Household, Women and Christianities in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (review)

This book claims, on its cover, to consider 'the impact of women's householding on the history of the church'. Most of the nine papers struggle to live up to this claim, which should probably be taken as a criticism of the claim, rather than of the papers. They range broadly in time and space, from late antique to late medieval, from Byzantium to Scandinavia, and while most are based in the study of literature, there is some interesting discussion of material culture.

The editors provide an introduction in two parts, dividing the collection into two sections. There is no discernible reason for this, since the sections are not separated by period, geography, theme or approach. The introductions raise some interesting threads which can be pursued through the papers. Seven propositions are advanced concerning women, household and Christianity in the late antique and medieval periods, including that the medieval family was more egalitarian and the antique household more patriarchal, that household structures contributed to the shape of church activities, and that the difference between canon and civil law had a significant impact on women's roles and freedoms. Much is made of the 'conclusion' that European Christianity cannot be seen as a 'single monolithic entity or process', a concept which is hardly new to anyone familiar with the early medieval period. This idea gives rise to the unnecessary pluralising of 'Christianity' in the book's title, leaving one to ponder the use of 'household' in the singular.

Kate Cooper contributes two papers. The first is an interesting analysis of the contrast between biological and monastic families in the Lives of Melania the Younger, discussing the legalities and practicalities of family duties in the aristocratic Roman milieu alongside the political concerns of the young monastic foundation. Her second paper compares the Handbook for Gregoria, a sixth-century Latin conduct manual, to its contemporary, Ferrandus's Letter to Reginus, with a focus on the image of the miles Christi and its application in household and province as spheres of authority. The conclusion that 'the lay household should hold a central place ... as the elusive but indispensable institution within which the fate of province and empire took shape' (p. 105) is important, but seems to be insufficiently argued in the paper, where household and province are compared, but not considered as in active relationship.

Eva M. Synek's paper on ''Oikos-Ecclesiology' and 'Church Order' in Eastern Christianity' discusses the nature of the early church as household with God as pater familias, and the gradual erosion of this structure as earthly father-figures, specifically bishops, were established. Else Marie Wiberg Pedersen's paper gives an interesting analysis of two monastic texts from Helfta, showing that the monastic community and indeed the wider church were conceived in terms of the household, with Christ as the kitchen and the focus on spiritual nourishment for household members and visitors.

In 'The Icon Corner in Medieval Byzantium', Judith Herrin makes a case for women's control of domestic devotion through their roles as first maintainers of the space dedicated to household gods and then commissioners and maintainers of Christian icons and the space they occupied in the household. Her admirable analysis of the literary and sparse archaeological evidence for the use of icons is perhaps not quite sufficient to uphold her suggestion that women were virtually forced to turn to devotion to icons because they were excluded from any other role in the Byzantine church than that of nun.

Birgit Sawyer's discussion of women and conversion in Scandinavia draws on the evidence of rune-stones and literature to suggest that Christianity encouraged women to espouse chastity in the face of existing reverence for procreation, and to depart from traditional kin-based arrangements for land-ownership and donate property to the church. This, she suggests, gave rise to misogynistic tendencies...