Christian headcovering

Christian headcovering is the veiling of the head by women in a variety of Christian traditions. Some cover only in public worship,[1] while others believe they should cover their heads all the time.[2] The Biblical basis for headcoverings is found in 1 Corinthians 11:2–16.[3] Though head covering was practiced by most Christian women up until the 20th century,[4] it is now a minority practice among contemporary Christians in the West.

History

Throughout the centuries of Church history, women have worn head coverings during the meetings of the church — that is, when "praying or prophesying" take place (1 Corinthians 11:5). The style of the covering varied at different points in history.[5]

Early Church

Fresco of veiled Christian woman, 3rd Century AD

Christian head covering was unanimously practiced by the women of the Early Church. This was attested by multiple writers throughout the first several centuries of Christianity. The early Christian writer Tertullian (150 - 220 A.D.) explains that in his day, the Corinthian church was still practicing head covering. This is only 150 years after the Apostle Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. He said, “So, too, did the Corinthians themselves understand [Paul]. In fact, at this day the Corinthians do veil their virgins. What the apostles taught, their disciples approve.”[6] Clement of Alexandria (150 – 215 A.D.), an early theologian, wrote, “Woman and man are to go to church decently attired...for this is the wish of the Word, since it is becoming for her to pray veiled.”[7] Another theologian, Hippolytus of Rome (170 - 236 A.D.) while giving instructions for church gatherings said "...let all the women have their heads covered with an opaque cloth..."[8]

Later, in the 4th Century AD, the church leader John Chrysostom (347 - 407 A.D.) stated, “…the business of whether to cover one’s head was legislated by nature (see 1 Cor 11:14-15). When I say “nature,” I mean “God.” For he is the one who created nature. Take note, therefore, what great harm comes from overturning these boundaries! And don’t tell me that this is a small sin.”[9] Jerome (347 - 420 A.D.) noted that Christian women in Egypt and Syria do not “go about with heads uncovered in defiance of the apostle’s command, for they wear a close-fitting cap and a veil.”[10] Augustine of Hippo (354 - 430 A.D.) writes, "It is not becoming, even in married women, to uncover their hair, since the apostle commands women to keep their heads covered."[11] Early Christian art also confirms that women wore headcoverings during this time period.[12]

Historic Catholic practice

Catholic Mass in 1968

The requirement that women cover their heads in church was introduced as a universal law for the Latin Rite of the Church for the first time in 1917 with canon 1262[13] of its first Code of Canon Law. It was not specifically addressed in the 1983 revision of the Code, which declared the 1917 Code abrogated.[14] According to the new Code, former law only has interpretive weight in norms that are repeated in the 1983 Code; all other norms are simply abrogated. There is no provision made for norms that are not repeated in the 1983 Code.[15] Some have argued that it is still obligatory, advancing several grounds for their opinion aside from the immutability of Holy Scripture, including the claim that headcovering for women is a centennial and immemorial custom (cf. canon 5 of the Code of Canon Law)[16][17] It was never universally obligatory for members of the Eastern Catholic Churches.

In some countries where women no longer as a matter of course wear hats when going outdoors, Catholic women do wear headcoverings in church. Traditionalist Catholic women do.[18] The forms range from a mantilla to a hat or a simple headscarf. If mantillas are worn, they are usually black (or any color but white) for married and white for unmarried women.

For men, the 1917 Code of Canon Law prescribed that they should uncover their heads unless approved customs of peoples were against it. In the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church it is obligatory for bishops to wear the zucchetto headcovering during certain parts of the liturgy, while use of the biretta, once obligatory for all diocesan clergy (as opposed to members of religious institutes), remains permitted for them. In all rites of the Catholic Church, bishops wear a mitre or a corresponding headcovering in church. Nevertheless, the mitre is removed in certain parts of the liturgy, and the zucchetto is also removed during the Eucharistic Prayer, which is always done uncovered, even for bishops, cardinals or the Pope.

Some religious orders such as the Benedictines and the Carthusians use the hoods of their habits to cover their heads during certain parts of liturgies.

