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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 > ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html