Sacred Fictions: Holy Women and Hagiography in Late Antiquity

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments I AM GRATEFUL TO ALL the individuals who aided me in the completion of this book. My deepest thanks go to Thomas Noble for introducing me to the critical study of hagiography, for his great skill in communicating the vital importance of these texts to the study of late antiquity, and for his steadfast support. I greatly appreciate the mentoring of Duane Osheim, who guided me through my early study of gender and Christian spirituality . I should also like to thank Jerome Singerman of the University of Pennsylvania Press as well as the Press' two anonymous readers of the manuscript, whose thoughtful suggestions helped me to clarify certain sections of the book. This book could not have been completed without institutional support . The year I spent at Bates College in Maine was crucial to the initial phases of this project, and I should like to express my gratitude to my colleagues in history there, particularly Michael Jones and Margaret Creighton . A 1991 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend allowed me to devote three uninterrupted months to research. The Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas awarded me a one-year fellowship at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, and the history department made it possible to accept the award. I appreciate the support I received from many new friends and colleagues in Cambridge while I was writing the book. I am grateful to the gracious faculty and remarkable students of Lucy Cavendish College for their intellectual stimulation, especially Lorna McNeur, Jane Renfrew, Anja Matwijkiw, and Adelheid Voskuhl. I am deeply indebted to Betty Wood, who shared her home (with its whimsical garden) across from Jesus Green and her cats, Miss Ruthie and Mr. Gibson. I also thank Michael O'Brien for his great dexterity as an editor and Tricia O'Brien for her wit, erudition, and companionship. There are a number of individuals who have had a direct influence on this undertaking. Iena Gaines, Kathy Haldane, Ellen Litwicki, Peter Potter, and Elisabeth Sommer offered unflagging encouragement, both in graduate school and beyond. I thank David and Marilyn Appleby for their hospitality and willingness to help me with final details. XlI Acknowledgments At the University of Arkansas, my friend and colleague, Lynn Jacobs, has been extremely helpful both in terms of referring me to the works of art historians and in reading early versions of the manuscript. I would also like to thank Jeremy Hyman for his willingness to discuss with me the hermeneutics of Leviticus and Exodus. And, to my humanities teaching team, Charles Adams, Ethel Goodstein, and David Fredrick, I extend special thanks for introducing me to scholarly theories in the fields of literary criticism , classics, gender, sexuality, and architectural history. My students in medieval history at the University of Arkansas have contributed to this book in more ways than can be recounted here, particularly John Arnold, Jennifer Howard, and Mary Thurlkill, all of whom are extraordinary hagiologers. I would like to thank those special friends in Fayetteville whose guidance and tireless labors saw this book to its completion. I cherish my neighbors ' Mary Gussman, Karin Herrmann, and Martha Middleton, and thank them for enduring my ups and downs while working on this book. I remain grateful to my colleague and friend, Elizabeth Payne, for her insightful comments on the role of gender in historical narrative. I extend immeasurable thanks to my dear friends, Robert Finlay and Suzanne Maberry, who read countless drafts of chapters, edited compulsively, and greatly improved the overall structure of the book. Thanks go to my brother, Eric, for inspiring my interest in history when we were children. My most profound appreciation is for my parents, Nelson B. Coon and Judy A. Coon, who encouraged and sustained me, and in whose memory this book is dedicated. ...