Historic Protestant practice

Painting of Martin Luther preaching (all women wearing a head covering)

Among the Protestant Reformers, Martin Luther, the founder of the Lutheran Church, encouraged wives to wear a veil in public worship[19] John Knox and John Calvin, leaders of the Reformed Church, both called for women to wear headcoverings in public worship.[20][21][22] Other commentators who have advocated headcovering during public worship include John Gill, Charles Spurgeon, Matthew Henry, A. R. Fausset, A. T. Robertson, Harry A. Ironside[23] and Charles Caldwell Ryrie.[24] In fact, until the 20th century no Reformed theologian taught against head coverings for women in public worship. While Anabaptists, Amish, and Mennonites advocate the wearing of headcoverings at all times, as a woman might pray or prophesy at any time, the Reformed teaching is that "praying and prophesying" refers to the activities taking place in public worship, as the Apostle Paul is dealing with public worship issues in 1st Corinthians, chapter 11. Their proof text is that women are in the same epistle commanded not to speak in the meetings of the church, so the apostle is obviously not addressing a practice women are to observe while they are publicly praying or preaching themselves. Anabaptists disagree and many women in their communities are so concerned with violating what they believe to be a command outside of public worship that they wear headcoverings to bed and in the shower, as they might offer a prayer then as well, and thus be in sin. Reason, however, would dictate that if Christian women were to wear head coverings at all times, then men, who in the same passage are commanded to uncover the head, would always be forbidden to wear hats or cover their heads. The Reformers understood the head covering mandate for women in public worship to be a sign of her submission to her husband, as the Scriptures declare "Christ is the head of man, man is the head of the woman". Anabaptists have argued, however, that a woman is obligated to rebel against her husband if he forbids her to wear the covering at all times, for it is better to obey God than to obey man. (1st Corinthians 11:3)

In Sweden the use of veil was common in older times, but faded away in the early 20th century and when women started going to church without a veil in the mid 1920s it caused little concern and within a decade most agreed that Swedish Christian women were not veiled, nor ever had been, nor should be.[25]

Headcovering, at least during worship services, is still promoted or required in a few denominations, such as those in the Anabaptist tradition, as well as among the more traditional Catholics. Among these are Catholics who live a plain life and are known as Plain Catholics. Some Conservative Church of Christ members practice this. Many Anabaptist denominations, including the Amish, Old Order Mennonite and Conservative Mennonites, conservative Church of the Brethren, the Old German Baptist Brethren,[26] the Hutterites,[27] and the Apostolic Christian Church; some Pentecostal churches, such as the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, The Pentecostal Mission, and the Christian Congregation in the United States, like Congregação Cristã no Brasil; the Laestadian Lutheran Church, the Plymouth Brethren; and the more conservative Scottish and Irish Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed churches. Believers Church, a denomination in India that traces its apostolic succession through the Anglican Communion, holds the wearing of headcoverings among women to be one of its traditions as well.[28] In those Christian denominations which have no official expectation that women cover, some individuals choose to practice headcovering according to their understanding of 1 Corinthians 11.

Current practice in Eastern Christianity

Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church

Some Eastern Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches require women to cover their heads while in church; an example of this practice occurs in the Russian Orthodox Church.[29] In Albania, Christian women often wear white veils, although their eyes are visible; moreover, in that nation, in Orthodox Christian church buildings, women are separated from men by latticework partitions during the church service.[30]

In other cases, the choice may be individual, or vary within a country or jurisdiction. Among Orthodox women in Greece, the practice of wearing a head covering in church gradually declined over the course of the 20th century, and today is only practiced by very elderly women of a particular generation that is now over 80 years old. In the United States, the custom can vary depending on the denomination and congregation, and the origins of that congregation.

The male clergy of the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches often have long hair and untrimmed beards if they are monastics, but married clergy often have standard haircuts. Eastern Orthodox clergy of all levels have head coverings, sometimes with veils in the case of monastics or celibates, that are donned and removed at certain points in the services. In US churches they are less commonly worn.

Bishops, archimandrites and archpriests wear mitres when wearing their liturgical vestments, which have their own rules concerning donning and doffing.

