Situated in a period that witnessed the genesis of institutions that have lasted to this day, this path-breaking study looks at how ancient Christian women, particularly in Asia Minor and Egypt, initiated ascetic ways of living, and how these practices were then institutionalized. Susanna Elm demonstrates that-in direct contrast to later conceptions-asceticism began primarly as an urban movement, in which women were significant protagonists. In the process, they completely transformed and expanded their roles as wife, mother, or widow: as Christian ascetics, they became 'virgin wives', 'virgin mothers', and 'virgin widows' - with all the legal and economic implications of such a dramatic shift. As importantly, though, Christian men and women ascetics lived together. As 'virgins of God' they created new families 'in Christ'. No longer determined by their human bonds or human sexuality, they were 'neither male nor female'. Finally, the book demonstrates how ascetic bishops - today known as saints - eventually 'reformed' these early models of communal, ascetic life by dividing the 'virgins of God' into monks and nuns and thus laid the foundation for the monasticism we know today.
Situated in a period that witnessed the genesis of institutions that have lasted to this day, this path-breaking study looks at how ancient Christian women, particularly in Asia Minor and Egypt, initiated ascetic ways of living, and how these practices were then institutionalized. Susanna Elm demonstrates that-in direct contrast to later conceptions-asceticism began primarly as an urban movement, in which women were significant protagonists. In the process, they completely transformed and expanded their roles as wife, mother, or widow: as Christian ascetics, they became 'virgin wives', 'virgin mothers', and 'virgin widows' - with all the legal and economic implications of such a dramatic shift. As importantly, though, Christian men and women ascetics lived together. As 'virgins of God' they created new families 'in Christ'. No longer determined by their human bonds or human sexuality, they were 'neither male nor female'. Finally, the book demonstrates how ascetic bishops - today known as saints - eventually 'reformed' these early models of communal, ascetic life by dividing the 'virgins of God' into monks and nuns and thus laid the foundation for the monasticism we know today.
Susanna Elm is Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley.
`Elm's is one of the most important studies of early Christian
asceticism in the twentieth century. Its influence on scholarship
pertaining to late antiquity should be enormous. `Virgins of God'
is required reading for anyone interested in early Christianity's
development.'
Journal of Religion
`an ambitious book ... Instead of three venerable patristic
figures, Basil, Pachomius, and Athanasius, as the founding fathers
of mansticism, we are now faced with a variegated ascetic tradition
in which women and heretics played the pivotal role.'
Bryn Mawr Classical Review
`an exciting book to read; it should be read by anyone interested
in early Church history and the role of women in the early Church
... It belongs in every monastic library ... The scholarship is
sensible and almost always fascinating.'
Coptic Church Review
`a very well researched and documented academic treatise ... It is,
I believe, the first comprehensive study of the place of the virgin
in antiquity to be written in English ... challenging and exciting
reading ... I welcome the publication of this book and recommend it
to all students of the history of ascetic and community life, as
well as to those exercised about the future of the consecrated
state.'
M. Ruth Bleakley, Fairacres Chronicle
`Anyone interested in either gender studies or the Church will at
least want to consult `Virgins of God'... a painstaking detailed
account of many diverse sources...'
Greece and Rome Reviews 42
`her book is interesting and important in its placing of the
development of this institution, as she sees it, in the framework
of the internal political struggles of the Church.'
Journal of Hellenic Studies
`Elm has sought out and made available a number of little-known
sources which increase knowledge and understanding of the roles of
ascetic women, and in this her study is extremely valuable.'
Charlotte Methuen, Ecclesiastical Hisotry, Vol. 48, No. 3
`Remarkable study...The volume is well written, amply documented
and provided with an excellent select bibliography and various
indices.'
The Journal of Indo-European Studies
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