The Honourable Chris Geraghty

How did Jesus relate to women and involve them in his life? And how did they respond to him?

The Honourable Chris Geraghty consults the Gospels to show how Jesus adopted a radically inclusive, counter-cultural approach to women, challenging the beliefs and prejudices of his community where women were inferior and, as far as possible, invisible.

It’s a matter of some surprise that the Christian churches failed to follow Jesus’ lead and include women, along with his male disciples, in governance and ministry. Instead, Christian leaders and theologians have accepted an ecclesial structure based on a male-only leadership which was grounded in a toxic, misogynistic attitude towards women – an attitude which has poisoned the life of the Christian movement down the centuries. Even today this same attitude is on display. Women are still inferior and excluded. By nature, as the argument goes, they lack the pre-eminence necessary to represent Jesus in ministry and to preside at the Eucharist.