Orthodox nuns wear a head covering called an apostolnik, which is worn at all times, and is the only part of the monastic habit which distinguishes them from Orthodox monks.

Current practice in Western Christianity

Samoan Assemblies of God women in ministry wearing hats

In Continental Europe and North America at the start of the 20th century, women in most mainstream Christian denominations wore head coverings during church services.[31] These included many Anglican,[32] Baptist,[33] Methodist,[34] Presbyterian[20][21][35] and Roman Catholic Churches.[36] At worship, in parts of the Western World, many women started to wear bonnets in lieu of headcoverings, and later, hats became predominant.[37][38] However, eventually, in North America, this practiced started to decline,[31] with some exceptions, such as among conservative Mennonites and Amish, and Traditionalist Catholics.[39] In nations in regions such as the Indian subcontinent, nearly all women wear head coverings during church services.[40] Female members of Jehovah's Witnesses may only lead prayer and teaching when no baptized male is available to, and must do so wearing a head covering;[41][42] male Witnesses are to remove any headcovering (hats) when representing even a small group in public prayer.[43] Female members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or "Mormons", are required to veil their faces during a part of the temple worship ceremonies.[44]

Scriptural basis

Hebrew Bible/Old Testament

Passages such as Genesis 24:65, Numbers 5:18 and Isaiah 47:2 indicate that some women chose to wear a head covering during the Old Testament time period. However, no Old Testament passage contains a command from God for women to wear a head covering.

There are non-canonical rabbinical writings head covering in relation to tzniut (meaning "modesty"), such as: Shulchan Aruch, Rabbi Jacob ben Asher's Stone of Help 115, 4; Orach Chayim 75,2; Even Ha'ezer 21, 2 4.[45]

Christian Bible/New Testament

1 Corinthians 11:2–16 contains the only passage in the New Testament referring to the use of headcoverings for Christian women, and the uncovering of the heads of men.

Interpretive issues

There are several aspects of 1 Corinthians 11:2–16 that Bible commentators and Christian congregations have held differing opinions about. One primary area of debate is whether Paul's call for men to uncover their heads — and women to cover their heads — was intended to be followed by Christians outside of the First Century Corinthian church.


The following are reasons for the belief that 1 Corinthians 11:2–16 does not call for contemporary Christians to practice headcovering:


