Women in the Priesthood?: A Systematic Analysis in the Light of the Order of Creation and Redemption

by Manfred Hauke

This book should become the standard reference in the debate about women's ordination. The author cites copiously from American as well as European sources and presents the feminist position in the words and categories of the leading feminist authors. But, for the first time, the whole question is placed in the comprehensive context of anthropology, biology, psychology, philosophy, and theology. You will find a balanced presentation of the profound consistency of the Catholic Church's teaching and the practice concerning the role of women in the Church and in society. Written in a scholarly, yet very readable manner. "The work was accompanied by an ecumenical concern from the very start, to which I am indebted insofar as I have tried to take due account of the international debate on my topic, including the part played by non-Catholic Christian communities. I have, therefore, placed special value on the biblical foundations of the larger structure of the Catholic Faith, and have proceeded from there in connection with Tradition. I am very glad that an English edition will now be published in the United States, for here the topic of "women in the Church" is discussed with special fervor. On quite a number of pages, the reader will find references to the American situation and citations from American literature."
� Manfred Hauke "Undoubtedly the definitive work available on this important topic."
� Hans Urs von Balthasar Manfred Hauke, Ph.D. , is a German priest who teaches dogmatic theology at the University of Augsburg. He is very conversant with the leading literature on the topic of women priests and has written numerous articles on this and other theological topics.

Genres: Theology

500 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1988

About the author

Manfred Hauke was born in 1956 at Hannover (Germany). He spent his youth at Paderborn (Westfalia, Western Germany). His studies in philosophy and theology (1975-1981) finished with the doctorate in theology (directed by Leo Scheffczyk whom Pope John Paul II in 2001 nominated Cardinal for his scientific merits). The ordination to the priesthood (1983) was followed by four years of pastoral practise as a chaplain in the industrial area (Dortmund, Hagen). 1987 Hauke became assistant of Anton Ziegenaus, at the University of Augsburg (Bavaria), where he prepared his habilitation in dogmatic theology (1991). In 1993 he was called to the Theological Faculty of Lugano as professor for dogmatic theology. In 2001 he assumed also the lessons of patrology, whereas in dogmatics there is some accent on mariology. His scientific publications regard the whole area of dogmatic theology. He published monographies e. g. about the Priesthood of Women (doctorate), the doctrine of original sin in the Greek Fathers (habilitation), the Confirmation, the Feminist Theology, the theology of Cardinal Leo Scheffczyk, the mariological initiatives of Cardinal Mercier and Mariology (as a whole, a manual) (see below). He also does some pastoral work in the German speaking comunity at Lugano. Since 1992 he is member of the "Pontificia Academia Mariana Internationalis" (PAMI) and since 2005 president of the German Society for Mariology ("Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Mariologie", DAM). He is the editor of the scientific book series "Collana di Mariologia" (since 2002). His responsibility as coeditor regards the series "Quaestiones thomisticae" (since 2007), but also the reviews "Sedes Sapientiae. Mariologisches Jahrbuch" (since 2004) and "Forum Katholische Theologie" (since 2007); editor of the review "Theologisches" (since 2010). Since 1996, he is member of the editorial committee of the "Rivista teologica di Lugano" (since 2009 also vice-director); since 2007 member of the "Coetus consultorum" of the "Ephemerides Liturgicae"; since 2010 member of the "Advisory Board" of the review of the Theological Faculty of Kosice (Slovachia), "Verba Theologica".

Reviews

[Matthew Colvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hauke anticipated, in 1988, many of the arguments of more recent advocates of women’s ordination. For me, the highlights of the book include:
- Superb compilation of telling quotations from pioneers of modern feminism (de Beauvoir, etc) revealing their Gnostic war against embodied sexuality.
- Excellent treatment of 1 Cor. 14, thoroughly refuting the ideologically motivated movement within egalitarian higher criticism that would like to excise 14:34-35 as an interpolation.
- Good concluding section on the history of the question of ordination of women within the dogmatic theology of the church in the middle ages.

The weakest parts were:
- Hauke’s gigantic biological/sociological/anthropological/comparative religions grand unified theory, which will persuade no one, but which takes up a quarter of the book.
- Over-reliance on the controverted 1 Cor 14 as the core of his scriptural argument, to the neglect of a fuller picture of the relation of the sexes demonstrated from various texts.
- Inadequate use of Jewish sources (mostly just Billerbeck). Much more could have been done to better articulate the historical background of the NT’s teaching on women.
- Naive retrojection of the full-blown Roman Catholic theory of “holy orders” onto the earliest church. No cognizance of the house church background.
- Often tendentious Roman Catholicism that will make Hauke’s conclusions difficult for many Protestants.

Worth reading, but we really need a defense of male-only priesthood/presbyterate from a Protestant or Evangelical perspective. (And no, CBMW does not do it for me.)