Christian Women in the Patristic World , livre ebook

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168 pages

English

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From facing wild beasts in the arena to governing the Roman Empire, Christian women--as preachers and philosophers, martyrs and empresses, virgins and mothers--influenced the shape of the church in its formative centuries. This book provides in a single volume a nearly complete compendium of extant evidence about Christian women in the second through fifth centuries. It highlights the social and theological contributions they made to shaping early Christian beliefs and practices, integrating their influence into the history of the patristic church and showing how their achievements can be edifying for contemporary Christians.

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

Christian theology

History of religions

Christianity

Informations

Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	03 octobre 2017
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781493410217
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	10 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1008€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2017 by Lynn H. Cohick and Amy Brown Hughes
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2017
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017018733
ISBN 978-1-4934-1021-7
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Endorsements
“I constantly encourage students and pastors to tell more stories about women in the early church from the pulpit, in classes, and in casual conversations. The common response, which opens a window onto a bleak landscape in their knowledge and in the church’s history with women, is this question: ‘Where can I find those stories?’ Christian Women in the Patristic World is now the answer, as it populates that bleak landscape with dynamic women. This is a book for every pastor’s and teacher’s bookshelf because it not only tells stories about women but also shows how the early church, which has often been maligned for its reputation when it comes to women, was more formed by women than many know.”
— Scot McKnight , Northern Seminary
“Poet Mourid Al Barghouti has famously said, ‘If you want to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and to start with, “secondly.”’ If we start with Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa and not with Macrina, their sister, who influenced and guided them, we end up with a truncated understanding of Cappadocian theology. If we start with Augustine the bishop and not with Monica’s influence on her son, we will scarcely understand the Theologian of the Heart. In this book, Cohick and Hughes begin where good history ought to begin: with ‘firstly.’ They bring to the fore the often overlooked protomartyrs, theologians, teachers, ascetics, and politicians of the early church—the dispossessed women whose stories animated the imagination of Christians for centuries and whose influence, authority, and legacy has been preserved in the literary and material record. This is an exceptional book.”
— George Kalantzis , Wheaton Center for Early Christian Studies, Wheaton College
“Lynn Cohick and Amy Brown Hughes bring a welcome gift to patristic scholarship and to the classroom with this volume. Skillfully weaving together the most recent and cogent scholarship on women in early Christianity, they successfully show the critical and integrative contributions of early Christian women to the complex development of Christian theology, literature, liturgy, and monasticism. Theologically nuanced, historically informed, contextually careful, and delightfully written, this book will both enlighten and challenge readers, scholars, and students alike.”
— Helen Rhee , Westmont College
“This sophisticated and wide-ranging study will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the status and roles of women in the early Christian world. Abundantly illustrated and sensitive to the many problems of interpretation posed by sources, it takes us on an exhilarating ride from the second to the fifth century. Cohick and Hughes model the practice of ‘responsible remembrance’ that they encourage in their readers.”
— David G. Hunter , University of Kentucky
Dedication
To Scott and Sally Harrison, parents of Lynn H. Cohick
To Yvonne Brown, grandmother of Amy Brown Hughes, memory eternal!
Contents
Cover i
Title Page ii
Copyright Page iii
Endorsements iv
Dedication v
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction xix
1. Thecla: Christian Female Protomartyr and Virgin of the Church 1
2. Perpetua and Felicitas: Mothers and Martyrs 27
3. Christian Women in Catacomb Art 65
4. From Pagan to Christian, Martyr to Ascetic 89
5. Helena Augusta, “Mother of the Empire” 109
6. Egeria’s Itinerary and Christian Pilgrimage 127
7. Macrina the Ascetic Entrepreneur and the “Unlearned” Wisdom of Monica 157
8. Paula, Marcella, and the Melanias: Ascetics, Scholars, and Compatriots in Controversy 189
9. Aelia Pulcheria, “Protectress of the Empire,” and Empress Eudocia, a Theological Poet 219
Conclusion: Responsibly Remembering 253
Bibliography 261
Index of Ancient Sources 279
Index of Subjects 285
