Women in Early Christianity: Translations from Greek Texts (review)

Patricia Cox Miller has provided a sourcebook for the study of women in the first five centuries of Christianity which should prove useful for both undergraduate teaching and for reference use by scholars as well. The book begins with a helpful synthetic introduction in which Miller discusses the nature of the sources she draws upon, gives an overview of the larger themes covered in the book, and provides some more general historical and theoretical background. The sources used are of three kinds: documentary, popular literary, and theological. Miller has drawn upon material ranging from the canons of church councils to hymns, martyrologies, hagiographies, funeral orations, and theological treatises. The book's organization into larger topics and sub-themes represents perhaps the feature which will be most appreciated and useful for the teacher: Miller has given us an elegant way of organizing and trying to make sense of a wide body of disparate sources. She has broken her material down into five different sections: "Women's Roles in the Church," "Women and Virginity," "Portraits of Ascetic Women," "Women and Domestic Life," and "Female Image and Theology." Each section is in turn divided into a number of different subtopics; thus, for example, the section "Women and Virginity" contains texts on the topics "Female Comportment," "Major Treatises on Virginity," "The Subintroductae," and "Transvestism." Some of the translations are Miller's own, while a larger number have been reprinted from other works. The teacher will appreciate Miller's short introductions to each subsection and each individual text, as well as her glosses of words and phrases which might prove delphic to undergraduates. She has also inserted organizing headers into longer excerpts to make their structure more readily apparent and has identified most scriptural and classical allusions. There are three appendices and two indexes. The first appendix is a timeline listing Christian women of the first five centuries, providing dates where they are available. The second appendix is a second timeline, this one giving the dates in the first five centuries of the authors and works used in the book. The third appendix offers suggestions for further reading, grouping the bibliographic entries by topics which correspond to the sections of the book. Finally, there is a general index followed by an index of scriptural references.

Any attempt to compile a sourcebook such as this must inevitably force upon the editor the unenviable task of leaving certain texts on the cutting room floor, so to speak. Granting this limitation, one still wishes that Miller had devoted more space in her introduction to discussing any similarities and/or differences which might obtain between the representation and roles of women in non-Greek Christian texts—not just Latin, but also, for example, Syriac. Nevertheless, Miller has drawn together and clearly organized an impressive body of material, giving us a book which should facilitate the incorporation of the role and importance of women into the teaching of early Christian history. Hers is an effort for which both students and teachers should be grateful.