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"This Female Man of God"
- Women and Spiritual Power in the Patristic Age, 350-450 AD
Author :
Gillian Cloke
Master eBook ISBN10 : 0-203-42254-6
Master eBook ISBN13 : 978-0-203-42254-0
No of pages :256
Originally Published : 19 Jan 1995
Status : Available [You may read this title]
This book is a study of the contribution of women to the development of the newly legitimate Christian church in the twiligth of the Western Roman Empire. There are many women noted for the example of their life in this period, regarded amongst the luminaries of the day; but while their make mentors, the patristic authors, have retained their fame, the women who surrounded and influenced them have all but disappeared from sight. The women themselves are partly to blame for this for - in order to be pious it made sense to disguise one''s sex sometimes literally: Dr Cloke gives examples of those whose sex was discovered only after their death - they sought to become androgynous, a third sex before God.
God''s Androgynes looks at a multitude of examples in some detail and takes an overview of the role of Christian women at this time. It will appeal not only to historians, classicists and theologians, but also to anyone who takes a general interest in the changing status of women over the the centuries.
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