Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T13:15:23.710Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
Series:   Elements on Women in the History of Philosophy

Early Christian Women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2022

Dawn LaValle Norman
Dawn LaValle Norman
Affiliation:
Australian Catholic University, Melbourne

Summary

In this Element the author argues that genre deeply affects how early Christian female philosophers are characterized across different works. The included case studies are three women who feature in both narrative and dialogic texts: Thecla, Macrina the Younger and Monica. Based on these examples, the author demonstrates that the narrative sources tend to eschew secular education, while the dialogic sources are open to displays of secular knowledge. Philosophy was not only seen as a way of life, but sometimes also as a mode of educated argumentation. The author further argues that these female philosophers were held up in their femininity as models for imitation by both women and men.
Get access

Keywords

ancient female philosophersearly Christian womenTheclaMacrinaMonica
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements on Women in the History of Philosophy
Online ISBN: 9781009047067
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 18 August 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Addey, Crystal. 2017. “Plato’s Women Readers.” In Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Plato in Antiquity, edited by Tarrant, Harold, Layne, Danielle A., Baltzly, Dirk, and Renaud, François, 411–32. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Albrecht, Ruth. 1986. Das Leben der heiligen Makrina auf den Hintergrund der Thekla-Traditionen: Studien zu den Ursprüngen des weiblichen Mönchtums im 4. Jahrhundert in Kleinasien. Vol. 38. Forschungen zur Kirchen- und Dogmengeschichte. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Aspegren, Kerstin. 1995. The Male Woman: A Feminine Ideal in the Early Church. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.Google Scholar
Barrier, Jeremy W. 2009. The Acts of Paul and Thecla: A Critical Introduction and Commentary. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.Google Scholar
Boin, Douglas Ryan. 2010. “Late Antique Ostia and a Campaign for Pious Tourism: Epitaphs for Bishop Cyriacus and Monica, Mother of Augustine.” The Journal of Roman Studies 100 (November): 195–209.Google Scholar
Bowery, Anne-Marie. 2007. “Monica: The Feminine Face of Christ.” In Feminist Interpretations of Augustine, edited by Stark, Judith Chelius, 69–95. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Bracht, Katharina. 1999. Vollkommenheit und Vollendung zur Anthropologie des Methodius von Olympus. Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum / Studies and Texts in Antiquity and Christianity. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.Google Scholar
Broux, Yanne, and Depauw, Mark. 2015. “The Maternal Line in Greek Identification: Signalling Social Status in Roman Egypt (30 BC–AD 400).” Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 64 (4): 467–78.Google Scholar
Burns, Dylan M. 2017. “Astrological Determinism, Free Will, and Desire According to Thecla (St. Methodius, Symposium 8.15–16).” In Women and Knowledge in Early Christianity, edited by Tervahauta, Ulla, Miroshnikov, Ivan, Lehtipuu, Outi, and Dunderberg, Ismo, 206–20. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Burrus, Virginia. 1987. Chastity as Autonomy: Women in the Stories of the Apocryphal Acts. Vol. 23. Studies in Women and Religion. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press.Google Scholar
Burrus, Virginia 2000. “Begotten, Not Made”: Conceiving Manhood in Late Antiquity. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Burrus, Virginia 2005. “Is Macrina a Woman? Gregory of Nyssa’s Dialogue on the Soul and Resurrection.” In The Blackwell Companion to Postmodern Theology, edited by Ward, Graham, 249–64. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Burrus, Virginia 2007. The Sex Lives of Saints: An Erotics of Ancient Hagiography. Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Candido, Federica. 2017. “The Symposium of Methodius: A Witness to the Existence of Circles of Christian Women in Asia Minor? Some Conjectures about an Interpretation That Goes Beyond Literal Fiction.” In Methodius of Olympus: State of the Art and New Perspectives, edited by Bracht, Katharina, 103–24. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Castelli, Elizabeth. 1991. “‘I Will Make Mary Male’: Pieties of the Body and Gender Transformation of Christian Women in Late Antiquity.” In Body Guards: The Cultural Politics of Gender Ambiguity, edited by Epstein, Julia and Straub, Kristina, 29–49. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Champion, Michael. 2014. “Grief and Desire, Body and Soul in Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Saint Macrina.” In Conjunctions of Mind, Soul and Body from Plato to the Enlightenment, edited by Kambraskovic, Danijela, 99–118. Vol. 15. Studies in the History of Philosophy of Mind. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Clark, Elizabeth. 1999. “Rewriting Early Christian History: Augustine’s Representation of Monica.” In Portraits of Spiritual Authority: Religious Power in Early Christianity, Byzantium and the Christian Orient, edited by Drijvers, Jan Willem and Watt, John W., 3–23. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Clark, Elizabeth A. 1998. “The Lady Vanishes: Dilemmas of a Feminist Historian after the ‘Linguistic Turn.’” Church History 67 (1): 1–31.Google Scholar
Clark, Gillian. 2007. “Do Try This at Home: The Domestic Philosopher in Late Antiquity.” In From Rome to Constantinople: Studies in Honour of Averil Cameron, edited by Amirav, Hagit and Romeny, Bas ter Haar, 153–72. Leuven: Peeters.Google Scholar
Clark, Gillian 2008. “Can We Talk? Augustine and the Possibility of Dialogue.” In The End of Dialogue in Antiquity, edited by Goldhill, Simon, 117–34. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Gillian 2015. Monica: An Ordinary Saint. Women in Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Clement of Alexandria. 1954 Christ the Educator. Translated by Wood., Simon P. Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press.Google Scholar
Cloke, Gillian. 1994. This Female Man of God: Women and Spiritual Power in the Patristic Age 350–450. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Connell, Sophia M. 2016. Aristotle on Female Animals: A Study of the Generation of Animals. Cambridge Classical Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316479766.Google Scholar
Conybeare, Catherine. 2006. The Irrational Augustine. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cooper, Kate. 1996. The Virgin and the Bride: Idealized Womanhood in Late Antiquity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Courcelle, Pierre. 1970. “Le personnage de Philosophie dans la littérature latine.” Journal des savants 4: 209–52.Google Scholar
Daniélou, Jean. 1961. “La notion de confins (μεθόριος) chez Grégoire de Nysse.” Recherches de Science Religieuse 49 (2): 161–87.Google Scholar
Davies, Stevan L. 1980. The Revolt of the Widows: The Social World of the Apocryphal Acts. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Davies, Stevan L. 1986. “Women, Tertullian and the Acts of Paul.” Semeia 38: 139–43.Google Scholar
Davis, Stephen J. 2002. “Crossed Texts, Crossed Sex: Intertextuality and Gender in Early Christian Legends of Holy Women Disguised as Men.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 10 (1): 1–36. https://doi.org/10.1353/earl.2002.0003.Google Scholar
Davis, Stephen J. 2008. The Cult of Saint Thecla: A Tradition of Women’s Piety in Late Antiquity. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Davis, Stephen J. 2015. “From Women’s Piety to Male Devotion: Gender Studies, the ‘Acts of Paul and Thecla’, and the Evidence of an Arabic Manuscript.” The Harvard Theological Review 108 (4): 579–93.Google Scholar
DePalma Digeser, Elizabeth. 2017. A Threat to Public Piety: Christians, Platonists, and the Great Persecution. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Deslauriers, Marguerite. 2012. “Women, Education, and Philosophy.” In A Companion to Women in the Ancient World, edited by James, Sharon L. and Dillon, Sheila, 343–53. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Deslauriers, Marguerite 2022. Aristotle on Sexual Difference: Metaphysics, Biology, Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dillon, John. 2004. “Philosophy as a Profession in Late Antiquity.” In Approaching Late Antiquity: The Transformation from Early to Late Empire, edited by Swain, Simon and Edwards, Mark, 401–18. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dorandi, T. 1989. “Assiotea e Lastenia: due donne all’Accademia.” Atti e Memorie Accademia Toscana ‘La Colombaria’ 54: 53–66.Google Scholar
Dutsch, Dorota M. 2020. Pythagorean Women Philosophers: Between Belief and Suspicion. Pythagorean Women Philosophers. Oxford Studies in Classical Literature and Gender Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Evans, Ernest. 1964. Tertullian’s Homily on Baptism. The Text Edited with an Introduction, Translation and Commentary. London: SPCK.Google Scholar
