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Topics
The topic you choose for your wider research this quarter needs to correlate to your research cluster (site and literary text from early Christianity), and must include gender analysis. Working within those two stipulations, you can choose any topic you like, focusing on either a deeper study of your research cluster topic or a contemporary issue or debate that is related.
Most of the topics below can work with one or another of the research clusters, and include further bibliographic resources. They aren't meant to be exhaustive, but rather are offered to indicate the nature
of the assignment and to stimulate your own interests.
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- The
Historical Jesus and Women
- Was
Jesus a feminist? Many Christian feminist scholars have argued this. To make the
case, they first have to reconstruct who the historical Jesus might have been
based on the sources at our disposal; then they need a working understanding of
women's place in society; and finally they must reconstruct Jesus' relationship
to women in our sources. Follow this line of inquiry yourself. What can we know
about the historical Jesus' attitude toward women?
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Bibliography |
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- The
Brothers of Jesus
- Jesus'
brothers are mentioned in several places in the New Testament (Gal 1:1–2:14;
4:1-31; 1 Cor 9:4-5; 15:3-11; Mark 3:19-35 par Matt 12:46-50 par
Luke 8:19-21 par Gospel of Thomas 99; Mark 6:3-4 par Matt 13:54-58
par Luke 4:16-30; John 7:1-25-27; Acts 1:14; 12:17; 15:13-21; 21:17-26;
Jude; James), yet later Christian teaching would emphasize the virginity of Mary,
which would seem to rule out that Jesus had brothers. What are we to make of the
New Testament evidence? And how did later Christians explain the presence of the
brothers (and sisters) in the early Jesus movement?
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Bibliography |
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- Women
in Q
- Q
is arguably the earliest source we can use to reconstruct what Jesus actually
did. Thus, if you want to know Jesus' attitudes towards women, Q might reveal
some answers. Early feminists argued that Q demonstrates Jesus' egalitarian impulses,
but subsequent scholars have questioned this. Examine the debate and come to your
own conclusions.
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Bibliography |
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- Women
in the Pauline Communities
- Paul
refers to women in his seven undisputed letters in the New Testament. In fact,
he calls them co-workers and, in one case, a fellow apostle. Select either a particular
woman (Junia, Phoebe or Prisca are recommended) or a community in which women
are prominent (Corinth is recommended). Examine what we can know about the social
situation of these women or of women in this community, on the basis of ancient
evidence (Paul's letters included). Does Paul adopt or adapt expected gender roles?
What are the expected gender roles in that cultural context?
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Bibliography |
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-
Same-Sex Relations in the Bible
- Paul offers the Christian worship of one God as an alternative to the Greco-Roman worship of multiple gods. He sees same-sex relations as a consequence of idolatry. But are these same-sex relations the same thing we mean when we speak of homosexual orientation and practice? How is the Bible used and misused in contemporary debates about homosexuality?
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Bibliography |
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- Redactional
Study of a Female Character in Scripture
- As
we are seeing with our examination of Mary Magdalene in the gospels, certain significant
women are treated somewhat differently in the canonical and extra-canonical gospel
literature. Choose one of the significant women, and examine the portraits of
her in the gospels that mention her. Use the critical method known as redaction
criticism to analyze and identify the similarities and differences in
the gospel portraits of this woman, and then study the backgrounds, audiences
and theological interests of the authors so that you can propose why one of the
later authors altered his sources (Mark is generally considered to be a source
of Matthew and Luke, and all three of these may be sources of later gospels;
research will help you to identify their sources). Some of the "significant"
women in the gospels include Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Herodias
(who requests John the Baptist's head, Mark 6:17-29 par Matt 14:1-12; cf.
Luke 3:19-20), Martha and her sister Mary. Unnamed women include the Syro-Phoenician
woman (Mark 7:24-30 par Matt 15:21-28), the woman who anoints Jesus' feet
(Mark 14:3-9 par Matt 26:6-13 par? Luke 7:36-50 + par? John
12:1-8), and the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4). Use a Concordance
to be certain that you have found all the referenes in the gospels to the character
you have chosen. Then look up the character in the Anchor
Bible Dictionary to determine whether there are any extra-canonical
gospels that refer to this character. Read those and collect secondary articles
to help you understand how the portait of this woman develops in early Christian
circles.
