Early Christian Women and Pagan Opinion: The Power of the Hysterical WomanCambridge University Press, 1996 M10 3 - 276 pages This is a study of how women figured in public reaction to the church from New Testament times to Christianity's encounter with the pagan critics of the second century CE. The reference to a hysterical woman was made by the most prolific critic of Christianity, Celsus. He was referring to a follower of Jesus - probably Mary Magdalene - who was at the centre of efforts to create and promote belief in the resurrection. MacDonald draws attention to the conviction, emerging from the works of several pagan authors, that female initiative was central to Christianity's development; she sets out to explore the relationship between this and the common Greco-Roman belief that women were inclined towards excesses in religion. The findings of cultural anthropologists of Mediterranean societies are examined in an effort to probe the societal values that shaped public opinion and early church teaching. Concerns expressed in New Testament and early Christian texts about the respectability of women, and even generally about their behaviour, are seen in a new light when one appreciates that outsiders focused on early church women and understood their activities as a reflection of the group as a whole. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Womens studies in early Christianity and cultural anthropology | 13 |
Honour and shame | 27 |
Public male private female | 30 |
A socialscientific concept of power | 41 |
Pagan reaction to early Christian women in the second century CE | 49 |
Pliny | 51 |
Marcus Cornelius Fronto | 59 |
A focus on women in light of the values of honour and shame | 144 |
1 Timothy 5316 secondcentury celibate women under public scrutiny | 154 |
When the private becomes public contacts between 1 Timothy 5316 and the Acts of Paul and Thecla | 165 |
Conclusion | 178 |
Marriage women and early church responses to public opinion | 183 |
1 Corinthians 71216 the evangelizing potential of household relations | 189 |
1 Peter 316 recovering the lives of the quiet evangelists | 195 |
Justins woman married to an unchaste husband religious sensibilities and life with a pagan husband | 205 |
Lucius Apuleius | 67 |
Lucian of Samosata | 73 |
Galen of Pergamum | 82 |
Celsus | 94 |
Conclusion | 120 |
Celibacy women and early church responses to public opinion | 127 |
Pauls teaching on marriage as a conversionist response to the world | 129 |
Pauls focus on women holy in body and spirit in 1 Corinthians 7 | 133 |
Married life and the social reality of women in the communities of Ignatius of Antioch | 213 |
the lives of married women | 230 |
The churchbride and married women as mediators between the church and the world | 240 |
Conclusion | 243 |
General conclusion | 249 |
259 | |
272 | |
Other editions - View all
Early Christian Women and Pagan Opinion: The Power of the Hysterical Woman Margaret Y. MacDonald No preview available - 1996 |
Early Christian Women and Pagan Opinion: The Power of the Hysterical Woman Margaret Y. MacDonald No preview available - 1996 |
Common terms and phrases
accused activities Acts of Paul anthropologists Apuleius ascetic believing Benko Biblical celibacy celibate women Cels Celsus chastity concern Corinthians critique cultural discussion Dubisch early Christian women early church women endogamy Ephesians evidence example exhortation female focus Galen Greco-Roman society Greco-Roman world honour and shame household husband Ibid ideal Ignatius of Antioch immorality important involvement Jesus Jewish Justin Kraemer Letter to Polycarp lives of early Lucian Lucian of Samosata Lucius Apuleius MacDonald male Malina Marcus Cornelius Fronto married to non-believers Mediterranean societies mixed marriage Neyrey offers pagan Pagan Criticism Pastoral Epistles Paul and Thecla Paul's Pauline Christianity Peter Pliny Pliny's public opinion reference relationship religion religious remain unmarried role Roman scholars second century sexual Shepherd of Hermas slaves social social-scientific symbol teaching Testament Timothy tion traditional trans unbelievers unmarried women values of honour virgin wife Wilken wives woman