, the sacrament of Reconciliation imparts to the soul an increase in sanctifying grace. This means that there is a deepening and strengthening of that divine-life-shared by which the soul is united to God.

And always, any venial sins which the penitent may have committed and for which he is truly sorry are forgiven. These are the lesser and more common sins which do not cut us off from God but still hinder, like clouds across the sun, the full flow of his grace to the soul.

It is a spiritual medicine which strengthens as well as heals. That is why a person intent upon leading a good life will make it a practice to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation often. Frequent confession is one of the best guarantees against falling into grave sin. It would be the height of stupidity to say, “I don’t need to go to confession because I haven’t committed any mortal sins.”

All these results of the sacrament of Reconciliation-restoration or increase of sanctifying grace, forgiveness of sins, remission of punishment, restoration of merit, grace to conquer temptation-all these are possibleonly because of the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, which the sacrament of Reconciliation applies to our souls.

Jesus on the cross already has “done our work for us”. In the sacrament of Reconciliation we simply give God a chance to share with us the infinite merits of his Son.

“Your sins are forgiven.”

(Luke 5:20)

t was many years and many struggles later that I realized that it is in the solitude of the confessional when I most live by the way (or power) of the cross. It is in the confessional that I become soulfully naked and surrender my sinful life to God. He then gifts me with new life (His Grace). It is through God’s grace that the possibilities for life become endless and exciting. Philippians 4:13 reads “I can do everything God asks me to with the help of Christ who gives me the strength and power.” Realize the sacraments are living. God is actually present in the sacrament of reconciliation through His grace (the power of the Holy Spirit). God loves humility so when I completely reveal my weaknesses and failings to God in the sacrament of reconciliation, God gifts me with His grace and through His grace HE inwardly strengthens me against future sin and temptation. The Holy Spirit fills me with love, joy, peace, true happiness and a feeling of being content no matter what my life circumstances may be. Ultimately, in the confessional, I am slowly being set free from the bondage of sin because in my deepening love for God I loose desire to sin.

There are number of controversies surrounding womans role in the church with woman in ministry being one of them. Should a woman preach. Is it appropriate for a woman to be a leader in the church? What does the Bible say about this issue? Although, a woman being a priest is an acceptable view in various churches it is still not widely accepted. This is one of the most debatable issues surrounding the life of the church with no ultimate conclusions made. Some people believe that the main role of a woman is to be a caring mother and loving wife. While others think that a woman is able to preach and can be an amazing priest or leader. However, this is definitely not the matter of men vs. women, or in other words, the discrimination of a gender. It is issue of woman’s role in the church, which basically arises from mistakenly interpreting Bible. In this paper I will explore the three diverging views on women in ministry in the church – (1) women can be a part of the church, serving as the preachers. (2) Women should fulfill their primary goal – to take care of the family, (3) Both men and women can be great leaders. One way to look at women in ministry in the church is to be supportive. In traditional Judaism a woman’s primary role is to be a mother, a wife, a housekeeper. Is this statement limits a woman’s eagerness to serve? The answer is no. Since traditional Judaism also claims that women have a big influence on all families’ spiritual life. Looking back to the ancient times, “Greek men considered women by nature intellectually inferior to men”. (Bell, 1994, p.197) They are the ones that teach their children about the truth of God. They are the ones who raise priests, rabbis, and the highest rulers of the church. The fact that women were not allowed to go to the synagogue does not necessarily mean that they have no rights into the ministry in the church and have no voice regarding the issues of the church. Religion does not simply appear only in the synagogue. The basics of the religion emerge at home, where women are spreading the Good News. “ There have been instances in which women have begun ministries, missionary endeavors, or Christian organizations only to be later displaced by men in leadership positions.” (Tucker & Liedeld, 1987, p. 435). This argument proves that women are able to set a good example, to be good leaders and serve others. “By showing hospitality, sharing the gospel, and giving generously to the needy, the women of the early Church contributed greatly both to the spread of Christianity and to the support of the Christian community of which they were a part.” (Lynn, White). Most of the times it is not a women’s decision to serve in the church, but the calling of Holy Spirit, that cannot be contempt.