Christians who believe that headcovering is a continuing practice taught by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:2–16 usually do so based on the following reasons:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Witherington III, Ben (1995). Conflict and Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians. Eerdmans. p. 236. “Paul’s view is that the creation order should be properly manifested, not obliterated, in Christian worship, especially because even angels, as guardians of the creation order, are present, observing such worship and perhaps even participating in it."
  2. ↑ Hole, Frank Binford. "F. B. Hole's Old and New Testament Commentary". StudyLight. Retrieved 6 February 2016. “There is no contradiction between 1 Corinthians 11:5 of our chapter and 1 Corinthians 14:34, for the simple reason that there speaking in the assembly is in question, whereas in our chapter the assembly does not come into view until verse 1 Corinthians 11:17 is reached. Only then do we begin to consider things that may happen when we “come together.” The praying or prophesying contemplated in verse 1 Corinthians 11:5 is not in connection with the formal assemblies of God’s saints.”
  3. ↑ 1 Corinthians 11:2-16
  4. ↑ Earle, Alice Morse (1903). Two Centuries of Costume in America, Vol. 2 (1620-1820). The Macmillan Company. p. 582. “One singular thing may be noted in this history, – that with all the vagaries of fashion, woman has never violated the Biblical law that bade her cover her head. She has never gone to church services bareheaded.”
  5. ↑ http://www.scrollpublishing.com/store/head-covering-history.html[][]
  6. ↑ Tertullian. (1885). On the Veiling of Virgins. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), S. Thelwall (Trans.), Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Parts First and Second (Vol. 4, p. 33). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.
  7. ↑ Clement of Alexandria. (1885). The Instructor. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria (Entire) (Vol. 2, p. 290). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.
  8. ↑ Hippolytus, and Easton, B. (1934). The Apostolic tradition of Hippolytus. New York: Macmillan, p.43.
  9. ↑ L. Kovacs, Judith (2005). The Church’s Bible (1 Corinthians). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. Page 180.
  10. ↑ Jerome. (1893). The Letters of St. Jerome. In P. Schaff & H. Wace (Eds.), W. H. Fremantle, G. Lewis, & W. G. Martley (Trans.), St. Jerome: Letters and Select Works (Vol. 6, p. 292). New York: Christian Literature Company.
  11. ↑ Augustine of Hippo. (1886). Letters of St. Augustin. In P. Schaff (Ed.), J. G. Cunningham (Trans.), The Confessions and Letters of St. Augustin with a Sketch of His Life and Work (Vol. 1, p. 588). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.
  12. ↑ Bercot, David. "Head Covering Through the Centuries". Scroll Publishing. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  13. ↑ http://www.intratext.com/IXT/LAT0813/_P42.HTM[][]
  14. ↑ Canon 6 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law
  15. ↑ Canon 6, section 2 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law
  16. ↑ http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0017/_P1.HTM[]
  17. ↑ Michael, Jacob (August 27, 2010). "Still Binding? The Veiling of Women and Meatless Fridays".
  18. ↑ The practice is not universal even among Traditionalists: as can be seen in this video, not all the women attending Mass in the church of St Nicholas de Chardonnet in Paris, which is run by the Society of St. Pius X, wear a head covering, even those singing in the choir.
  19. ↑ Susan C. Karant-Nunn, Merry E. Wiesner (ed.). Luther on Women: A Sourcebook. Cambridge University Press. p. 31. Otherwise and aside from that, the wife should put on a veil, just as a pious wife is duty-bound to help bear her husband's accident, illness, and misfortune on account of the evil flesh.
  20. 1 2 John Knox, "The first blast of the trumpet against the monstruous regiment of women", Works of John Knox, David Laing, ed. (Edinburgh: Printed for the Bannatyne Club), IV:377
  21. 1 2 Seth Skolnitsky, trans., Men, Women and Order in the Church: Three Sermons by John Calvin (Dallas, TX: Presbyterian Heritage Publications, 1992), pp. 12,13.
  22. ↑ Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 (and related passages)
  23. ↑ Epistle to the Corinthians, H. A. Ironside, 1938, pp. 323-340
  24. ↑ Ryrie Study Bible, Moody Press, 1976, comments on I Corinthians 11:1-16, p.1741
  25. ↑ As a veil: The Christian veil in a Swedish context Hallgren Sjöberg, Elisabeth ;2014
  26. ↑ Thompson, Charles (2006). The Old German Baptist Brethren: Faith, Farming, and Change in the Virginia Blue Ridge. University of Illinois Press. p. 33. ISBN 0-252-07343-6.
  27. ↑ Hostetler, John (1997). Hutterite Society. The Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 105. ISBN 0-8018-5639-6.
  28. ↑ "History of Believers Church". Gospel for Asia. Retrieved 23 May 2015. In our church services, you will see that the women wear head coverings as is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16. In the same way, we adhere to the practice of baptism as commanded in Matthew 28:19, and Holy Communion, which is given to us in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. These are all part of the traditions of faith of Believers Church.
