Women in Early Christianity : Translations from Greek Texts

by Miller, Patricia Cox

• ISBN13: 9780813214177
• ISBN10: 0813214173
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-07-18
• Publisher: Catholic Univ of Amer Pr

Summary

From the fictional Thecla in the second century to the very real Olympias in the early fifth century, the history of women in early Christianity was as complex and rich as the religion itself. This comprehensive sourcebook brings together translations of a variety of ancient Christian texts that elucidate how women were perceived and portrayed in the Greek literature written in the second to the sixth centuries. The texts included in the volume have been generously excerpted, providing the modern reader with an in-depth view of the historical reality of early Christian women's lives as well as a nuanced perspective on the many ways in which women were understood in theological and ecclesiastical frameworks. Few documents written by early Christian women have been preserved; contemporary readers therefore do not have much direct access to these women's own perspectives on their lives and roles as Christians. Nevertheless, there are many kinds of texts that can be used both to reconstruct the history of actual women in early Christianity and to analyze the ancient ideologies and rhetoric that affected how they were perceived. This volume offers many different kinds of texts in order to present as complete a view as possible of early Christian women: documentary sources such as church orders and proceedings, popular narrative sources such as the novelistic apocryphal acts, biographies and lives of saints, and theological treatises on virginity and marriage. What emerges from these texts is a colorful portrayal of the many faces of ancient Christian women in their roles as teachers, prophets, martyrs, widows, deaconesses, ascetics, virgins, wives, and mothers. Whether celebrated assaints or denigrated as harlots, early Christian women were magnets of theological and social thought. The volume includes texts on women such as: The Virgin Mary, Thecla, Blandina, Macrina, Melania the Elder, Melania the Younger, Olympias, Pelagia, Syncletica, and Gorgonia. Patricia Cox Miller is W. Earl Ledden Professor of Religion at Syracuse University. She is the author or editor of numerous works including The Cultural Turn in Late Ancient Studies: Gender, Asceticism, and History (coedited with Dale Martin).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(14)
I. WOMEN'S ROLES IN THE CHURCH	15	(54)
Teachers	17	(14)
1. Marcellina	17	(2)
2. Melania the Younger	19	(3)
3. Macrina	22	(7)
4. Women, the Church, and Teaching	29	(2)
Prophets	31	(9)
1. Disciples of Marcus	31	(2)
2. Montanists	33	(7)
Martyrs	40	(7)
1. Blandina	40	(3)
2. Agathonice	43	(2)
3. Potamiaena	45	(2)
Catechumens	47	(2)
Widows	49	(13)
1. New Testament	49	(1)
2. Second-century Correspondence	50	(1)
3. Third-century Church Rules	51	(11)
Deaconesses	62	(3)
Writings Opposed to Women's Ecclesiastical Duties	65	(4)
II. WOMEN AND VIRGINITY	69	(84)
Female Comportment	71	(7)
Major Treatises on Virginity	78	(39)
1. Methodius, The Symposium	78	(16)
2. Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity	94	(11)
3. John Chrysostom, On Virginity	105	(12)
The Subintroductae	117	(33)
1. Athanasius, Second Letter to Virgins	118	(5)
2. John Chrysostom, Instruction and Refutation Directed Against Those Men Cohabiting with Virgins	123	(16)
3. John Chrysostom, On the Necessity of Guarding Virginity	139	(11)
Transvestism	150	(3)
III. PORTRAITS OF ASCETIC WOMEN	153	(98)
Ascetic Heroines in Literature	155	(37)
1. Thecla	155	(11)
2. Xanthippe and Polyxena	166	(14)
3. Maximilla	180	(12)
Biographies of Ascetic Leaders	192	(44)
1. Macrina	192	(15)
2. Melania the Elder	207	(3)
3. Melania the Younger	210	(18)
4. Olympias	228	(8)
Women in Desert Asceticism	236	(15)
1. The Nun who Feigned Madness	236	(2)
2. Pelagia	238	(9)
3. Theodora, Sarah, and Syncletica	247	(4)
IV. WOMEN AND DOMESTIC LIFE	251	(36)
Marriage	253	(23)
1. Paul, I Corinthians 7	253	(3)
2. Hermas, The Shepherd	256	(1)
3. Clement of Alexandria, The Pedagogue	257	(5)
4. Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies	262	(6)
5. John Chrysostom, Homily 12 on I Corinthians	268	(2)
6. John Chrysostom, The Kind of Women Who Ought to be Taken as Wives	270	(2)
7. John Chrysostom, Homily 20 on Ephesians	272	(4)
Praise for Mothers and Sisters	276	(11)
1. Gregory of Nazianzus, Funeral Oration for his Sister Gorgonia	276	(5)
2. Gregory of Nazianzus on his Mother, Nonna	281	(3)
3. John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood	284	(3)
V. FEMALE IMAGERY AND THEOLOGY	287	(38)
Eve-Mary Theme	289	(6)
1. Eve	289	(2)
2. Eve and Mary	291	(4)
Marian Literature	295	(12)
1. Marian Biography	296	(5)
2. Virgin and Mother of God	301	(3)
3. Marian Cult	304	(1)
4. The Other Mary	305	(2)
Female Images and Metaphors	307	(18)
1. God as Mother	307	(3)
2. The "Woman Clothed with the Sun"	310	(2)
3. The Church Personified as a Woman	312	(3)
4. The Soul as Female	315	(5)
5. The Virtues as Female	320
APPENDICES AND INDICES
Timeline of Early Christian Women	325	(1)
Timeline of Early Christian Authors and Texts	326	(2)
Suggestions for Further Reading	328	(5)
General Index	333	(4)
Index of Biblical Passages	337