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Bibliography |
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- Women
in the Gospel of Luke
- Women
are portrayed frequently in the Gospel of Luke in service of Luke's larger theme
of demonstrating that the kingdom of God is all-inclusive, a place where those
now of low status will be lifted and those of high status will be brought down.
But feminist biblical scholars have also noted that Luke's portrait of women is
problematic. Compared to Mark and Matthew, Luke diminishes the role of particular
women associated with Jesus. How does he do this, and why? Begin with a redaction
critical reading of key passages about women in the Gospel of Luke. Analyze
the way Luke alters his sources Mark and Q, and argue a thesis in terms of the
categories required for this paper (body, power, theology) why Luke might be doing
this.
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Bibliography |
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- Women
and the Rise of Christianity
- Early
opponents of Christianity charged that it was no religion but rather a superstition
that attracted only women and slaves. There is some evidence, particularly in
the Pauline epistles, that the new belief system was indeed attractive to these
groups. But did it attract a majority of women? If so, why? What did it offer
these women that other religious systems did not? Or is the charge without merit,
a typical slander leveled at new cults? If so, how did such a slur function to
persuade an audience to beware of the new social group? What was the status of
women and slaves in antiquity?
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Bibliography |
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- The
Construction of Gender in Ancient Romance Novels
- Several
of the early Christian apocryphal acts may be classified as religious versions
of the (ancient) romance novel. This literary genre has certain typical plot elements
and motifs: a couple destined to be wed is separated, usually by pirates
who injure the man and kidnap the woman; both the man and the woman are subjected
to ordeals across a wide geographic region as they try to reunite; and finally
and climactically they are restored to each other. Since the secular genre revolves
around sexual union and tension (the threats against the kidnapped woman are not
difficult to make out), you might wonder and will explore in this paper how the
genre is adapted by the virginity-espousing early Christians. For this paper,
it is recommended that you read both a secular romance and a Christian example,
so that you have a basis to compare them. You should also do some research on
romance novels in general, the gender assumptions in them, and Christian apocryphal
acts and their treatment of women. And remember, these novels are most probably
written by men.
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Bibliography |
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- Varying Views of Marriage in the Early Church
- In contemporary debates about same-sex marriage, you will often hear Christians make the claim that Christianity has always promoted marriage, and that the primary purpose of marriage is procreation. A close look at early Christian texts indicates that this is not the case. There are very few early Christian authors who outright promoted marriage; what we find instead is the promotion of celibacy, even within marriage! The bibliography offers several different Christian authors in the "primary literature" section; it's recommended that you select just one.
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Bibliography |
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- Cross-Dressing
Saints: Androgyny and the Redemption of Women
- As early as Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, we find a community in which women and men were not acting the way men and women were expected to act. They viewed baptism as the moment they "put on Christ." Their new Christ clothing meant they were more like the angels than like humans —and since angels aren't gendered, neither were they (Galatians 3:26-28). This notion persists for several centuries: we see Christian men embracing certain attributes typically associated with women, and Christian women literally cutting their hair, dressing like men and traveling about freely, as if gender didn't matter any more.
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Bibliography |
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- Women
and Power in Gnosticism
- In
the 1950s, a cache of early Christian documents was found in Egypt. Under examination,
it became clear that these were Gnostic
works. Several of these works refer to women or female-gendered divine beings,
and accord them a significant role (as we have seen in the Gospel of Mary Magdalene).
This led some scholars to argue that the texts derived from communities in which
women held positions of power. Examine Gnosticism and some Gnostic texts in which
women are mentioned. Explore what we can know about the social communities behind
these texts. Can we determine their power structures? Were women accorded a place
in those structures? And if so, at what cost?