  29. ↑ Gdaniec, Cordula (1 May 2010). Cultural Diversity in Russian Cities: The Urban Landscape in the Post-Soviet Era. Berghahn Books. p. 161. ISBN 9781845456658. Retrieved 27 October 2012. According to Russian Orthodox tradition women cover their heads when entering a church.
  30. ↑ Edwin E. Jacques (1995). The Albanians: An Ethnic History from Prehistoric Times to the Present. McFarland. p. 221. ISBN 0899509320. Retrieved 27 October 2012. Poujade (1867, 194) noted that Christian women frequently used white veils. Long after independence from Turkey, elderly Orthodox women in Elbasan could be seen on the street wearing white veils, although usually their eyes were visible. Turkish influence upon the Christian community is seen also in latticework partitions in the rear of the Orthodox churches, the women being kept behind the screen during mass.
  31. 1 2 Kraybill, Donald B. (5 October 2010). Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites. JHU Press. p. 103. ISBN 9780801896576. Retrieved 13 November 2012. During the 20th century, the wearing of head coverings declined in more assimilated groups, which gradually interpreted the Pauline teaching as referring to cultural practice in the early church without relevance for women in the modern world. Some churches in the mid-20th century had long and contentious discussions about wearing head coverings because proponents saw its decline as a serious erosion of obedience to scriptural teaching.
  32. ↑ Muir, Edward (18 August 2005). Ritual in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 31. ISBN 9780521841535. Retrieved 13 November 2012. In England radical Protestants, known in the seventeenth century as Puritans, we especially ardent in resisting the churching of women and the requirement that women wear a head covering or veil during the ceremony. The Book of Common Prayer, which became the ritual handbook of the Anglican Church, retained the ceremony in a modified form, but as one Puritan tract put it, the "churching of women after childbirth smelleth of Jewish purification."
  33. ↑ Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches 2012. Abingdon Press. 2012-04-01. p. 131. ISBN 9781426746666. Retrieved 13 November 2012. The holy kiss is practiced and women wear head coverings during prayer and worship.
  34. ↑ Morgan, Sue (2010-06-23). Women, Gender and Religious Cultures in Britain, 1800-1940. Taylor & Francis. p. 102. ISBN 9780415231152. Retrieved 13 November 2012. Several ardent Methodist women wrote to him, asking for his permission to speak. Mar Bosanquet (1739-1815) suggested that if Paul had instructed women to cover their heads when they spoke (1. Cor. 11:5) then he was surely giving direction on how women should conduct themselves when they preached.
  35. ↑ Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 (and related passages)
  36. ↑ Henold, Mary J. (2008). Catholic and Feminist: The Surprising History of the American Catholic Feminist Movement. UNC Press Books. p. 126. ISBN 9780807859476. Retrieved 13 November 2012. At that time, official practice still dictated that Catholic women cover their heads in church.
  37. ↑ Courtais, Georgine De (1 February 2006). Women's Hats, Headdresses And Hairstyles: With 453 Illustrations, Medieval to Modern. Courier Dover Publications. p. 130. ISBN 9780486448503. Retrieved 13 November 2012. Although hats were not considered sufficiently respectable for church wear and very formal occasions they were gradually taking the place of bonnets, at least for younger women.
  38. ↑ Mark, Rebecca; Vaughan, Robert C. (2004). The South. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 175. ISBN 9780313327346. Retrieved 13 November 2012. The red and orange turban described by the anonymous observer also looks forward to the flamboyant Sunday hats worn by African American middle-class women into the twenty-first century, hats celebrated stunningly by Michael Cunningham and Graig Marberry in Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats.
  39. ↑ DeMello, Margo (14 February 2012). Faces around the World. ABC-CLIO. p. 303. ISBN 9781598846188. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
  40. ↑ Haji, Nafisa (2011-05-17). The Sweetness of Tears. HarperCollins. p. 316. ISBN 9780061780103. Retrieved 13 November 2012. I went to church, something I'd never expected to do in Pakistan. Sadiq told me that his grandfather's nurse, Sausan, was Christian. Presbyterian. My second Sunday in Karachi, I went to services with her. I was glad of the clothese that Haseena Auntie had helped me shop for, because all the women in church covered their heads, just like Muslim women, with their dupattas.
  41. ↑ "Head Coverings—When and Why?". Keep Yourselves in God’s Love. Watch Tower. 2008. pp. 209–12.
  42. ↑ "Questions From Readers", The Watchtower, July 15, 2002, page 27.
  43. ↑ "Should You Cover Your Head During Prayer?", The Watchtower, February 15, 1977, page 127-128.
  44. ↑ “The Development of the Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 20 (Winter 1987): 33-76.
  45. ↑ Schiller, Mayer (1995). "The Obligation of Married Women to Cover Their Hair" (PDF). The Journal of Halacha 30: 81–108.
  46. ↑ Merkle, Ben. "Headcoverings and Modern Women". Archived from the original on January 3, 2011.
  47. ↑ Bushnell, Katharine (1921). God's Word to Women. Minneapolis, MN: Christians for Biblical Equality. ISBN 0-9743031-0-0.

Further reading

External links

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