1st Edition
Women in Christianity in the Medieval Age 1000–1500
Introduction
Laura Kalas and Roberta Magnani
1 Theological Approaches to Women 1000–1550
Hazel Davis and Louise Nelstrop
2 Mary in the Middle Ages: A Woman for All Women
Sue Niebrzydowski
3 Saints’ Lives: Bodies, Texts, and Readers in Medieval Lives of Female Saints
Shari Horner
4 Embodying Medieval Holy Women: Science, Technology, and Medicine
Laura Kalas
5 Women as Educators in Medieval Europe: Learners, Teachers, Mentors
Deborah Youngs
6 Philosophical Views of Women
Nicole Wyatt
7 Women and Popular Beliefs
Hannah Skoda
8 Representations: The Image and Experience of Women in Medieval Christian Art
Miriam Gill
Biography
Laura Kalas is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Literature at Swansea University, UK. She is the author of Margery Kempe’s Spiritual Medicine: Suffering, Transformation and the Life- Course (2020) and coeditor of Encountering The Book of Margery Kempe (2021). Her research focuses on medieval religious culture and especially writings by, and about, women, on medicine, materiality, and devotion.
Roberta Magnani is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Literature at Swansea University, UK. Her research interests lie in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer and late medieval manuscript culture with a specific focus on queer and trans theory. She has co-edited with Diane Watt a Special Issue of the journal postmedieval entitled ‘Queer Manuscripts’.
“This valuable, engaging and wide-ranging volume offers a comprehensive examination of the role of women in European Christianity between 1000 and 1500. The introduction is clearly written and highly informative. The chapters approach the subject from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, variously addressing women in philosophy, theology and religion, popular belief, medicine and science, education, and art. While patriarchal Christianity could certainly be oppressive and restrictive, this volume emphasises that women were central to the medieval religious world and that, in a whole variety of ways, they were able to demonstrate agency in their devotional lives.”
- Diane Watt, Professor of Medieval English Literature, University of Surrey
