Virgins Of God

Many of the institutions fundamental to the role of men and women in society today were formed in late antiquity. This path-breaking study offers a comprehensive look at how Christian women of this time initiated alternative, ascetic ways of living, both with and without men. The author studies how these practices were institutionalized, and why later they were either eliminated or transformed by a new Christian Roman elite of men we now think of as the founding fathers of monasticism. - ;Situated in a period that witnessed the genesis of institutions fundamental to this day, this path-breaking study offers a comprehensive look at how ancient Christian women initiated ascetic ways of living, and how these practices were then institutionalized. Using the organization of female asceticism in Asia Minor and Egypt as a lever, the author demonstrates that - in direct contrast to later conceptions - asceticism began primarly as an urban movement. Crucially, it also originated with men and women living together, varying the model of the family. The book then traces how, in the course of the fourth century, these early organizational forms underwent a transformation. Concurrent with the doctrinal struggles to redefine the Trinity, and with the formation of a new Christian --eacute--;lite, men such as Basil of Caesarea changed the institutional configuration of ascetic life in common: they emphasized the segregation of the sexes, and the supremacy of the rural over urban models. At the same time, ascetics became clerics, who increasingly used female saints as symbols for the role of the new ecclesiastical elite. Earlier, more varied models of ascetic life were either silenced or condemned as heretical; and those who had been in fact their reformers became known as the founding fathers of monasticism. -

Situated in a period that witnessed the genesis of institutions that have lasted to this day, this path-breaking study looks at how ancient Christian women, particularly in Asia Minor and Egypt, initiated ascetic ways of living, and how these practices were then institutionalized. Susanna Elm demonstrates that--in direct contrast to later conceptions--asceticism began primarly as an urban movement, in which women were significant protagonists. In the process, they completely transformed and expanded their roles as wife, mother, or widow: as Christian ascetics, they became `virgin wives', `virgin mothers', and `virgin widows' - with all the legal and economic implications of such a dramatic shift. As importantly, though, Christian men and women ascetics lived together. As `virgins of God' they created new families `in Christ'. No longer determined by their human bonds or human sexuality, they were `neither male nor female'. Finally, the book demonstrates how asceticbishops - today known as saints - eventually `reformed' these early models of communal, ascetic life by dividing the `virgins of God' into monks and nuns and thus laid the foundation for the monasticism we know today.

Thomas Shepard (1605-1649) was a New England Puritan minister. Forbidden to preach in England, he emigrated to Massachusetts in 1635. The most eloquent measure of his classic The Parable of the Ten Virgins is that there is a scarcely a page in The Religious Affections where Jonathan Edwards does not reference Shepard's work.

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In this book the author presents in detail the mysteries that adorn the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit... Mary, the Woman who gives life to the one who gave life to Her, the Mother who engendered the Being who engendered Her, the Woman who engendered her Own Being, The one who existed before all existence, The one who gave Being to the Creator of everything, the one who locked up the Immense and Infinite God in her breasts, the One who locked up in her guts who does not fit in the whole world, the one who held in her arms the one who supports everything, the one who had the obligation to exercise vigilance over the One who sees everything, The one who took care of the Being who cares for everyone, The one who touched the confines of the One who has no end, the Word made Woman, to be Mother and Wife of God, Our Lady of the Holy Trinity of the Holy Spirit, Her Own Being, that is God. En este libro el autor presenta detalladamente los misterios que adornan a la Virgen María y al Espíritu Santo... María, la Mujer que da la vida a quien le dio la vida a Ella, la Madre que engendró al Ser que la engendró a Ella, la Mujer que engendró su Propio Ser, La que existía antes que toda existencia, La que dio el Ser al Ser creador de todo, La que encerró en sus Senos al Inmenso e Infinito Dios, Aquella que encerró en sus Entrañas a quien no cabe en todo el mundo, La que sostuvo en sus brazos al que todo lo sustenta, La que tuvo obligación de ejercer vigilancia sobre El que todo lo ve, La que tuvo a su cuidado al Ser que cuida de todos, La que tocó los confines de Quien no tiene fin; el Verbo hecho Mujer, para ser Madre y Esposa de Dios, Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad del Espíritu Santo, su Propio Ser, que es Dios.