The Joy of Enacted Virtue

Abstract

There is compelling reason to change the traditional practice of the Orthodox Church and begin taking active steps towards the inclusion of women in all the ministries of the church, including the sacramental priesthood. According to the French Orthodox theologian Élisabeth Behr-Sigel, initial responses to the issue contradict patristic views of the priesthood and undermine key aspects of Orthodox Christology, soteriology, and theology of icons. This dissertation extends the work of Behr-Sigel by carefully reading traditional texts, images, and liturgy in light of contemporary concerns. Five claims support women's participation in the priesthood. First, Gregory of Nazianzus and John Chrysostom present the priesthood as an eikon of the "new humanity" exemplified in Christ, in which we see embodied and enacted charisms, capabilities, functions, and virtues. Second, these charisms, capabilities, and virtues are evoked by multiple, contextual models and metaphors, none of which requires or prioritizes a male-bodied presider. Instead, as both a model and symbol, the presider serves as a dynamic eikon of the virtuous relationships that characterize the fuller humanity into which all are called via theosis. Third, iconic theology and practice consistently affirm the use of diverse media (included sexed persons) through which we see our "new humanity" embodied in unique persons who enact virtuous relationships. Denial of uniqueness and reduction to a particular quality or material is a form of blindness, a fixed rather than iconic "gaze." Fourth, the liturgy is an icon of the reign of God made visible through patterns of actions, that is ritual practices that teach participants how to relate in virtue to both God and neighbor. The liturgy is a primary locus for the `social construction' of virtuous persons-in-relation, and its practices either permit or prevent us from recognizing the unique irreducibility of our neighbor in both our ecclesial and human community. Fifth, the liturgical exclusion of women is a failure to love rooted in a gaze that fixates on sex rather than the unique and gifted human person before us. The church fails to enact its own eschatological hope when it reduces its members to a particular quality or capability. This failure is not, however, the last word. The church, through its theology and practice is that place where we become who we are. Therefore, it is called to recognize its participants as persons, to encourage their gifts, to receive their gifts, and as a community, offer those gifts for the life of the world.