Women Officeholders In Early Christianity

Here Ute E. Eisen provides a scholarly investigation of the evidence that women held offices of authority in the first centuries of Christianity. Topics include apostles, prophets, theological teachers, presbyters, enrolled widows, deacons, bishops, and oikonomae. The book concludes with a chapter on "source-oriented perspectives for a history of Christian women in official positions."

In a time when the ordination of women is an ongoing and passionate debate, the study of women's ministry in the early church is a timely and significant one. There is much evidence from documents, doctrine, and artifacts that supports the acceptance of women as presbyters and deacons in the early church. While this evidence has been published previously, it has never before appeared in one complete English-language collection. With this book, church historians Kevin Madigan and Carolyn Osiek present fully translated literary, epigraphical, and canonical references to women in early church offices. Through these documents, Madigan and Osiek seek to understand who these women were and how they related to and were received by, the church through the sixth century. They chart women's participation in church office and their eventual exclusion from its leadership roles. The editors introduce each document with a detailed headnote that contextualizes the text and discusses specific issues of interpretation and meaning. They also provide bibliographical notes and cross-reference original texts. Madigan and Osiek assemble relevant material from both Western and Eastern Christendom.

This authoritative collection brings together the latest thinking on women's leadership in early Christianity. Featuring contributors from key thinkers in the fields of Christian history, it considers the evidence for ways in which women exercised leadership in churches from the 1st to the 9th centuries CE.

This important work discusses the new insights that feminist scholarship has brought to the study of the Bible and of other early Christian literature.Professor Heine comments on modern feminist interpretations of the life of Jesus, the crucifixion, Paul, Gnosticism, and other topics.The author finds in the views of some other feminists and aversion toward traditional historical critical methods in favor of responding to the subjectivist impact of the texts. She issues an appeal for a reappraisal--a second stage in the feminist movement that would be open to analysis and correction. What is needed is more rigorous application of scholarly methods to "counter prejudices through criticism, and negative experiences through active hope." If indeed Gal. 3:28 ("there is neither male nor female") reflects the practice and teaching of Jesus, then the church must conform to it, and women are freed from the need to seek legitimation from history or elsewhere.Dr. Heine brings an important--often sobering--new voice, a balanced and reasoned assessment of the repression and oppression of women in early Christianity.

The purpose of this book is to explain the role and place of women in Early Christianity as it emerges from the writings of the Fathers of the Church. It does not deal with the materials of the New Testament on women except in so far as the Fathers rely or comment on them, or when they provide models of institutions or types of life.

First Published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This focused look at women in the household context discusses the importance of issues of space and visibility in shaping the lives of early Christian women. Several aspects of women's everyday existence are investigated, including the lives of wives, widows, women with children, female slaves, women as patrons, household leaders, and teachers. In addition, several key themes emerge: hospitality, dining practices, and the extent of female segregation.

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.