Macy argues that for the first 1200 years of Christianity, women were in fact ordained into roles in the church. He uncovers references to the ordination of women in papal, episcopal and theological documents of the time. Beliefs that women were not ordained, he shows, is based on a later definition of ordination; unknown in the early Middle Ages.
Gary Macy is John Nobili, S.J. Professor of Theology in the Department of Religious Studies at Santa Clara University.