DYING FOR A LIFE: WOMEN IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH SPRING 2010

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1 SANTACLARAUNIVERSITY OSHERLIFELONGLEARNINGINSTITUTE DYINGFORALIFE:WOMENINTHEEARLYCHRISTIANCHURCH SPRING2010 Instructor: Dr.Catherine(Kitty)Murphy ClassTime: W1:00 3:00p.m. AssociateProfessor,Dept.ofReligiousStudies Dates: March31 April28 Office: Kenna323B Classroom: CasaCommons Contact: (408)551 COURSEDESCRIPTION Contemporary debates about the proper role of women in church, society and family are often groundedonclaimsaboutthebibleandearlychristianity.howtruearetheseclaims?inthisclass, youʹll explore the way women were viewed in Greco Roman society and the revolutionary, if not entirely liberating, way Christians regarded women instead. In particular, weʹll explore the theme common to much early Christian(and male authored) literature that women could not be saved as such,butthattheirpathtosalvation andchurchleadership layinʺbecomingmenʺfirst.whatwas itabouttheculturalconstructionofwomenthatplacedthatextrahurdleintheirpathonthewayto heavenlylife?howdidearlychristianwomendeacons,missionaries,prophets,martyrsandascetics takeupthatchallenge?andwhydidsomanyearlychristianmenwritewomenʹsstoriesinthisway? You might be interested in the Web site I ve developed for an undergraduate course at Santa Clara UniversitytitledSCTR26GenderinEarlyChristianity: relg studies.scu.edu/facstaff/murphy/courses/sctr026/index.htm SOMEGENERALBIBLIOGRAPHY AnthologiesofPrimaryTexts Clark,ElizabethA.WomenintheEarlyChurch.Collegeville,Minnesota:LiturgicalPress,1990. Kraemer,RossShepard.Women sreligionsinthegreco RomanWorld:ASourcebook,rev.ed.New York:OxfordUniversityPress,2004. Meyers,Carol,ToniCravenandRossS.Kraemer,eds.WomeninScripture:ADictionaryofNamed andunnamedwomeninthehebrewbible,theapocryphal/deuterocanonicalbooks,andthenew Testament.GrandRapids,Michigan:WilliamB.Eerdmans,2000. Miller,RobertJ.,ed.TheCompleteGospels:AnnotatedScholarsVersion.Sonoma,California: Polebridge,1995. BooksaboutThem Brown,PeterRobertLamont.TheBodyandSociety:Men,Women,andSexualRenunciationinEarly Christianity.NewYork:ColumbiaUniversityPress,1988. Kraemer,RossShepard.HerShareoftheBlessings:Women sreligionsamongpagans,jews,and ChristiansintheGreco RomanWorld.NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1992. Kraemer,RossShepardandMaryRoseD Angelo,eds.WomenandChristianOrigins.NewYork: OxfordUniversityPress,1999. Martin,DaleB.SexandtheSingleSavior:GenderandSexualityinBiblicalInterpretation.Louisville: WestminsterJohnKnox,2006. Matter,E.Ann. Christ,GodandWomen. InAugustineandHisCritics(ed.RobertDodaroand GeorgeLawless;NewYork:Routledge,2000) Power,KimE.InVeiledDesire:AugustineonWomen.NewYork:Continuum,1996. Schäfer,Peter.MirrorofHisBeauty:FeminineImagesofGodfromtheBibletotheEarlyKabbalah,Jews, Christians,andMuslimsfromtheAncienttotheModernWorld.Princeton,NewJersey: PrincetonUniversityPress,

