Christian head covering is the veiling of the head by women in a variety of Christian traditions. Some cover only in public worship, while others believe they should cover their heads all the time. Although the head covering was practiced by most Christian women until the latter part of the 20th century, it is now a minority practice among contemporary Christians in the West, though it is still done in other parts of the world, such as Russia, Ukraine, India, Pakistan, and South Korea. The style of the Christian headcovering varies by region.
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Early Church
Christian head covering was unanimously practiced by the women of the Early Church. This was attested by multiple writers throughout the first centuries of Christianity. The early Christian writer Tertullian (150-220) 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." Clement of Alexandria (150-215), 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." Another theologian, Hippolytus of Rome (170-236) while giving instructions for church gatherings said "...let all the women have their heads covered with an opaque cloth..." "Early church history bears witness that in Rome, Antioch, and Africa the custom [of wearing the head covering] became the norm [for the Church]."
Later, in the 4th century, the church leader John Chrysostom (347-407) 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." Jerome (347-420) 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." Augustine of Hippo (354-430) writes, "It is not becoming, even in married women, to uncover their hair, since the apostle commands women to keep their heads covered." Early Christian art also confirms that women wore headcoverings during this time period.
Maps Christian headcovering
Historic Catholic practice
Head covering for women was unanimously held by the Roman Catholic Church until the 1983 Code of Canon Law came into effect. Historically, women were required to veil their heads when receiving the Eucharist following the Councils of Autun and Angers. Similarly, in 585, the Synod of Auxerre (France) stated that women should wear a head-covering during the Holy Mass. The Synod of Rome in 743 declared that "A woman praying in church without her head covered brings shame upon her head, according to the word of the Apostle., a position later supported by Pope Nicholas I in 866, for church services." In the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) said that "the man existing under God should not have a covering over his to show he is immediately subject to God; but the woman should wear a covering to show that besides God she is naturally subject to another."
In the 1917 Code of Canon Law it was a requirement that women cover their heads in church. It said, "women, however, shall have a covered head and be modestly dressed, especially when they approach the table of the Lord." Veiling was not specifically addressed in the 1983 revision of the Code, which declared the 1917 Code abrogated. 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.
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. Headcovering, at least during worship services, is still promoted or required among traditional Catholics.
Historic Protestant practice
Among the Protestant Reformers, Martin Luther, the founder of the Lutheran Church, encouraged wives to wear a veil in public worship John Knox and John Calvin, leaders of the Reformed Church, both called for women to wear head coverings in public worship. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, held that women, "especially in a religious assembly", should "keep on her veil".
Other commentators who have advocated head covering during public worship include John Gill, Charles Spurgeon, Matthew Henry, A. R. Fausset, A. T. Robertson, Harry A. Ironside and Charles Caldwell Ryrie.
In Sweden the use of veil was common in older times, but faded away in the early 20th century and when women in wider scales started going to church without a veil in the mid 1920s it caused little concern.
Headcovering, at least during worship services, is still promoted or required in a few denominations, such as some in the Anabaptist tradition. 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, the Hutterites, 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.
Historic Coptic practice
Coptic women historically covered their head and face in public and in the presence of men. During the 19th century, upper-class urban Christian and Muslim women in Egypt wore a garment which included a head cover and a burqa (muslin cloth that covered the lower nose and the mouth). The name of this garment, harabah, derives from early Christian and Judaic religious vocabulary, which may indicate the origins of the garment itself. Unmarried women generally wore white veils while married women wore black. The practice began to decline by the early 20th century.
Current practices
Styles
Tradition
Eastern Christianity
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. 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.
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. In the United States, the custom can vary depending on the denomination and congregation, and the origins of that congregation. Catholics in South Korea still wear the headcovering.
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 U.S. 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.
Western Christianity
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. These included many Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic Churches. At worship, in parts of the Western World, many women started to wear bonnets in lieu of headcoverings, and later, hats became predominant. However, eventually, in North America, this practice started to decline, with some exceptions including Christians who wear plain dress, such as Conservative Quakers, Mennonites and Amish, as well as Traditionalist Catholics. In nations in regions such as the Indian subcontinent, nearly all Christian women wear head coverings during Christian church services. In the United Kingdom, it is common for women to wear a Christian headcovering while attending formal religious services, such as church weddings. 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; male Witnesses are to remove any headcovering (hats) when representing even a small group in public prayer. Female members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) are required to veil their faces during a part of the temple worship ceremonies.
Nuns of the Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Anglican traditions often wear a veil as a part of their religious habit.
