Lynn H. Cohick - Christian Women in the Patristic World

I constantly encourage students and pastors to tell more stories about women in the early church from the pulpit, in classes, and in casual conversations. The common response, which opens a window onto a bleak landscape in their knowledge and in the churchs history with women, is this question: Where can I find those stories? Christian Women in the Patristic World is now the answer, as it populates that bleak landscape with dynamic women. This is a book for every pastors and teachers bookshelf because it not only tells stories about women but also shows how the early church, which has often been maligned for its reputation when it comes to women, was more formed by women than many know.

Scot McKnight , Northern Seminary

Poet Mourid Al Barghouti has famously said, If you want to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and to start with, secondly. If we start with Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa and not with Macrina, their sister, who influenced and guided them, we end up with a truncated understanding of Cappadocian theology. If we start with Augustine the bishop and not with Monicas influence on her son, we will scarcely understand the Theologian of the Heart. In this book, Cohick and Hughes begin where good history ought to begin: with firstly. They bring to the fore the often overlooked protomartyrs, theologians, teachers, ascetics, and politicians of the early churchthe dispossessed women whose stories animated the imagination of Christians for centuries and whose influence, authority, and legacy has been preserved in the literary and material record. This is an exceptional book.

George Kalantzis , Wheaton Center for Early Christian Studies, Wheaton College

Lynn Cohick and Amy Brown Hughes bring a welcome gift to patristic scholarship and to the classroom with this volume. Skillfully weaving together the most recent and cogent scholarship on women in early Christianity, they successfully show the critical and integrative contributions of early Christian women to the complex development of Christian theology, literature, liturgy, and monasticism. Theologically nuanced, historically informed, contextually careful, and delightfully written, this book will both enlighten and challenge readers, scholars, and students alike.

Helen Rhee , Westmont College

This sophisticated and wide-ranging study will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the status and roles of women in the early Christian world. Abundantly illustrated and sensitive to the many problems of interpretation posed by sources, it takes us on an exhilarating ride from the second to the fifth century. Cohick and Hughes model the practice of responsible remembrance that they encourage in their readers.

David G. Hunter , University of Kentucky