2 SCHEDULE MARCH31 WHATDIDJESUSDO? Giancola s FirstCentury JewishMan FurtherReading Alotofpeopletodaywouldliketohopethat whatjesuswoulddo aboutthe inequalityofthesexesiseradicateit.butwhatwewantmightnotbewhatthe historical record allows. How much was Jesus a product of his (patriarchal) culture,andhowmuchdidhebreakwithit?howdidhetreatwomen,and wasthisaradicaldeparturefromcommonjewishpractice?how masculine istheportraitofjesusinthegospelscomparedtotheconventionsofthetime? Andwhatevidencetoweusetoreconstructthesehistoricalscenarios? OnWomeninJewishSocietyattheTimeofJesus Ilan,Tal.IntegratingWomenintoSecondTempleHistory.Tübingen:MohrSiebeck,1999. Kraemer,RossS. JewishWomenandChristianOrigins:SomeCaveats, and JewishWomen andwomen sjudaism(s)atthebeginningofchristianity. InWomenandChristianOrigins (ed.rossshepardkraemerandmaryrosed Angelo;NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress, 1999) Levine,Amy Jill.TheMisunderstoodJew:TheChurchandtheScandaloftheJewishJesus.San Francisco:HarperSanFrancisco,2006(esp.pp ) Lewis,Naphtali,YigaelYadinandJonasC.Greenfield,eds.TheDocumentsfromtheBarKokhba PeriodintheCaveofLetters,GreekPapyri.Jerusalem:IsraelExplorationSociety,TheHebrew UniversityofJerusalem,andtheShrineoftheBook,1989. Schuller,EileenM.andCeciliaWassen. Women:DailyLife. InEncyclopediaoftheDeadSea Scrolls(ed.LawrenceH.SchiffmanandJamesC.VanderKam;NewYork:Oxford UniversityPress,2000) Wassen,Cecilia.WomenintheDamascusDocument,AcademiaBiblica.Atlanta:SocietyofBiblical Literature,2005. OnJesus,theGospels&Women D Angelo,MaryRose. Reconstructing Real WomeninGospelLiterature:TheCaseofMary Magdalene, (Re)PresentationsofWomenintheGospels:JohnandMark, and (Re)PresentationsofWomenintheGospelofMatthewandLuke Acts. InWomenand ChristianOrigins(ed.RossShepardKraemerandMaryRoseD Angelo;NewYork:Oxford UniversityPress,1999) and Corley,KathleenE.WomenandtheHistoricalJesus:FeministMythsofChristianOrigins.SantaRosa, California:Polebridge,2002. Levine,Amy Jill. WomeninQCommunit(ies)andTraditions. InWomenandChristianOrigins (ed.rossshepardkraemerandmaryrosed Angelo;NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress, 1999) Schottroff,Luise. ItinerantProphetesses:AFeministAnalysisoftheSayingsSourceQ. InThe GospelbehindtheGospels:CurrentStudiesinQ(ed.RolandA.Piper;NovTSup75;Leiden:E. J.Brill,1995) SchüsslerFiorenza,Elisabeth.SharingHerWord:FeministBiblicalInterpretationinContext.Boston: Beacon,

APRIL7 SAVEDBYCHILDBIRTHORCELIBACY?PAUL&HISINTERPRETERS TheclaPilgramFlask FurtherReading ThesevengenuinelettersofPaulareourearliestpiecesoftheNewTestament.

