1st Edition
This Female Man of God Women and Spiritual Power in the Patristic Age, 350-450 AD
By Gillian Cloke
Copyright 1995
256 Pages
by
Routledge
256 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
This book is a study of the contribution of women to the development of the newly legitimate Christian church in the twilight of the Western Roman Empire. There are many women noted for the example of their life in this period, regarded amongst the luminaries of the day; but while their male mentors, the patristic authors have retained their fame, the women who surrounded and influenced them have... Read more
1 INTRODUCTION ‘Holy’ women? 2 PATRISTIC PERCEPTIONS The sources and the problems 3 MODELS FOR PIETY IN A SOCIAL CONTEXT 4 ‘EUNUCHS FOR THE LOVE OF HEAVEN’ Avowed virginity 5 ‘THE CONTINENCE WHICH IS AWARE OF ITS OWN RIGHT’ The order of widows 6 ‘MARRIED SANCTITY I THE BED UNDEFILED’ Christian wifehood 7 MARRIED SANCTITY II: CHRISTIAN MOTHERHOOD 8 ‘NOT BY OFFICE BUT BY GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT’ The ministries of women 9 CONCLUSION Holy ‘women’: the imago dei revisited
Biography
Gillian Cloke took her research degree on women in the patristic age at St Andrews University. She is currently working as an administrator in Edinburgh.
'Its method is that of traditional documentary social history, avoiding the inaccesibilities and pretesions of some more literay and theoretical approaches. No single work has provided a better introduction to the theme.' – Theological Book Review
'This is a useful addition to the growing literature on women in early Christianity.' – Theology
'... a well-synthesised and lucid presentation of the aspirations and ideals that the Church Fathers imparted to the holy women of late antiquity.' - Journal of Gender Studies
'Gillian Cloke has made real contribution to the language and terms that we use in our discussion of gender in the Christian community.' – Intams
