This claim is frequently presented, whether implicitly or explicitly, as a correlative to the idea that Christianity often as personified by Jesus or
less frequently by Paul - was «goad» for women, paid them particular
attention, or at least offered them opportunities not otherwise available, to caricature, the ideal of «the Feminist Jesus».60 In an admirable and
scholarly article Leonard Swidler has marshaled historical evidences to show convincingly that Jesus was a Feminist.61 The politics of such a view is self - evident, for much study of the subject has developed within a context where women were struggling to establish a proper role for themselves within the contemporary church; to this end they have sought an egalitarian past to act as model for present polity.62