Gender, Power, and the Canon: A Feminist Theological Reading of Disputed Pauline Texts in Nigerian Church Contexts

This doctoral study presents an original feminist theological rereading of disputed Pauline texts frequently used to restrict women's roles in Nigerian churches, employing a multi-layered hermeneutical methodology that integrates historical-critical exegesis, African feminist hermeneutics, rhetorical criticism, and community reading processes. Texts including 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, 1 Timothy 2:11-15, and Ephesians 5:22-24 have been consistently cited in Nigerian ecclesial debates about women's ordination, leadership authority, and congregational participation, and their interpretation carries enormous institutional and pastoral consequences for millions of Nigerian Christian women. The study combines textual analysis with primary empirical data gathered from forty Nigerian women theologians, thirty male clergy, and eighty lay women church members across Pentecostal, Anglican, Methodist, and Catholic communities in Lagos, Enugu, Kaduna, and Calabar. Community reading sessions with women participants generate original indigenous feminist interpretations of the contested texts that challenge dominant complementarian readings. The study develops an original hermeneutical protocol for reading gender-restrictive biblical texts within African Christian communities that honours the authority of scripture while resisting the canonisation of patriarchal cultural assumptions. An original African feminist biblical hermeneutics is proposed as a contribution to both global feminist theology and Nigerian theological education. Keywords: feminist theology, Pauline texts, gender and canon, Nigerian church, biblical hermeneutics