Frauenordination im Kontext lutherischer Ekklesiologie: Ein Beitrag zum okumenischen Gesprach

Ecumenical Review, The, April, 1996 by Irmgard Kindt-Siegwalt

Christine Globig, Frauenordination in Kontext lutherischer Ekklesiologie. Ein Beitrag zum okumenischen Gesprach (The ordination of women in the context of Lutheran ecclesiology: a contribution to the ecumenical discussion), Gottingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1994, 206pp., DM58

The writer has produced an impressive piece of work with this book, which is her thesis accepted by the theological faculty of the University of Kiel in 1992. It is to be hoped that its avowed purpose of contributing to the ecumenical debate will quickly be fulfilled!

The question of women within the ordained ministry is still a topical and explosive issue, not least where the discussion is regarded as "concluded". The attempt in this book to provide theological justification for women's ordination places the whole complex of problems in a new light, and may help through its clear and differentiated arguments to relaunch the debate.

The work focusses wholly on the German-speaking world and, within that, essentially on the Lutheran debate as it was conducted in the German churches, particularly in groups belonging to the Confessing Church during the second world war and then in all the German "regional churches" during the fifties and sixties. Nevertheless voices from the Reformed and united churches are also given a hearing, and the author's findings deserve a response beyond the German national and confessional context.

Globig first asks Lutherans whether they are willing to rethink their response to women's ministry and service in the church on fully ecclesiological terms, that is, in regard to both the task of proclamation and the legal structure of the church. She sets out to measure all proposals made so far against the criterion of Martin Luther's fundamental theological and anthropological pronouncements. This procedure is surprising on two counts: the first is because Lutherans have already understood themselves, in this as in other matters, to be referring back to "the Reformer". The second reason is that, as Globig makes plain, Luther remained rooted in the "class thinking" of his day and, in fact, assigned women a role limited to domestic matters.

There is no question that today the role and function of women in the church need to be redefined. This follows from our changed socio-historical conditions and the modern democratic and emancipatory view of the church as an institution, and of its ministry.

If in facing this new situation Globig draws on Martin Luther, it is because the enduring theological weight of Luther's arguments is much more significant than the negative aspects of his statements, aspects conditioned negatively by the age in which he lived. Indeed, she shows that a proper grasp of the ecclesiological logic in Luther's theological approach will help to advance the present debate about the ministry of women in the church.

Alongside the doctrine of the "general priesthood of all the baptized", which is often recognized as fundamental, Globig highlights the importance of Luther's view of the image of God (imago Dei) in humanity. According to Luther, Christ restored the imago Dei, and this is true for men and women equally. Globig brings out the revolutionary quality of these doctrinal elements for ecclesiology, by anchoring them solely in the fundamental anthropological rule which Luther derives from the gospel: the justification of human beings by faith.

Until now, in discussions on the ordination of women, it has seemed possible for some to counter this by means of an ecclesiology that confirmed the "natural order" of creation, based on an interpretation of Ephesians 5:21f. But Globig not only draws attention to a misinterpretation, in the prevailing exegesis of Ephesians 5, of the analogical relation intended by Paul in this text. She also shows that Luther's supporters did not consider the spiritual nature of the equality of man and woman, in the creation as renewed by Christ, to be the basis for an ecclesiological order that would be given expression in the legal structure of the church.

One is perturbed to discover that this dimension does not appear in most discussions which refer to Luther. This is because ecclesiology has been understood entirely on the basis of an order of creation that remains remarkably unaffected by the significance of the Christ event for humanity. A passage such as Galatians 3:26ff. has, at any rate, not been fundamentally and systematically evaluated in this connection.

Globig's work is constructed with commendable clarity, and discusses a wealth of material, some of it previously unknown. This is true above all for the minutes of several meetings held within the Confessing Church in 1941 and 1942 on the question of women curates (Vikarinnen). These minutes have not previously been evaluated. It is astonishing how conservatively most experts -- setting aside the forward-looking ideas of E. Wolf and H. Diem -- argued both then and later. It is also astonishing that, at that time, women themselves went no further in their demands!