‘Women and Spiritual Equality in the Christian Tradition’ challenges the common assumption in contemporary discourse that Christianity is exclusively misogynist by documenting the presence of a co-existent, and positive tradition based on women's spiritual equality. In chronological order, references and images of women in church writings and lay culture are explored, as well as the actual lives of women and their vitae. ‘Women and Spiritual Equality in the Christian Tradition’ is the first substantial study to document such a tradition and it gives long overdue life to the previously muted voices of women's equality in Western society's discourse on women.
Table of contents:
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The Spiritual Nature of Woman in Scripture and Early Christian Writings
Women in Early Christian Communities
Fourth-Century Theologians
Fourth-Century Women
Devotional Life and Mary in Late Antiquity
Early Medieval Saints: East and West
Early Medieval Monasticism and Church Life
The High Middle Ages: Hermits and Scholars
The New Spirituality and Medieval Culture
Late Medieval Mysticism and the’ Devotio Moderna’
Women in Late Medieval Sermons, Literature and the Arts
Reformation, Counter Reformation, and Enlightenment
Opinions of Women
Notes
Bibliography
Table of contents:
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The Spiritual Nature of Woman in Scripture and Early Christian Writings
Women in Early Christian Communities
Fourth-Century Theologians
Fourth-Century Women
Devotional Life and Mary in Late Antiquity
Early Medieval Saints: East and West
Early Medieval Monasticism and Church Life
The High Middle Ages: Hermits and Scholars
The New Spirituality and Medieval Culture
Late Medieval Mysticism and the’ Devotio Moderna’
Women in Late Medieval Sermons, Literature and the Arts
Reformation, Counter Reformation, and Enlightenment
Opinions of Women
Notes
Bibliography