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Bibliography |
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- Killing
the Virgin: The Peculiarities of Women's Martyrologies
- The
early martyrological accounts of the Roman executions of female Christians are
peculiar when compared to the martyrologies of men. Despite the fact (or perhaps
because) the protagonists are virgins, the accounts are sexualized: there is most
often a threat of rape, and if the woman is stripped in public there is often
a divine intervention to conceal her nakedness from the audience in the story
(though not from the audience of the story). Examine these accounts and
discussions of them to explore both the exploitation of women in them by the Roman
persecutors and perhaps by the author, who by writing the account continues to
subject the heroine to violence. What possible functions could these accounts
have had in the early Christian communities? Do these virgin martyrs enjoy any
authority unusual for women because of their willingness to die?
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Bibliography |
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- Women
in the Montanist Movement
- In
the second century, a charismatic Christian movement began in Asia Minor (modern-day
Turkey) that would grow extremely popular. Led by a man named Montanus and two
women, the "Montanists" as they were called drew crowds, and thereby
provided a spiritual alternative to the hierarchy of the emerging "orthodox"
church. Needless to say, the "fathers of the church" were not happy,
and spilled a great deal of ink to condemn the Montanists as heretics. Tertullian
is one of their most prominent attackers, although later in life he converted
to the movement. Examine the movement in terms of the subject areas of our course.
Explain the nature of our sources, the appeal of charismatic movements for ancient
women, and views of the person, or power, and of redemption that they offered.
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Bibliography |
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-
Tertullian
on Women's Attire and Hairstyles
- Tertullian,
who so disparaged the Montanists (though he later became one), was never very
well-disposed toward women -- which is a nice way of saying he was one of the
most virulent misogynists in early Christianity. Examine his sermons on women,
virginity, women's dress and adornments. What precisely is the threat that women
pose to Tertullian's sense of order? How do attributes so simple as clothing and
hairstyle feed into Tertullian's arguments? How does Tertullian bring Christian
scripture to bear in his attempt to reform his congregation? Are there other philosophical
or social pressures at work behind his tirades?
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Bibliography |
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Spiritual
Marriage in John Chrysostom's Works
- By
the time John Chrysostom is preaching to his congregation in Antioch in the fourth
century, virginity has taken off in Christianity in a variety of forms. There
are the enclosed ascetics, men and women who live celibate lives apart from others
or sometimes in solitary confinement in the heart of the city. There are others
who live in single-sex communities. Still others enter into "spiritual marriages,"
that is, relationships that look entirely like marriage except that the partners
forgo sexual intercourse. How does Chrysostom feel about this practice? Does he
argue in support of or against it, and what is the nature of his argument? Can
you develop a sense of Chrysostom's ideal Christian society based on his comments?
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Bibliography |
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Augustine,
Sex and Women
- One
of the most influential of the early Christian "fathers" is Augustine,
whose voluminous philosophical and exegetical writings were composed just as the
Roman Empire was beginning to disintegrate. His thoughts on the nature of sin
had a tremendous impact on medieval Europe and on Luther during the Protestant
Reformation, and continue to be influential in Christian circles. Augustine has
a reputation for connecting sex and original sin, and for connecting both of these
particularly with women, that has made him the bishop Christian feminists love
to hate. What did Augustine say? What philosophical systems was he trying to reconcile
with Christian scripture, and how did he merge them? Does he simply make Christianity
support the dominant social structure, or does he have anything critical to say
of his society's gendered roles and sexual activity?
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Bibliography |
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Holy
Fasting: The Roots of Women's Asceticism and Anorexia
- Dr.
Michelle Lelwica has recently argued that the early Christian gender paradigms,
the denigration of the body in favor of the spirit, and the association of women's
bodies in particular with the material (and lower) world, have together created
a value system that tells women that they must denigrate or even destroy their
bodies in order to be spiritual. Examine Lelwica's argument, and particularly
her analysis of contemporary secular manifestations of this trend (anorexia, bulimia,
the physical "ideal" represented by supermodels). Analyze how early
Christian material we have read supports or offers an alternative to this argument.
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Bibliography |
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Women's
Ordination in the Catholic Church
- The
Catholic Church argues that it cannot ordain women, despite the fact that several
other mainstream Christian churches have chosen to do so. What are the arguments
that the Church advances? If there are historical arguments based on the scriptures
and early Christianity, analyze and critique these arguments.
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