Women’s Studies of the Christian and Islamic Traditions: Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Foremothers

354 Pages·1993·23.158 MB·English

by  Kari Elisabeth Børresen, Kari Vogt (auth.)

WOMEN'SSTIJDIESOFTHECHRISTIAN
ANDISLAMICTRADmONS
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WOMEN'S STUDIES OF THE CHRISTIAN
AND
ISLAMIC TRADITIONS
llncient,~edUeval
and Renaissance Foremothers
by
KARl ELISABETH B0RRESEN
Royal Norwegian Ministry of Culture
and
KARlVOGT
Department ofR eligious Studies,
University of Oslo
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-94-010-4727-2 ISBN 978-94-011-1664-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-1664-0
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved
© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrechl
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1993
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
CONTENTS
Preface 9
I Survey ofrecent research 11
Karl Elisabeth Bmresen:
Women's Studies of the Christian Tradition. . . . . . . . . 13
1.Theolo~cManthropology 14
2. Sexology 18
3. Canon law 25
4. History- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5. H~ography . . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 42
6. Women writers 55
6.1 Late Antique, Byzantine and Early MedievM
Authors 55
6.2 Heloise............................. 58
6.3 Hildegard von Bingen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
6.4 Herrad von Landsberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
6.5 Chiara d'Assisi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
6.6 Hadewijch........................... 66
6.7 Beatrijs van Nazareth 67
6.8 Helfta writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
6.9 Angela da Foligno 69
6.10 Marguerite d'Oingt 69
6.11 Marguerite Porete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
6.12 Bir~tta of Sweden . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
6.13 Caterina da Siena. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
6.14 Julian of Norwich. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6.15 Margery Kempe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
6.16 Caterina Vegri 80
6.17 Christine de Pizan •.................... 81
6
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Bililio~phy 87
Karl Vogt:
a
Etudes relatives aux femmes et leur role dans les cultures
vne xve
musulmanes du au siecle 129
II Matristics: Late Antique, Early Christian
and Islamic Foremothers 153
Karl Vogt:
"The Hierophant of Philosophy" - Hypatia of Alexandria 155
La moniale folIe du monasrere des Tabennesiotes. . . . .. 177
The Desert Mothers: Female Asceticism in Egypt from the
4th to the 6th Century 193
"Becoming Male": a Gnostic, Early Christian and Islamic
Metaphor 217
III Matristics: Mothers ofthe Church 243
Karl Elisabeth Berresen;
Ancient and Medieval Church Mothers 245
Birgitta of Sweden: a Model of Theological Inculturation 277
Julian of Norwich: a Model of Feminist Theology .... 295
Caritas Pirckheimer et Vittoria Colonna 315
7
IV Feminologie institutionelle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 341
Karl Elisabeth Berresen:
Image ajustee, typologie arreree: Analyse critique de
Mulieris dignitatem 343
Karl Vogt:
Catholicisme et Islam: Une rethorique apologetique
a
commune propos de la femme 359
PREFACE
Our purpose in presenting this volume on Women's Studies of
the Christian and Islamic Traditions is to point out their
converging trends, based onthe common Mediterranean culture.
Like Judaism, both are monotheistic religions, with correlated
theocentrismandandrocentrism.Correspondingly,malehumanity
isconsiderednormative,whereasfemale humanityisderived and
therefore subordinate. In consequence, both traditions define
women's raison d'etre in the sense oftheir specific instrumental
rolefor men's procreationofoffspring. InWesternEuropeanand
North American Christianity, this shared androcentrism is super
seded only in the 20th century, with the acceptance of women's
legal equality in society. Nevertheless, men's precedence is
upheld in Catholic and Orthodox ecclesiastical legislation, by
excluding women from cultic functions as priests and bishops.
In the Christian Tradition, this impedimentum sexus results from
women's lack of creational Godlikeness qua female human
beings. It follows that the non-Protestant majority of Christen
dom considers women incapable of performing sacramental
mediation between God and humankind. In traditional Islam,
women cannot act as legal councillor or religious judge and are
moreover excluded from performing all official functions. Strict
divisionofmaleandfemale roleswithassymetrical complement
arity results in social segregation of women.
Althoughtheirtheologyandtheological anthropologydiffer,
the Christian and Islamic traditions share a common basic
androcentrism, withcorrespondinglegal andcultic incapacityfor
women. This convergence of gender models, where specific
femaleness is defined without correlated specific maleness, is
still unexplored by Women's Studies in Religion. We believe
that research using human genderedness as main analytical
10
category will prove especially fruitful in studying the Christian
and Islamic Traditions, which today influence the lives of
approximately one and a half and one milliard human beings.
Brian McNeil C.R.V. and Albert Raulin O.P. have
congenially supervised our English and French. Karl Hom has
prepared the camera-ready manuscript with graceful efficiency.
Oslo, December 1992
Karl Elisabeth Burresen
Royal Norwegian Ministry ofCulture
Karl Vogt
Department ofReligious Studies
University ofOslo
I
SURVEY OF RECENT RESEARCH