You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Two authors examine Mary Magdalene, her role in the early Church, and how the evolution of how she was viewed impacted the status of women in the early Church.
Because there are more women in the Gospel of Luke than in any other gospel, feminists have given it much attention. In this commentary, Shelly Matthews and Barbara Reid show that feminist analysis demands much more than counting the number of female characters. Feminist biblical interpretation examines how the female characters function in the narrative and also scrutinizes the workings of power with respect to empire, to anti-Judaism, and to other forms of othering. Matthews and Reid draw attention to the ambiguities of the text-both the liberative possibilities and the ways that Luke upholds the patriarchal status quo-and guide readers to empowering reading strategies.
On both Mediterranean shores, women’s agency is articulated by new social and legal actors that face the religious factor both as an asset and as a brake. This book explores how female agency is defined and takes place in the region. The collection brings together contributions of both theoretical and thematic nature mapping various experiences on the public role of women in the Mediterranean context. In particular, the book relates the two sides, observing affinities and differences in the affirmation of women’s agency. This synoptic approach avoids essentialist contraposition and dialectic between different cultural, religious and political universes and emphasizes the role of a common...
Rediscover the crucial roles held by women within the heart of Christianity. Favourite disciple, influential woman, true believer and follower of Jesus: how do we see Mary Magdalene today? Witness to Jesus' crucifixion and his burial, the first to announce the resurrection, she is without a doubt the most recognizable of the gospels' female figures, a central character in Christianity's foundational story. But centuries of alteration and resizing, of merging several female figures into one, have erased Mary Madgalene's apostolic role and left us with a misrepresentation. They delivered the figure of a quintessential repentant sinner, one in whom sensual beauty and mortification of the body are combined. When we reflect on the "Magdalene case", delving into the folds of history and the arts, and removing misunderstandings and manipulations, we rediscover the crucial roles women have always held within the heart of Christianity, despite their stories often going untold. Adriana Valerio's engrossing retelling of Magdalene's story, founded as it is in historical fact, is an unmissable opportunity to reclaim such roles in a church that remains largely patriarchal to the present day.
By comparing the intersecting histories of interpretation of Mary Magdalene, a first-century disciple of Jesus, and La Malinche, a sixteenth-century Mesoamerican woman enslaved by the Spanish conquistadores, Jennifer Vija Pietz critically evaluates the use of past lives to address contemporaneous concerns. She demonstrates how the earliest sources portray each woman as an agent in the foundation of a new community: Magdalene’s proclamation of Jesus’s resurrection helped form the first Christian community, while La Malinche’s role as interpreter between Spanish and native people during the Conquest helped establish modern Mexico. Pietz then argues that over time, various interpreters tu...
This latest volume in the Bible and Women series examines ancient noncanonical Christian texts for what they reveal about women, their engagement with Scripture, and attitudes toward them in texts dating to the second to eighth century. Three sections include once-forgotten texts rediscovered in locations such as Nag Hammadi, those that have been in continuous use through the centuries, and works written by women that are traditionally excluded from discussions of noncanonical texts. Contributors Bernadette J. Brooten, María José Cabezas Cabello, Anna Carfora, Ute E. Eisen, Judith Hartenstein, Ursula Ulrike Kaiser, Karen L. King, Outi Lehtipuu, Heidrun Mader, Antti Marjanen, Silvia Pellegrini, Silke Petersen, Uwe-Karsten Plisch, Cristina Simonelli, Anna Rebecca Solevåg, M. Dolores Martin Trutet, and Carmen Bernabé Ubieta examine a range of texts, including noncanonical gospels and acts, poems, prophecy, and grave inscriptions.
What if you could transport yourself back to the first century, walking the dusty streets of Jerusalem, late on Thursday night before Passover? And what if you were tagging along behind eleven men led by Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane? You’d leave the Upper Room and go deep into the Kidron Valley to the garden. There the temple police and a half-crazed crowd arrive brandishing torches. Jesus is taken to the palace of Annas and then to the High Priest Caiaphas. What insight do we gain from history, archaeology, and most importantly the New Testament about where they lived? In the morning Jesus would be sent to the Chamber of Hewn Stone. What was this place and why is it important to the Passion narratives? On to Pilate’s Judgment Hall where new archaeological evidence questions its traditional location. You pick up the trail again on the Via Dolorosa and follow Jesus to Jerusalem’s killing field. There you find the Savior dying on a Roman cross. In just a few hours you have followed him from the Upper Room to Joseph’s tomb and have gained valuable insight into each stopover to help you on your own journey to Calvary.
Because there are more women in the Gospel of Luke than in any other gospel, feminists have given it much attention. In this commentary, Shelly Matthews and Barbara Reid show that feminist analysis demands much more than counting the number of female characters. Feminist biblical interpretation examines how the female characters function in the narrative and also scrutinizes the workings of power with respect to empire, to anti-Judaism, and to other forms of othering. Matthews and Reid draw attention to the ambiguities of the text-both the liberative possibilities and the ways that Luke upholds the patriarchal status quo-and guide readers to empowering reading strategies.
The Oxford Handbook of Vatican II is a rich source of information and reflections on many aspects of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), one of the most significant religious events of the twentieth century. The chapters introduce readers to the historical context and outstanding features of the conciliar event, and its principal teachings on Scripture and Tradition, the church, liturgy, religious liberty, ecumenism, interreligious dialogue, church-world relations, and mission. Consideration is given to some neglected aspects of the council, including: the forgotten papal speeches that lay out its fundamental orientation and ought to guide its interpretation; the presence and contributio...
Nineteenth-Century Women’s Movements and the Bible examines politically motivated women’s movements in the nineteenth century, including the legal, cultural, and ecclesiastical contexts of women. Focusing on the period beginning with the French Revolution in 1789 through the end of World War I in 1918, contributors explore the many ways that women’s lives were limited in both the public and domestic spheres. Essays consider the social, political, biblical, and theological factors that resulted in a multinational raising of awareness and emancipation for women in the nineteenth century and the strengthening of their international networks. The contributors include Angela Berlis, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Ute Gerhard, Christiana de Groot, Arnfriður Guðmundsdóttir, Izaak J. de Hulster, Elisabeth Joris, Christine Lienemann-Perrin, Amanda Russell-Jones, Claudia Setzer, Aud V. Tønnessen, Adriana Valerio, and Royce M. Victor.