Women and Spiritual Equality in the Christian Tradition by Patricia Ranft

Women and Spiritual Equality in the Christian Tradition by Patricia Ranft

This text challenges the assumption in contemporary discourse that Christianity is exclusively misogynist by documenting the presence of a long, strong, and positive tradition based on women's spiritual equality. In chronological order, references and images of women in church writings and lay culture are explored, as well as the actual lives of women and their vitae. Ranft shows how the accumulated evidence provides data that this positive tradition co-existed with the misogynist tradition. For a millennium and a half, Ranft reveals, Christianity possessed the lone voice in society that posited women's equality in any aspect. She argues that without knowledge of this tradition, our understanding of the history of Western women is significantly incomplete.

'Ranfts survey provides a valuable account of the tradition of spiritual equality' - Bijdragen, International Journal in Philosophy and Theology

PATRICIA RANFT is Professor of History at Central Michigan University. She has published extensively on medieval and ecclesiastical history. Her Women and Religious Life in Premodern Europe (SMP 1996) was a History Book Club selection.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780333749173
ISBN 10	0333749170
Title	Women and Spiritual Equality in the Christian Tradition
Author	Patricia Ranft
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Palgrave Macmillan
Year published	1998-08-05
Number of pages	320
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.