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===Women in the Church===
One topic generating an ever-growing discussion is the role of women in the early Christian communities. Were they given leadership roles? It is hard to deny that women were, in fact, entrusted with some level of authority in early Christian communities. Jesus himself has several close disciples that were women and seemed to challenge their traditional subservient role. As Irvin and Sunquist note, “Throughout his teaching and ministry he invited women and men alike to begin to live in a new family pattern that was non-patriarchal, doing so accord to the values of the coming reign of God.”<ref>Irvin & Sunquist, History of the World Christian Movement. (New York: Orbis, 2008), pg. 23.</ref> There are also several women that Paul explicitly grants authority to within his epistles, Prisca and Pheobe, and distinguishes them as leaders of various communities.<ref>For more on women in the early Church see: Ehrman, Bart D. Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).</ref>
===Conclusion===
