Wayfare
Meet the Early-Day Saints: A Wayfare Limited Series
Meet the Early-day Saints Episode 3: Priesthood Offices and Women's Leadership Roles, with Ariel Bybee Laughton
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Meet the Early-day Saints Episode 3: Priesthood Offices and Women's Leadership Roles, with Ariel Bybee Laughton

“Offices are constantly evolving in a living church."

“Offices are constantly evolving in a living church, they're constantly adjusting to revelation and to the needs of the people, and that’s okay. It really does open possibilities for women in the future.”

In the Greco-Roman world of early Christianity, women were considered inferior to men. Dr. Ariel Bybee Laughton says Christianity offered new ways to think about the roles of women in society, and their power and authority waxed and waned over time. We discuss her chapter “Church Organization: Priesthood Office and Women’s Leadership Roles” from the book Ancient Christians: An Introduction for Latter-day Saints.

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About the Guest

Ariel Bybee Laughton is an independent historian in Houston. She earned her bachelor’s in history from BYU, and her master’s and PhD in religion from Duke University. 

About the Host

Blair Hodges earned a bachelor’s degree in communications (journalism) at the University of Utah and a master’s degree in religious studies at Georgetown University. He hosts Fireside with Blair Hodges and previously hosted the Maxwell Institute Podcast at Brigham Young University.

Cover art by Charlotte Condie

Discussion about this podcast

Wayfare
Meet the Early-Day Saints: A Wayfare Limited Series
Welcome to Meet the Early-Day Saints, a limited series produced and hosted by Blair Hodges.
In Meet the Early-day Saints, Blair will take you on a journey through time to meet the earliest disciples of Jesus. You’ll learn from a wide range of esteemed Latter-day Saint scholars who reveal the similarities and differences between ancient Christian faith and ours today. Throughout the series, some of your common assumptions may be challenged and in the process you’ll gain a deeper understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Each guest is a contributor to the new book Ancient Christians: An Introduction for Latter-day Saints, from the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship.
In our first episode, we ask what if the “Great Apostasy” wasn’t so great after all? Latter-day Saint scholar Jason R. Combs invites us to revisit our assumptions about the Christians who came before us. We discuss his chapter “Understanding Ancient Christians, Apostasy, and Restoration,” from the book Ancient Christians: An Introduction for Latter-day Saints.