3 APRIL7 SAVEDBYCHILDBIRTHORCELIBACY?PAUL&HISINTERPRETERS TheclaPilgramFlask FurtherReading ThesevengenuinelettersofPaulareourearliestpiecesoftheNewTestament.In them, Paul speaks of women as deacons, co workers, and benefactors. There s even a female apostle(rom 16:7)! But does this mean that Paul thought that in Christ,therewas nomaleandfemale, ordidhestillholdtoagenderhierarchy? In either case, he definitely advocated celibacy for both sexes. So why, after his death, did people invoke his name in support of two diametrically opposed positions:(1)thatwomenmustmarryandcanonlybesavedthroughchildbirth, and (2) women must be celibate and avoid marriage? What social tensions do thesepracticesrevealaschristianityspreadintheromanempire? TheActualTexts (ofcourse,paul slettersandthedeutero PaulineletterscanbefoundintheBible) NoncanonicalLiterature. WesleyCenterOnline.Online, biblical_studies/noncanon/. Schneemelcher,Wilhelmed.NewTestamentApocrypha,trans.R.McL.Wilson,2vols.Louisville: WestminsterJohnKnox,2006. [SeealsotheClarkandKraemertitlesonp.1,underanthologies] BooksAboutThem Castelli,ElizabethA.ImitatingPaul:ADiscourseofPower,LiteraryCurrentsinBiblical Interpretation.Louisville:WestminsterJohnKnox,1991. Cooper,Kate.TheVirginandtheBride:IdealizedWomanhoodinLateAntiquity.Cambridge, Massachusetts:HarvardUniversityPress,1996. D Angelo,MaryRose. Eujsevbeia:RomanImperialFamilyValuesandtheSexualPoliticsof4 MaccabeesandthePastorals. BiblicalInterpretation11:2(2003) Davis,StephenJ.TheCultofSt.Thecla:aTraditionofWomen spietyinlateantiquity.oxford: OxfordUniversityPress,2001. Epp,EldonJ.Junia:TheFirstWomanApostle.Minneapolis:Fortress,2005.Description. Foster,Paul.TheApocryphalGospels:AVeryShortIntroduction,VeryShortIntroductions.New York:OxfordUniversityPress,2009. Konstan,David. ActsofLove:ANarrativePatternintheApocryphalActs. JournalofEarly ChristianStudies6:1(1998) MacDonald,MargaretY.EarlyChristianWomenandPaganOpinion:ThePoweroftheHysterical Woman.Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1996. Madigan,KevinandCarolynOsiek.OrdainedWomenintheEarlyChurch:ADocumentaryHistory. Baltimore:TheJohnsHopkinsUniversityPress,2005. Martin,DaleB.TheCorinthianBody.NewHaven,Connecticut:YaleUniversityPress,1999. Osiek,CarolynandMargaretY.MacDonald,withJanetH.Tulloch.AWoman splace:house ChurchesinEarliestChristianity.Minneapolis:Fortress,2005. Torjesen,KarenJo.WhenWomenWerePriests:WomenʹsLeadershipintheEarlyChurchandthe ScandaloftheirSubordinationintheRiseofChristianity.SanFrancisco:HarperSanFrancisco, Wire,AntoinetteClark.TheCorinthianWomenProphets:AReconstructionthroughPaulʹs Rhetoric.Minneapolis:Fortress,

APRIL14 DYINGFORALIFE:THEGENDERDIFFERENCEINTHECOSTOFDISCIPLESHIP BeginningwithJesus,manyChristianswerepersecutedfortheirfaithinthefirst three centuries of the new millennium.