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.
Christian Bible/New Testament
1 Corinthians 11:2-16 contains the only passage in the New Testament referring to the use of headcoverings for women (and the uncovering of the heads of men).
Paul introduces this passage by praising the Corinthian Christians for remembering the "teachings" (also translated as "traditions" or "ordinances") that he had passed on to them (verse 2).
Paul then explains the Christian use of headcoverings using the subjects of headship, glory, angels, natural hair lengths, and the practice of the churches. What he specifically said about each of these subjects has led to differences in interpretation (and practice) among Bible commentators and Christian congregations.
Interpretive issues
There are several key sections of 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 that Bible commentators and Christian congregations have held differing opinions about, which have resulted in a diversity of practices regarding the use of headcoverings.
- Gender-Based Headship: Paul connects the use (or non-use) of headcoverings with the biblical distinctions between each gender. In 1 Corinthians 11:3, Paul wrote, "Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman." He immediately continues with a gender-based teaching on the use of headcoverings: "Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head. But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head."
- Glory & Worship: Paul next explains that the use (or non-use) of headcoverings is related to God's glory during times of prayer and prophesy. In 1 Corinthians 11:7, he states that man is the "glory of God" and that for this reason "a man ought not to have his head covered." In the same verse, Paul also states that the woman is the "glory of man." He explains that statement in the subsequent two verses by referring to the woman's creation in NASB, and then concludes, "Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head" (verse 10). In other words, the "glory of God" (man) is to be uncovered during times of worship, while the "glory of man" (woman) is to be covered.
- The Angels: In 1 Corinthians 11:10, Paul says "Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels." Many interpreters admit that Paul does not provide much explanation for the role of angels in this context. Some popular interpretations of this passage are (1) An appeal not to offend the angels by disobedience to Paul's instructions, (2) a command to accurately show angels a picture of the created order (Ephesians 3:10, 1 Peter 1:12), (3) a warning for us to obey as a means of accountability, since the angels are watching (1 Timothy 5:21), (4) to be like the angels who cover themselves in the presence of God (Isaiah 6:2), and (5) not to be like the fallen angels who did not stay in the role that God created for them (Jude 1:6).
- Nature & Hair Lengths: In 1 Corinthians 11:13-15, Paul asks a rhetorical question about the propriety of headcoverings, and then answers it himself with a lesson from nature: "Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her? For her hair is given to her for a covering." In this passage, some see Paul as indicating that since a woman naturally "covers" her head with long hair, she likewise ought to cover it with a cloth covering while praying or prophesying. Others interpreters see the statement "her hair is given to her for a covering" as indicating that all instances of headcovering in the chapter refer only to the "covering" of long hair.
- Church Practice: In 1 Corinthians 11:16, Paul responded to any readers who may disagree with his teaching about the use of headcoverings: "But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God." This may indicate that headcoverings were considered a standard, universal Christian symbolic practice (rather than a local cultural custom). In other words, while Christian churches were spread out geographically and contained a diversity of cultures, they all practiced headcovering for female members.
Interpretive conclusions and resulting practices
Due to various interpretive issues (such as those listed above), Bible commentators and Christian congregations have a diversity of conclusions and practices regarding headcovering. 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. While some Christian congregations continue to use headcoverings for female members, others do not.
- Some churches view Christian headcovering as a practice that Paul intended for all Christians, in all locations, during all time periods and so they continue the practice within their congregations. They base their interpretation on the God-ordained order of headship, gender-distinct "glory," the timeless role of angels, the universality of "nature," and the similarity between headcovering practices among the Early Church.
- Another interpretation is that Paul's commands regarding headcovering were a cultural mandate that was only for the first-century Corinthian church. Often, interpreters will state that Paul was simply trying to create a distinction between uncovered Corinthian prostitutes and godly Corinthian Christian women. Under that interpretation, a church will not practice Christian headcovering.
- Some Christians believe that long hair is intended to be the only headcovering that Paul describes (see 1 Corinthians 11:14-15). Feminist theologian Katharine Bushnell provides another interpretation that similarly teaches that Paul was not intending for women to cover their heads with a cloth covering.
See also
- Plain dress
- Complementarianism
- First Corinthians
- Ordinance
- Headscarf
- Veil
- Kerchief
- Coif
- Tichel, Orthodox Jewish headcovering
References
Further reading
External links
- Head Covering Through the Centuries - Scroll Publishing
- The Head Covering Movement | 1 Corinthians 11 For Today
- Creation, Culture, and Corinthians (1984) - John Piper
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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