Call No One on Earth Your Father

This book brings a critique to the theology of the ordained ministry in contemporary Catholicism, a theology that fosters clericalism. It challenges a theology that views the ordained as ""set apart"" for a particular work over and against the laity. This book brings critique to current practices, including lifelong commitment to the ordained ministry, the requirement of celibacy for the ordained, and the exclusion of women from the ordained ministry.
The author examines history, reclaiming elements that have been distorted or forgotten, and asks, ""What is retrievable in the tradition that is freeing and redeeming for a renewed theology?"" The critique of the traditional theology and current practices in the ordained ministry and the retrieval of relevant elements of the tradition is a springboard for reconstructing a theology of the ordained ministry.
The model of the Trinity is suggested as an image for the ordained ministry itself and through its relational nature, the ministry of the whole church. The model of the Trinity sets the ordained ministry in its rightful context of the Christian community, where all of the gifts of the baptized are valued and where ministry is collaborative, non-hierarchical, and mutually enriching for the people of God.


""I read Josephine Armour's book, Call No One on Earth Your Father, with delight. It is very well written, very well argued, and very well researched. She critically examines the various arguments used by Catholic theologians to exclude women from the priesthood and finds them all unpersuasive. Positively, her argument is that women must be included in the leadership of the church for the health and well-being of the church. . . . What is so important to note is that men in power in both traditions have developed separate, irreconcilable, and tendentious arguments to exclude women from what they consider to be the most important ministry in the life of the church; for Catholics presiding at the Eucharist as a priest, and for evangelicals preaching the Word of God as a pastor.""
--Kevin Giles, evangelical pastor and author of What the Bible Actually Teaches on Women

""Josephine Armour's erudite call for a radical renewal of the Catholic Church offers all Christian churches a valuable gift. Her well-argued call for women to be incorporated fully into Christian leadership is urgent, if all the churches are to have any hope of recovering from the terrible damage that the patriarchal institution has inflicted on children in its care.""
--Muriel Porter, OAM, author of Sex, Power and the Clergy

""Call No One on Earth Your Father raises and explores many contemporary questions regarding ministry in the contemporary Catholic Church from a feminist and wider theological perspective. Its explorations and recommendations are well supported by the many contemporary authors quoted in the work.""
--Tony Densley, Catholic Priest

""Call No One on Earth Your Father offers a timely contribution when the church is reeling from scandal and searching for a way forward. Josephine Armour reimagines that way which is theologically sound, faithful, honest, and open.""
--Michael Trainor, Australian Catholic University


Josephine Armour is an adjunct lecturer in ecclesiology at St Barnabas College, Adelaide, South Australia.