Eyl, Jennifer. 2013. “Why Thekla Does Not See Paul: Visual Perception and the Displacement of Erōs in the Acts of Paul and Thekla.” In The Ancient Novel and the Early Christian and Jewish Narrative: Fictional Intersections, edited by Perkins, Judith and Pinheiro, Mariliá Futre, 3–19. Groningen: Barkhuis Publishing.Google Scholar
Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schussler. 1994. In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins. 10th anniversary edition. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Frank, Georgia. 2000. “Macrina’s Scar: Homeric Allusion and Heroic Identity in Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Macrina.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 8 (4): 511–30.Google Scholar
Goehring, James E. 1981. “A Classical Influence on the Gnostic Sophia Myth.” Vigiliae Christianae 35 (1): 16–23. https://doi.org/10.2307/1583354.Google Scholar
Hadot, Pierre. 1995. Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault. Edited by Davidson, Arnold. Translated by Michael Chase. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hayes, Leslie K. 2016. “The Acts of Thecla: Introduction, Translation, and Notes.” Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Claremont Graduate University, California.Google Scholar
Hayne, Léonie. 1994. “Thecla and the Church Fathers.” Vigiliae Christianae 48 (3): 209–18.Google Scholar
Helleman, Wendy Elgersma. 2009. The Feminine Personification of Wisdom: A Study of Homer’s Penelope, Cappadocian Macrina, Boethius’ Philosophia, and Dante’s Beatrice. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press.Google Scholar
Hotchkiss, Valerie R. 1996. Clothes Make the Man: Female Cross Dressing in Medieval Europe. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Johnson, Aaron P. 2013. Religion and Identity in Porphyry of Tyre: The Limits of Hellenism in Late Antiquity. Greek Culture in the Roman World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511998546.Google Scholar
Kraemer, Ross Shepard. 1992. Her Share of the Blessings: Women’s Religions among Pagans, Jews, and Christians in the Greco-Roman World. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kraemer, Ross Shepard. 2019. “Thecla.” In The Oxford Handbook of New Testament, Gender, and Sexuality, edited by Benjamin Dunning, 485–502. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Krueger, Derek. 2000. “Writing and the Liturgy of Memory in Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Macrina.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 8 (4): 483–510.Google Scholar
Lauwers, Jeroen. 2013. “Systems of Sophistry and Philosophy: The Case of the Second Sophistic.” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 107: 331–63.Google Scholar
Norman, LaValle, Dawn. 2019a. “Becoming Female: Marrowy Semen and the Formative Mother in Methodius of Olympus’s Symposium.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 27 (2): 185–209. https://doi.org/10.1353/earl.2019.0018.Google Scholar
Norman, LaValle 2019b. The Aesthetics of Hope in Late Greek Imperial Literature: Methodius of Olympus’ Symposium and the Crisis of the Third Century. Greek Culture in the Roman World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Norman, LaValle 2023. “Female Characters as Modes of Knowing in Late Imperial Dialogues: The Body, Desire, and the Intellectual Life.” In The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions, edited by Ayres, Lewis, Champion, Michael, and Crawford, Matthew. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Leitao, David D. 2012. The Pregnant Male As Myth and Metaphor in Classical Greek Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Leyerle, Blake. 1995. “Clement of Alexandria on the Importance of Table Etiquette.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 3 (2): 123–41. https://doi.org/10.1353/earl.0.0041.Google Scholar
Ludlow, Morwenna. 2009. “Science and Theology in Gregory of Nyssa’s De Anima et Resurrectione: Astronomy and Automata.” The Journal of Theological Studies 60 (2): 467–89.Google Scholar
MacDonald, Dennis Ronald. 1983. The Legend and the Apostle, The Battle for Paul in Story and Canon. Philadelphia: Westminster Press.Google Scholar
Maciver, Calum. 2007. “Returning to the Mountain of Arete: Reading Ecphrasis, Constructing Ethics in Quintus Smyrnaeus’ Posthomerica.” In Quintus Smyrnaeus: Transforming Homer in Second Sophistic Epic, edited by Baumbach, Manuel and Bär, Silvio, 259–84. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Malingrey, Anne-Marie. 1961. Philosophia: étude d’un groupe de mots dans la littérature grecque, des Présocratiques au IVe siècle apres J.C. Paris: C. Klincksieck.Google Scholar
Maraval, Pierre, trans. 1971. Vie de Sainte Macrine. Grégoire de Nysse. Sources chrétiennes no. 178. Paris: Editions du Cerf.Google Scholar