On the other hand, there are many disagreements about woman being a priest. One of the main disagreements is that firstly she has to accomplish her main goal – childbearing and housekeeping. Men and women were created for different purposes, to fulfill his/her duties. Woman was sent to this earth in order to take care of the family. Having an important role in ministry in the church would not allow her to devote herself fully for the family. What is the purpose of serving in the church, if one’s children are not fed and crying at home? It is believed, that woman is not able to serve and take care of the family at once. If she is fully devoted to God, then there is no time left for teaching her own children. Another point, which is proved by Bible is that women should not have an authority over men, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man” (1 Tim. 2:12) or another verse emphasize that women should not teach or preach in the churches, “<...> women should remain silent in the churches” (1 Cor. 14:34). As it is mentioned in the book “Daughters of the Church”, “Then the argument runs: woman is not inferior, but God himself has ordained a submissive role for Church her that excludes certain church activities.” It is widely discussed that women are not allowed to have an important role in the ministry in the church simply because Jesus was a man. Also, his twelve apostles were all man. Catholic Church declares that “While He was on earth, Jesus chose men to be His apostles and He passed on authority to these men to carry out His work of preaching the good news and forgiving sins.” (The Priesthood, 2010) It is believed that there is a reason for that. Looking from this perspective, woman’s calling is to take care of the family, be modest and let the men to take a role in the ministry at the church. “When women care about the Church and sense the Holy Spirit calling them to share the Good News and nurture believers, the stained-glass ceiling used by Church to limit women’s authority quickly becomes oppressive. ” (Finger, Sandhaas, 2011, p. 67) In order to appreciate what God has said, one have to consider, that the boundaries for women to be an authority over men, does not necessarily mean that they cannot be teachers or spiritual leaders. “The Bible also does not restrict women from teaching children. The only activity women are restricted from is teaching or having spiritual authority over men. This logically would preclude women from serving as pastors to men. This does not make women less important, by any means, but rather gives them a ministry focus more in agreement with God’s plan and His gifting of them.” (Lynn, White) Therefore, women primarily should concentrate on their family and do not try to get involve into the life of the church and to obtain an authority over a man. Last, but definitely not the least, is the perspective that both women and men can encompass significant roles in the ministry at the church. I strongly support this view, since it can be proved by Paul’s saying that, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28) According to Bible, both men and women are created by the image of God. If people would interpret this statement correctly, without any routing around, it would be clear that actually women are equal to men. As long as woman and man are in Christ – they are one and the same. One’s calling or mission is not superior to the other. Theologians Tucker and Liefeld claim that “Christians-both male and female-should, like the Son of Man, come to serve, not to be served. Questions about authority in the church, and particularly about the ministry of women, might be resolved more biblically if attention were given to the fact that “ministry” means “serving”. (Tucker, Liedeld, 1987, p. 441). This statement concludes that women can also preach and serve if their calling would be interpreted as “serving”. As it was mentioned before in this paper, women are able to teach and to preach as good as men do. Therefore, if there appears a situation when women’s help is needed, she always can endure her ministry in the church. The most important thing is that women would not neglect her family. For proper interpretation of this issue Bible has to be understood in a full context. Most of the debates come from New Testament passages, however, Old Testament has many great proves of women in ministry. First of all, it is written in Genesis, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Gen 1:27) This issue goes along with the Imago Dei doctrine, since everybody is equal in the eyes of the Lord. God has no intentions to set a barrier between the genders. Also, there are many examples of women in ministry in early church. One of them is Deborah, who was considered as a prophetess. She was a judge of Israel, who demonstrated great leadership to the entire nation. Also, four daughters of Philip are excellent examples of how the Holy Spirit works trough women and allows them to contribute to making God’s promise come true. There are much more great examples how women did their contribution to the spread of Christianity and helped to fulfill God’s will. To my way of thinking, to restrict women’s role in all of the life of the church is an obvious denial of gospel. The only issue that could appear is that women can be too spiritually devoted. If this problem appears, she should focus on her primary duties. To be a mother and at the same time a spiritual leader is a big challenge. Therefore, this is the main issue why women could not be fully engaged in the life of the church. However, I do not find it inappropriate if a woman devotes herself only to God and serves people, if she has a calling from Holy Spirit. A great example is a Mother Teresa, who devoted her life for serving other. Till these days she is the most honored woman in the life of church. She had a great impact on millions of people and fulfilled her mission on earth in the best possible way. A famous orthodox priest once said, “Today women make enormous and significant contributions to human societies. Their nurturing rule role within the family as grandmothers, wives, mothers and daughters provide a stabilizing influence upon the structure of the family. Indeed as Christians, women provide the church irreplaceable assistance.” (Seraphim) From all of these examples, I can state that women can indeed have a great impact on other people, therefore the distinctive line should be eliminated regarding women versus men preaching and serving in the church. Based on the discussion provided in this paper, should women have a role in the ministry in the church? There are many diverse opinions regarding this issue, however, I would state that both, men and women could be a good leaders and both could have an important role in the ministry in the church as long they have a calling and it does not contradict their primary duties. I would claim that the issue of the role of women in ministry in the church is ambiguous. To my way of thinking, the main problem is false interpretation of the Scripture. People often take few Bible verses and interpret them in their own way, without a full context, meaning and deeper understanding of the traditional Judaism culture. It is ussualy based on narrow thinking; which is mixed with pagan understanding and is useful for some particular layers of society. In the traditional Judaism women were highly valued and had an important role to educate their children. Only because of an excessive responsibility that they had in family and their devotion to the beloved ones, they could not be fully engaged in ministry in the church. After all, every woman, no matter who is she, a mother or a wife, if she is dedicated to serving God, if she feels that she is called by Holy spirit to take care of others, she has to appreciate this gift from God and not be afraid to fullfill the God’s will. Women, who are actively involved in church’s life, are surrounded by many different assessments. Nowadays women are working in various theology departments or conferences. Even in LCC International University we have women proffessors, who are dedicated to their work and are willing to share their experience, knowledge and complete their missionary work. The main problem is that our thinking is biased and it is framed that only men can dominate and be great leaders. In my opinion, as long as you have a gift from God to lead, to teach, then there is no longer an issue if the leader is a man or a woman. If it fulfills God’s wish to spread the Good News, everyone could be a teacher. Overall, both men and women should be engaged in the life of church, and both can bring their contribution to all levels of ministry.