4 APRIL14 DYINGFORALIFE:THEGENDERDIFFERENCEINTHECOSTOFDISCIPLESHIP BeginningwithJesus,manyChristianswerepersecutedfortheirfaithinthefirst three centuries of the new millennium. The persecutions were sporadic and regional until the mid 200s, when inflation, border incursions by Rome s enemies,andaseriesofplaguesandotherdisastersledtoalong termcrisisfor whichromesoughtscapegoats.christiansprovedtobeoneeasytarget,forthey had a history of distancing themselves from public, civic duties. Men and womenwereharassed,arrested,publicallyhumiliatedandexecuted. Becauseoftheassumptionsaboutmenandwomen,theaccountsofmartyrdom took on a different cast for men than for women. We ll start today with the graphicaccountofthelambinrevelationasanexampleofhowthemartyrdom ofamalefigure(jesus)isrecounted.thenwe lllookattwoaccountsoffemale martyrs,themartyrdomofperpetuaandherslavefelicitasinnorthafrica,and theaccountoftheyoungadolescentagnes martyrdominrome.howdoesthe author of Revelation deal with the penetration and conquest of Jesus and the 144,000 celibate male martyrs, given that this would have rendered them effeminate in people s eyes? And how are the normal feminine virtues of modesty and virginity transgressed in female martyr accounts? Why is the account of the virginal Agnes execution so heavily eroticized that it verges on pornography?andwhydoesitseemthatthewomen svirginity andtherefore theirsanctity isneverquitesecureduntiltheymanagetodie? FurtherReading TheActualTexts[seetheClarkandKraemertitlesonp.1underanthologies] BooksAboutThem Boyarin,Daniel.DyingforGod:MartyrdomandtheMakingofChristianityandJudaism,Figurae: ReadingMedievalCulture.Stanford:StanfordUniversityPress,1999. Burrus,Virginia. Begotten,NotMade :ConceivingManhoodinLateAntiquity,Figurae:Reading MedievalCulture39.Stanford,California:StanfordUniversityPress, DyingforaLife:Martyrdom,Masochism,andFemale(Auto)Biography. InTheSexLives ofsaints:aneroticsofancienthagiography(divinations:rereadinglateancientreligion; Philadelphia:UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress,2004)53 90,butespeciallypages Castelli,Elizabeth.MartyrdomandMemory:EarlyChristianCultureMaking,Gender,Theoryand Religion.NewYork:ColumbiaUniversityPress,2007. Frilingos,ChristopherA.SpectaclesofEmpire:Monsters,Martyrs,andtheBookofRevelation, Divinations:RereadingLateAncientReligion.Philadelphia:UniversityofPennsylvania Press,2004. Kuefler,Mathew.TheManlyEunuch:Masculinity,GenderAmbiguity,andChristianIdeologyinLate Antiquity,TheChicagoSeriesonSexuality,History,andSociety.Chicago:Universityof ChicagoPress,2001. Perkins,Judith.TheSufferingSelf:PainandNarrativeRepresentationintheEarlyChristianEra.New York:Routledge,1995. Ross,Jill. DynamicWritingandMartyrs BodiesinPrudentius Peristephanon. JournalofEarly ChristianStudies3(1995) Schroeder,JoyA. VirginandMartyr:DivineProtectionfromSexualAssaultinthePeristephanon ofprudentius. InMiraclesinJewishandChristianAntiquity:ImaginingTruth(ed.JohnC. Cavadini;NotreDame,Indiana:UniversityofNotreDamePress,1999) Shaw,BrentD. Body/Power/Identity:ThePassionoftheMartyrs. JournalofEarlyChristian Studies4(1996)

For example, this is the group of texts that includes the Gospel of Mary (Magdalene), in which Mary is the privileged recipient of Jesus most important post resurrection revelation.

5 APRIL21 READINGGENDERINTHEGNOSTICTEXTS The13NagHammadiCodices Gender is put to multiple uses in the gnostic material from Nag Hammadi. Here is a body of (heretical) literature that features women prominently as protagonists and recipients of special revelation. For example, this is the group of texts that includes the Gospel of Mary (Magdalene), in which Mary is the privileged recipient of Jesus most important post resurrection revelation. In other Gnostic texts, salvation is conceived as the consummation of a relationshipbetweenthegnosticandhisgod,andsothemetaphorof abridalchamberandsexualconsummationisused. SoarewetoagreewithDanBrownthatsexliesatthetrueheartofthe ChristiantraditionandthatiswhytheGnosticsweresuppressed?We willtakeacloserlookthandanbrowndidintohowis thefeminine isfiguredinthesebooks.andmoreimportantly,wewillaskwhyare femalecharactersandattributesdeployedinthisway. AfragmentoftheBerlinGnosticCodex withthegospelofmarymagdalene FurtherReading TheActualTexts TheGnosticSocietyLibrary, Meyer,Marvin,ed.TheNagHammadiScriptures:TheRevisedandUpdatedTranslationofSacred GnosticTextsCompleteinOneVolume.NewYork:HarperOne,2009. Miller,RobertJ.,ed.TheCompleteGospels:AnnotatedScholarsVersion.Sonoma,California: Polebridge,1995. BooksAboutThem Bock,DarrellL.BreakingTheDaVinciCode:AnswerstotheQuestionsEverybodyʹsAsking.New York:Nelson,2004. Brock,AnnGraham.MaryMagdalene,TheFirstApostle:TheStruggleforAuthority.NewYork: OxfordUniversityPress,2002. Ehrman,BartD.TruthandFictioninTheDaVinciCode.NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,2004. King,KarenL.WhatIsGnosticism?Cambridge,Massachusetts:BelknapPressofHarvard UniversityPress,2005. King,KarenL.,ed.ImagesoftheFeminineinGnosticism,StudiesinAntiquityandChristianity. Harrisburg,Pennsylvania:TrinityPressInternational,2000;original,Philadelphia: Fortress,1988. MacDonald,DennisR.ThereIsNoMaleandFemale:TheFateofaDominicalSayinginPauland Gnosticism.Philadelphia:Fortress,1987. Pearson,BirgerA.AncientGnosticism:TraditionsandLiterature.Minneapolis:Fortress,2007. Schaberg,Jane.TheResurrectionofMaryMagdalene:Legends,ApocryphaandtheChristianTestament. NewYork:Continuum,