Marx, Heidi. 2021. Sosipatra of Pergamum: Philosopher and Oracle. Women in Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McGuckin, John Anthony. 2001. St. Gregory of Nazianzus: An Intellectual Biography. Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press.Google Scholar
Methodius of Olympus. 2015. “On the Distinction Between Foods (De Cibis).” Translated by Ralph Cleminson. www.roger-pearse.com.Google Scholar
Miles, Margaret. 1989. Carnal Knowing: Female Nakedness and Religious Meaning in the Christian West. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers.Google Scholar
Muehlberger, Ellen. 2015. “Simeon and Other Women in Theodoret’s Religious History: Gender in the Representation of Late Ancient Christian Asceticism.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 23 (4): 583–606. https://doi.org/10.1353/earl.2015.0050.Google Scholar
Musurillo, Herbert, ed. 1963. Méthode d’Olympe. Le Banquet. Translated by Victor-Henry, Debidour. Vol. 95. Sources Chrétiennes. Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf.Google Scholar
O’Donnell, James. 1992. Augustine’s Confessions. III. Commentary on Books 8–13. Indexes. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
O’Meara, Dominic J. 1990. Pythagoras Revived: Mathematics and Philosophy in Late Antiquity. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Patterson, L. G. 1997. Methodius of Olympus: Divine Sovereignty, Human Freedom, and Life in Christ. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press.Google Scholar
Pellò, Caterina. 2022. Pythagorean Women. Cambridge Elements: Women in the History of Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Plato. 1997. Phaedo. Translated by Grube, G. M. A.. In Plato: Complete Works, edited by Cooper, John M., 49–100. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Ptolemy. 1998. Ptolemy’s Almagest. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ramelli, Ilaria. 2020. “Religion and Science in Gregory of Nyssa: The Unity of the Creative and Scientific Logos.” Marburg Journal of Religion 22 (2): 1–16.Google Scholar
Rordorf, Willy. 1986. “Tradition and Composition in the Acts of Thecla: The State of the Question.” Semeia 38: 43–52.Google Scholar
Rosen, Ralph Mark, and Sluiter, Ineke, eds. 2003. Andreia: Studies in Manliness and Courage in Classical Antiquity. Mnemosyne, Bibliotheca Classica Batava. Supplementum, 238. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Sehorn, John. 2015. “Monica as Synecdoche for the Pilgrim Church in the Confessiones.” Augustinian Studies 46 (2): 225–48. https://doi.org/10.5840/augstudies2015111115.Google Scholar
Shaw, Brent D. 1987. “The Age of Roman Girls at Marriage: Some Reconsiderations.” The Journal of Roman Studies 77: 30–46. https://doi.org/10.2307/300573.Google Scholar
Silvas, Anna M. 2008. Macrina the Younger: Philosopher of God. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers.Google Scholar
Smith, David E. 2002. The Canonical Function of Acts: A Comparative Analysis. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press.Google Scholar
Smith, J. Warren. 2004. Passion and Paradise: Human and Divine Emotion in the Thought of Gregory of Nyssa. New York: Herder.Google Scholar
Stanton, G. R. 1973. “Sophists and Philosophers: Problems of Classification.” The American Journal of Philology 94 (4): 350–64. https://doi.org/10.2307/293614.Google Scholar
Tervahauta, Ulla, Miroshnikov, Ivan, Lehtipuu, Outi, and Dunderberg, Ismo, eds. 2017. Women and Knowledge in Early Christianity. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Upson-Saia, Kristi. 2011. Early Christian Dress: Gender, Virtue, and Authority. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Urbano, Arthur P. 2013. The Philosophical Life: Biography and the Crafting of Intellectual Identity in Late Antiquity. Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press.Google Scholar
Vaught, Carl G. 2004. Encounters with God in Augustine’s Confessions Books VII–IX. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Whalin, Douglas. 2021. “Mountains and the Holy in Late Antiquity.” In Mountain Dialogues from Antiquity to Modernity, edited by Hollis, Dawn and König, Jason, 89–107. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Wilson-Kaster, Patricia. 1979. “Macrina: Virgin and Teacher.” Andrews University Seminary Studies 17 (1): 105–17.Google Scholar
Wycherley, R. E. 1959. “The Garden of Epicurus.” Phoenix 13 (2): 73–77.Google Scholar

Save element to Kindle

To save this element to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Early Christian Women
Available formats
×

Save element to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Early Christian Women
Available formats
×

Save element to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Early Christian Women
Available formats
×