Back Cover 293
Illustrations
Time Line of Major Persons and Events xvii
1.1 St. Thecla listening to Paul 4
1.2 Thecla stands triumphant next to lions 6
1.3 Thecla’s initial encounter with Paul 17
1.4 St. Thecla monastery 21
2.1 Death of Perpetua, Felicitas, and other martyrs 37
2.2 Mosaic of Perpetua 43
2.3 Mosaic of Felicitas 56
3.1 Fractio Panis 66
3.2 Catacomb of Callixtus 72
3.3 Woman in orans pose 76
3.4 Banquet in the Catacomb of Marcellinus and Peter 83
3.5 St. Agnes in the orans pose 87
5.1 Coin depicting Helena Augusta 115
5.2 Helena Augusta’s discovery of the True Cross 119
5.3 The True Cross raises a man from the dead 122
6.1 Map: The Roman Empire at the time of Constantine 129
6.2 Map: The Eastern dioceses 136
6.3 Mosaic of Jerusalem 144
6.4 Monastery of St. Catherine 154
7.1 The Penitent Magdalene by Donatello 159
7.2 St. Macrina the Younger 167
7.3 The Saint Augustine Taken to School by Saint Monica by di Pietro 185
7.4 Augustine and Monica 186
7.5 Monica’s tomb 187
8.1 St. Jerome with St. Paula and St. Eustochium 192
8.2 St. Paula and her nuns 202
8.3 Melania the Younger 216
9.1 Coin depicting Aelia Pulcheria 227
9.2 Reliquary procession 232
9.3 Coin depicting Aelia Eudocia 241
9.4 “Hagia Eudokia” (Holy Eudocia) 246
Sculpture of Marie Wilkinson 258
Acknowledgments
A casual conversation, sharing a similar vision about research into early Christian women, grew over three years into this book. We are indebted to family, friends, and colleagues who encouraged and supported our efforts over the last few years as the dream became a reality. We are grateful to James Ernest, then executive editor at Baker Academic, who supported and guided this project through its initial stages. His encouragement and wise counsel helped shape its content and scope. James handed over the reins of the project to the capable hands of Bryan Dyer, acquisitions editor at Baker Academic. We deeply appreciate the energy and sound advice he provided in bringing this book to completion.
To the Wheaton College PhD students Jeremy Otten and Caleb Friedeman, many thanks for your painstaking editing and double-checking footnotes and bibliography. We express gratitude to Emrie Smith, a Christian Ministries major at Gordon College, for her careful help indexing our volume.
Thanks also to the editors, Carrie Schroeder and Catherine Chin, and the other contributors to Melania: Early Christianity through the Life of One Family for granting us access to your marvelous book ahead of its release date (University of California Press, 2016).
I (Lynn) am thankful for Wheaton College providing me a yearlong sabbatical to get to know the characters that animate these ancient stories and explore the lives of these ancient women. And I am grateful to the women in my family who shaped me: my mother, Sally, my sister, Ann Louise, and my grandmother, Elise Louise Garden Duncan Harrison, whose stories of life in the early 1900s fascinated me and planted the love of history deep within me.
I (Amy) am thankful for Gordon College granting me some space in my first-year teaching schedule to bring this book to fruition and for my husband, Benjie, who listened to all my stories about Thecla and Macrina and empresses. I am also grateful to George Kalantzis, my Doktorvater and friend who helped me to learn how not to hedge or hesitate and to speak boldly and take risks. Many women have shepherded, mentored, and taught me over the years. I am grateful for my mom and my sister, my dear friends and colleagues from my graduate work at Wheaton, and those who have pastored me from their kitchen tables and from the pulpit.
Abbreviations
General AM anno mundi (in the year of the world) b. born BCE before the Common Era ca. circa , approximately CE Common Era cf. confer , compare chap(s). chapter(s) d. died ed(s). editor(s), edited by, edition esp. especially ET English translation et al. et alii , and others i.e. id est , that is NASB New American Standard Version repr. reprint(ed) rev. revised (by) sing. singular trans. translator(s), translated by
Ancient Sources Aen. Virgil, Aeneid An. Gregory of Nyssa, De anima et resurrectione cum sorore sua Macrina dialogus ( Dialogue on the Soul and the Resurrection with His Sister Macrina ) An. Tertullian, De anima ( On the Soul ) Ann. Tacitus, Annales ( Annals ) APTh Acts of Paul and Thecla Barn. Epistle of Barnabas Beat. Augustine, De vita beata ( On the Happy Life ) Cels. Origen, Contra Celsum ( Against Celsus ) Chron. John Malalas, Chronicon ( Chronicle ) Chron. Pasch. [anonymous], Chronicon Paschale (Paschal Chronicle) Conf. Augustine, Confessiones ( Confessions ) 1 Cor. 1 Corinthians Dial. Justin Martyr, Dialogus cum Tryphone ( Dialogue with Trypho ) Did. Didache (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) Ep. [various authors], Epistulae ( Epistles/Letters ) Eph. Ephesians Exod. Exodus Ezek. Ezekiel Gal. Galatians Gen. Genesis Haer. Hippolytus, Refutatio omnium haeresium ( Refutation of All Heresies ) Haer. Irenaeus, Adversus haereses ( Against Heresies ) Heb. Hebrews Hist. Livy, Ab urbe condita libri ( Books from the Foundation of the City = History of Rome [and the Roman People] ) Hist. Rufinus, Eusebii Historia ecclesiastica a Rufino translata et continuata ( Eusebi