APRIL28 HOLYHARLOTS&TRANSVESTITESAINTS:GENDERTRANSGRESSIONS&REDEMPTIONS QuentinMetsys(1466 1530) MaryMagdalene(left)andMaryofEgypt(right) FurtherReading TheActualTexts

1underanthologies] BooksAboutThem Inthefourthandfifthcenturies,withthelegalizationof Christianity and its eventual institutionalization as the only legal religion in the Roman Empire, stories of

6 APRIL28 HOLYHARLOTS&TRANSVESTITESAINTS:GENDERTRANSGRESSIONS&REDEMPTIONS QuentinMetsys( ) MaryMagdalene(left)andMaryofEgypt(right) FurtherReading TheActualTexts [seetheclarkandkraemerentriesonp.1underanthologies] BooksAboutThem Inthefourthandfifthcenturies,withthelegalizationof Christianity and its eventual institutionalization as the only legal religion in the Roman Empire, stories of martyrsandpenitentsfromthepastbecamealltherage. This is when the notion that Mary Magdalene was a prostitutebegantobefixed(onewondersifinresponse to her popularity in Gnostic circles?). But there were otherfamouswhoreslikemaryofegyptandpelagiathe actress who renounced their wicked ways, only to be made the objects of the lust for holiness in Christian literature. In renouncing their wicked ways, they often renounce their clothing as well assuming the garb or the physique of men in the process. What social forces were at work to create this representation of female holinessastheromanempirewasdisintegrating?why, in the final analysis, do women s bodies always have to be destroyed as such in order for the women to achieve sanctity? Burrus,Virginia. SecretsofSeduction:TheLivesofHolyHarlots. InTheSexLivesofSaints:An EroticsofAncientHagiography(Divinations:RereadingLateAncientReligion;Philadelphia: UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress,2004) Davis,StephenJ. CrossedTexts,CrossedSex:IntertextualityandGenderinEarlyChristian LegendsofHolyWomenDisguisedasMen. JournalofEarlyChristianStudies10(2002)1 36. Dean Jones,Lesley.Women sbodiesinclassicalgreekscience.newyork:oxforduniversitypress, Harvey,SusanAshbrook. IsthereaHarlotinThisText?AsceticismandtheGrotesque. Journal ofmedievalandearlymodernstudies33(2003) Laqueur,ThomasW.MakingSex:BodyandGenderfromtheGreekstoFreud.Cambridge, Massachusetts:HarvardUniversityPress,1992. Miller,PatriciaCox. DesertAsceticismandʹTheBodyfromNowhere. JournalofEarlyChristian Studies2(1994) Shaw,TeresaM.TheBurdenoftheFlesh:FastingandSexualityinEarlyChristianity.Minneapolis: Fortress,

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Mary

1 Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Mary The Gifts of Mary July 5, 10am to 11am Parish Room. Mathew, Mark, Luke, John and Mary. Yes, there is a Gospel of Mary. What if it and other texts had been included