Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns through Two Millennia by Jo Ann Kay McNamara (review)

BOOK REVIEWS97 into a simple society. Its charm for the harassed city-dweller and the devout Christian disenchanted with church administration is obvious. Dr. Bradley does not differentiate enough between a reasonable re-creation of the past and a total figment. Man does not live by facts alone; there are always elements of creation and imagination. It was natural to choose hallowed sites when founding monasteries, natural to promote some saints at the expense of other saints or of historical fact, natural to adapt ancient prayers and devotions to suit modern tastes and needs. Precisely the same happened in secular affairs. No doubt the prayers in Carmina Gadelica were adapted or edited, but so too were the Gaelic folk-songs. That does not make them spurious. Scottish Catholics have their local saints and holy places dating from ancient times but have hardly been touched by any Celtic revival, though St. Columba's centenary in 1997 stirred great interest. Others, however, including New Age people and some charismatics in England, have taken up Celtic spirituality. This book provides an excellent scholarly introduction to modern Celtic revivals and the present-day cult of Celtic Christianity. Mark Dilworth, O.S.B. Edinburgh, Scotland Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns through Two Millennia. ByJo Ann Kay McNamara . (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1996. Pp. xiii, 751. $35.00 hardcover; $18.95 paperback.) This monumental study explores the history of Catholic sisterhood from the first century to the end of the twentieth century. It provides Catholic women religious with a much-needed and long-overdue distinct historical identity which they have been denied in traditional histories of monasticism. The title of this work, Sisters in Arms, is taken from the military metaphor of nuns as soldiers of Christ. As part of that elite army, women religious were subjected to rigorous training and discipline; they shared a special comradeship. Over the centuries these militia Christi found themselves in the forefront of the Church's battles against enemies of religion; many also fought against misogynist elements within the Church which denigrated and constrained their efforts. Despite their invaluable participation, some churchmen maintained that these virgin troops had no place on the battlefield among the militia Christi. This impressive survey begins with the Apostolic period and the first communities of celibate women found in the early house churches, and concludes with a look at the difficulties of female monasticism in the late-twentieth century . The first half of the study focuses on women religious from the Roman period through the high Middle Ages. The second half surveys the period from the fifteenth century through the twentieth century, with a final chapter, "Toward a Third Millennium." McNamara examines patterns of continuity and change in 98BOOK REVIEWS the opportunities and roles of female religious and their institutional affiliations , against the complex social and ecclesiastical backgrounds of this twothousand -year period. She discusses the involvement of women religious across the centuries in missionary work, their major commitment to charity, and their work in hospitals. She notes the special opportunities which prophecy and mysticism provided female religious. The author also furnishes fascinating insights into the religious lives of women along with specific contributions of a number of extraordinary abbesses and nuns. She has singled out figures from Thecla, the companion of St. Paul, to Sister Mary Thérèse Kane, who, in 1979, urged Pope John Paul II to consider the recognition of women as full members of the Church and their ordination as priests. As noted by McNamara, the book calls "attention to foremothers who, for two millennia, have broken new paths for women in a hostile and forbidden world. They served their god and their church and in doing so they fulfilled themselves and laid a foundation for all women. Without the daring and sacrifice of these nuns, it is impossible to imagine the feminist movements of modern times finding any purchase in the pubhe world. They created the image and reality of the autonomous woman. They formed the professions through which that autonomy was activated. They still devote their lives to the care and development of human beings everywhere" (P- 6). One of the major themes of Sisters in Arms...