Women and Spiritual Equality in Christian Tradition (review)

Patricia Ranft. Women and Spiritual Equality in Christian Tradition, rev. ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000. Pp. xii + 307. $19.95.

First published in hardcover in 1998, this book grew out of the author's frus-tration with studies that suggest "Christianity was at its core mysogynist" and thus "largely responsible for Western mysogynism" (ix). Her thesis is that, while Christianity may have done little to advance women's position in temporal society, it always maintained a strong tradition of spiritual equality between women and men. This work surveys that tradition.

The study is arranged chronologically, beginning with the theory of women's spiritual equality in early Christian writings and the history of women's participation in the earliest Christian communities, with special attention to women martyrs. Chapters 3 and 4 are devoted to the fourth century picture of women drawn by theologians and to the women who influenced and collaborated with them, while chapter 5 discusses the development of the devotional life, particularly Marian devotion, in late antiquity. Chapters 6 and 7 describe early medieval saints and the role women played in the development of monasticism. The high Middle Ages are treated in chapters 8 and 9, focusing upon how the growth of eremiticism and scholasticism affected women, and how women contributed to the tradition of affective piety begun by Anselm and Bernard. Here attention is given to the positive view of women created by female imagery in churches, to litanies and dramas celebrating holy women, and to women's role in furthering eucharistic devotion. Chapters 10 and 11 focus on the late Middle Ages, considering women's participation in mystical movements and the depiction of women in sermons, literature, and the arts. A final chapter summarizes Refor-mation, counter-Reformation and Enlightenment opinions of women. Ranft ends her study here, suggesting that the modern shift from an overtly Christian to a secular society caused emphasis upon women's spiritual equality to be superseded by the need to foster the social, political and economic parity between women and men.

Generally speaking, this is a useful, accurate and thorough survey of Christianity's positive assessment of women, and of the impetus it gave to the flourishing of certain women in Christian history. The ample notes and bibliography suggest helpful directions for further research.

However, I am puzzled by the author's methodology, particularly her need to separate the positive from the negative in her study. I know of few reputable scholars who would maintain that Christianity is misogynist to its core (Ranft nowhere lists the works she is reacting against), and few who would disagree with the material she has accumulated. But much of the same material also has a negative side. For instance, the ideal of womanhood so celebrated in the high Middle Ages was one that only a virginal elite could aspire to, leaving most women with an inferior view of themselves. The Book of Margery Kempe gives telling witness to a married woman's struggle to attain holiness in a religious milieu which offered little such encouragement for someone in her position.

I would much prefer a classroom text which places both positive and negative aspects of Christianity's view of women together critically. A one-sided positive treatment distorts reality as much as does a negative one, and has the effect of raising more questions than it answers. Not least among these is how an incar-national and sacramental religion like Christianity could so thoroughly separate the spiritual status of women from their material functioning in church and society.

Joan M. Nuth, John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio

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