Western historiography on women’s ministry in the Early Church

Abstract

The article attempts to highlight the stages and directions of the development of western (primarily, English-, French- and German-speaking) historiography on the example of the most significant monographs and articles devoted to women who performed church ministry in the Early Church: in particular, deaconesses, widows and virgins. The article shows the main problems in connection with which these topics have been studied, starting from the XVII century up to the present time, for example, in the context of the New Testament, the history of non-Chalcedonian Churches, etc. – both from the academic and gender positions of many authors. In Western fundamental theological and historical works, the ministry of women in the Early Church is considered in sufficient detail, but its study turned out to be closely related to current church issues: from «the Inner mission» and changes in the status of women in the Church in Modern times up to the revival of the order of deaconesses and female ordinations in protestant denominations in the XX century. The active interest of researchers, and especially women authors, to this problem will be closely connected with the general transformation («feminization») of Western society, in which women have begun to play a more significant role in all spheres of life.