For two years Kung guided a research project on Women and Christianity, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. For most of the religions of the world, women are a problem. From time immemorial they have been subordinate to men, second class in the family, politics and business with limited rights and even limited participation in worship. It is not only in Christianity that equal rights for women has been a neglected issue. By an examination of the history of women in Christianity, Kung points to the problems of the past. The prohibition of women servers at Mass and of the ordination of women to the diaconate and the priesthood are symptomatic of a male dominated Church, which takes a consistently negative attitude towards contraception, abortion and divorce. Roman Catholic Canon Law is androcentric and male dominated. Kung analyses the mistakes of the past and sketches out a new theology of women in the Church, which sees the role of women as being vital for the development of the Church as an institution and for preaching the Christian Gospel.
