medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Prudence Allen's work noted below now has a second volume dealing with
the later Middle Ages: _The Concept of Woman: Vol. II, The Early
Humanist Reformation, 1250-1500_ (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans,
2002).
A potential problem both with many of the books on Gary Macy's list and
with those recommended by others in response to Sara's original question
is their relative narrowness of focus vis-a-vis the European Middle Ages
in its entirety. They usually concentrate on aspects of the _western_
Middle Ages only and generally have the grace to say so, often
explicitly, in their prefatory remarks. But in this regard the titles
and subtitles of these books, to say nothing of their ordinary
discursive practices, are frequently less discriminating. So unless one
is alert to the reductivism inherent in such usages as "the Middle Ages"
for "the Western (or "Latin" or "Latino-Germanic") Middle Ages" and "the
Church" for the "the church of Rome" one runs the risk of taking their
subject matter as normative for the Middle Ages as a whole.
For issues of church doctrine and church writings vis-a-vis women in
parts of medieval Europe where people looked for guidance more to
Constantinople than to Rome, good places to begin (at least if one is
Anglophone) might be the articles on "Women" in _The Oxford Dictionary
of Byzantium_ and _The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity_.
Both of these have brief but useful bibliographies. The former's
article on "Theology" has a brief section on the history of Byzantine
theology; this will at least identify a few key names from later
medieval centuries. With regard to preaching, the state of our
knowledge about medieval sermon collections from eastern Europe is less
than satisfactory: see Mary B. Cunningham and Pauline Allen, eds.,
_Preacher and Audience: Studies in Early Christian and Byzantine
Homiletics_ (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1998), "Introduction," esp. pp. 1-5.
Cunningham's and Allen's volume stops with the early tenth century; for
what it's worth, my impression is that the general state of homiletic
knowledge for this part of medieval Europe is even worse for the later
centuries in which Sara is interested. On the other hand, this is an
area where Greek patristic writers had great and enduring currency, and
their views on women are (I should imagine) quite well studied.
Extensive bibliographies on the major figures here (and also on the late
medieval Gregory Palamas) will be found in _The Oxford Dictionary of the
Christian Church_, 3d ed. (1997).
Best,
John Dillon
Gary Macy wrote:
> There are so many wonderful books on women in the Middle Ages. Others
> will be able to provide a fuller listing of the classic studies, but at
> least I can get the ball rolling. I mention the first two works because
> they seem to be precisely what you are looking for. The others are a
> little less well-known but will have references to medieval teaching on
> women that are often difficult to find.
>
> Beverly Mayne Kienzle and Pamela J. Walker, _Women preachers and
> prophets through two millennia of Christianity_* *Berkeley : University
> of California Press, c1998
>
> Katherine Ludwig Jansen, _The Making of the Magdalen : preaching and
> popular devotion in the later Middle Ages_ Princeton, N.J. : Princeton
> University Press, c2000
>
> Prudence Allen, _The Concept of Women: The Aristotelian revolution,
> 750-AS 1250_ Grand Rapids, MI 1985.
>
> Bernard Cooke and Gary Macy, _A History of Women and Ordination: Volume
> 1: The Ordination of Women in a Medieval Context_, New York: Scarecrow
> Press, 2002. The longer essay edited here has references to all medieval
> theologians who wrote about the possibility of the ordination of women.
>
> Bernard Cooke and Gary Macy , _A History of Women and Ordination: Volume
> 2: Ida Raming, The Priestly Ministry of Women: God's Gift for a Renewed
> Church_, New York: Scarecrow Press, 2004. Ida Raming's study contains
> the teaching of the canonists on every aspect of women's rights (and
> lack thereof) in the medieval period. This is an edition and translation
> of the second German edition of her work.
>
>
> Gary Macy, Ph.D.
> Professor
> Department of Theology and Religious Studies
> Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Latino/a Catholicism
> University of San Diego
> 5998 Alcalá Park
> San Diego, CA 92110
> 619-260-4053
>
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