Patterns of Women's Leadership in Early Christianity

This authoritative collection brings together the latest thinking on women's leadership in early Christianity. Patterns of Women's Leadership in Early Christianity considers the evidence for ways in which women exercised leadership in churches from the 1st to the 9th centuries CE. This rich and diverse volume breaks new ground in the study of women in early Christianity. This is not about working with one method, based on one type of feminist theory, but overall there is nevertheless a feminist or egalitarian agenda in considering the full equality of women with men in religious spheres a positive goal, with the assumption that this full equality has yet to be attained. The chapters revisit both older studies and offers new and unpublished research, exploring the many ways in which ancient Christian women's leadership could function.

Joan E. Taylor, Professor of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism, King's College London,Ilaria L. E. Ramelli, Professor of Theology and Kevin Britt Chair, Graduate School of Theology, Sacred Heart Major Seminary (Angelicum), Michigan, and Senior Research Fellow, University of Durham, University of Oxford, and Max-Weber-Colleg, Erfurt,

Joan E. Taylor is Professor of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism at King's College London.


Ilaria L. E. Ramelli is Professor of Theology and Kevin Britt Chair, Graduate School of Theology, Sacred Heart Major Seminary (Angelicum), Michigan, USA and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Durham, University of Oxford, and Max-Weber-Colleg, Erfurt.

List of Figures
List of Maps
List of Abbreviations
List of Contributors
Introduction, Joan E. Taylor and Ilaria L E. Ramelli
1. Male-Female Missionary Pairings among Jesus' Disciples: Some Further Considerations, Joan E. Taylor
2. Colleagues of Apostles, Presbyters, and Bishops: Women Syzygoi in Ancient Christian Communities, Ilaria L.E. Ramelli
3. The Entrepreneurial Widows of 1 Timothy, Harry Maier
4. Sacred Intercessors: Widows as Altar in Polycarp, Philippians, Margaret Butterfield
5. The Image of the Feminine in the Gospel of Philip: An Innovative Assimilation of Paul's Gender Legacy in the Valentinian Milieu, Piotr Ashwin-Siejkowski
6. Women in Gnosticism, Nicola Denzey Lewis
7. More 'Holy Women' in Early Christianity: The Gospels of Mary and Marcion, Markus Vinzent
8. Women Officeholders in Montanism, William Tabbernee
9. Women's Liturgical Practices and Leadership Roles in Early Christian Communities, Teresa Berger
10. Women Deacons in Ancient Christian Communities: Leadership and Ordination, John Wijngaards
11. Eudocia's Homeric Cento and the Woman Anointing Jesus: An Example of Female Authority, Karl Olav Sandnes
12. Women Church Leaders in and around Fifth-Century Rome, Ally Kateusz and Luca Badini Confalonieri
13. The Meaning of Presbytera in Byzantine and Early Medieval Christianity, Kevin J. Madigan
14. Gendered Space: Eusebius on the Therapeutae and the 'Megiddo Church', Joan E. Taylor
Bibliography
Index