Women In Christian Traditions

Description of the roles women have played in the construction and practice of Christian traditions, from the earliest disciples to the latest theologians.

Uncovers women's participation and impact on defining historical moments and themes of Christian traditions Women in Christian Traditions offers a concise and accessible examination of the roles women have played in the construction and practice of Christian traditions, revealing the enormous debt that this major world religion owes to its female followers. It recovers forgotten and obscured moments in church history to help us to realize a richer and fuller understanding of Christianity. This text provides an overview of the complete sweep of Christian history through the lens of feminist scholarship. Yet it also departs from some of the assumptions of that scholarship, raising questions that challenge our thinking about how women have shaped beliefs and practices during two thousand years of church history. Did the emphasis on virginity in the early church empower Christian women? Did the emphasis on marriage during the Reformations of the sixteenth century improve their status? These questions and others have important implications for women in Christianity in particular, and for women in religion in general, since they go to the heart of the human condition. This work examines themes, movements, and events in their historical contexts and locates churchwomen within the broader developments that have been pivotal in the evolution of Christianity. From the earliest disciples to the latest theologians, from the missionaries to the martyrs, women have been instrumental in keeping the faith alive. Women in Christian Traditions shows how they did so.

The Bible has been written, translated, and interpreted for centuries by men in cultures that were patriarchal. In patriarchy, women are subordinated within the gradations of a hierarchical society. Material on women, therefore has often been misinterpreted or overlooked. In some instances, generic nouns and pronouns in the original languages have been translated into English as masculine words. A careful textual study must be made using all the available tools of biblical scholarship. An accurate understanding of the meaning of words must be sought. Also, readers must try to discern the intentions of the author and try to gain a knowledge of the historical and social background of the biblical material. The demands of God must be distinguished from the demands of a particular culture. The bible as a whole makes it clear that God's people are to bring justice and wholeness to all human beings. the injunctions that degrade women do not provide principles valid for every age of Christianity but instead reflect cultural situations in which men related to women through dominance. The standard for the Christian community today should be the glimmers of female dignity and leadership that shine through the pages of the Bible.

Description of the roles women have played in the construction and practice of Christian traditions, from the earliest disciples to the latest theologians.

Christianity has long been criticized as a patriarchal religion. But during its two-thousand-year history, the faith has been influenced and passed down by faithful women. Martyrs and nuns, mystics and scholars, writers and reformers, preachers and missionaries, abolitionists and evangelists, these women are examples to us of faith, perseverance, forgiveness, and fortitude. With gracious irreverence, Ruth Tucker offers engaging and candid profiles of some of the most fascinating women of Christian history. From the famous to the infamous to the obscure, women like Perpetua, Joan of Arc, Teresa of Avila, Anne Hutchinson, Susanna Wesley, Ann Judson, Harriet Tubman, Fanny Crosby, Hannah Whitehall Smith, Corrie ten Boom, and Mother Teresa, along with dozens of others, come to vivid life. Perfect for small groups, these portraits of women who changed the world in their own significant way will spark lively discussion and inspire today's Christians to lives of faithful witness.

Great Women in Christian History tells the stories of 37 notable women-women who have served God's kingdom as missionaries, martyrs, educators, charitable workers, wives, mothers, and instruments of justice. With its colorful anecdotes, biographical facts and actual words, this book will enrich, inform and motivate history enthusiasts, teachers, homeschoolers and the general reader alike.

Lynn Cohick provides an accurate and fulsome picture of the earliest Christian women by examining a wide variety of first-century Jewish and Greco-Roman documents that illuminate their lives. She organizes the book around three major spheres of life: family, religious community, and society in general. Cohick shows that although women during this period were active at all levels within their religious communities, their influence was not always identified by leadership titles nor did their gender always determine their level of participation. The book corrects our understanding of early Christian women by offering an authentic and descriptive historical picture of their lives. Includes black-and-white illustrations from the ancient world.

A unique anthology. Barbara MacHaffie has collected into one volume 74 of the most important Christian documents and passages by and about women. Ranging from Genesis to now, these primary sources put the reader directly in touch with the most significant and influential events, personalities and issues of women's religious history. Often lamentably and sometimes gloriously, these voices—ancient and modern, female and male, Roman Catholic and Protestant, feminist and patriarchal—bear decisively on women's identities today.