Edited by Ashley Purpura, Thomas Arentzen, and Susan Ashbrook Harvey
Another new book, published this month. My contribution is a chapter entitled "Ancient or Modern? A Critique of Contemporary Orthodox Constructions of Gender." The essay began as a presentation at the Fifth Oslo Coalition Seminar on New Directions in Orthodox Theology (Oslo, Norway) in 2017.
Description
What is the role of gender in Eastern Christianity? In this volume, Orthodox experts of different disciplines and cultural backgrounds tackle this complex question. They engage critically with gender issues within their own tradition. Rather than simply accepting pervasive assumptions and practices, the authors challenge readers to reconsider historically or theologically justified views by offering nuanced insights into the tradition. The first part of the book explores normative positions in Orthodox texts and contexts. From examinations of Scripture and hagiography to re-evaluations of monastic, patriarchal, and legal sources, it sheds new light on gender issues in Orthodox Christianity. The second part considers how gendered expectations shape individuals’ participation in Orthodox liturgical life and how ecclesial contexts inflect gender theologically. The chapters reflect diverse Orthodox voices brought together to foster new understandings of the ways gender shapes Orthodox religious lives and beliefs. Rethinking what has been inherited from tradition, the authors proffer new perspectives on what it means to be a man or woman within Orthodoxy in the twenty-first century.
Editorial Reviews
This timely volume offers voices on a wide array of topics concerning religion and gender from the often-overlooked minority communities of Eastern Orthodox Christians (broadly conceived) in North America and Europe. Tapping sources that inform 'tradition'--historical, scriptural, hagiographical, liturgical, and theological texts, as well as lived experience--these essays challenge the historically conditioned, preservationist instincts of Orthodox Christianity's hieratical and patriarchal traditionalism concerning gender norms.
- Vera Shevzov, Professor of Religion, Smith College
This splendid book serves as an extremely important resource for the whole Orthodox communion as it belatedly faces up to the pressing reality of its manifold needs to address the status, roles, and ministries of women in the Church. Its gathering together of acute and first-rate scholars of antiquity, along with psychology, sociology, and gender studies, makes this accessible book essential reading for all who wish to take the discussion out of the tired trajectories it has hitherto followed.
- John A. McGuckin, Professor of Early Christianity, University of Oxford
This book approaches gender in Orthodox Christianity from a wide range of fresh perspectives. Whether irenic or provocative, they show Orthodox theology in the broadest sense, practiced by historians, liturgists, hagiographers, and lawyers as well as theologians, engaging with a key contemporary challenge. In its serious, historically grounded attempt to bring contemporary prompts into conversation with Orthodox tradition, reading this book is seeing living theology in action.
- Nadieszda Kizenko, Professor of History, University at Albany
These essays demonstrate what it means to think like a Tradition, as they explore a timely contemporary issue within the contours of the history of Orthodox theology and practices. These bold and insightful essays have much to teach specialists and non-specialists, as well as Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike, on how to approach our present-day questions around gender.
- Aristotle Papanikolaou, Chair in Orthodox Theology and Culture, Fordham University
Women are not silent anymore, but for centuries they have been silenced. In this book the voice of women throughout history echoes in the present through an excellent scholarly work primarily by Orthodox female scholars. If you want to challenge the ancient oppression of women in Orthodoxy but with the instrument that Orthodox tradition provides, then this is the book to read.
- Michael Hjälm, Dean, Sankt Ignatios College
