Women and knowledge in early Christianity / / Ulla Tervahauta [and three others].

• VerfasserIn: Tervahauta, Ulla,
• TeilnehmendeR: Tervahauta, Ulla,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden : : Brill,, [2017]; ©2017
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Series: Vigiliae Christianae, Supplements 144.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (x, 379 pages).
• Other title: Front Matter /; Women and Knowledge in Early Christianity: An Introduction /; Women and Independent Religious Specialists in Second-Century Rome /; “She Destroyed Multitudes”: Marcellina’s Group in Rome /; Some Remarks on Literate Women from Roman Egypt /; Women, Angels, and Dangerous Knowledge: The Myth of the Watchers in the Apocryphon of John and Its Monastic Manuscript-Context /; Jezebel in Jewish and Christian Tradition /; Mary and the Other Female Characters in the Protevangelium of James /; What Happened to Mary? Women Named Mary in the Meadow of John Moschus /; “For Women are Not Worthy of Life”: Protology and Misogyny in Gospel of Thomas Saying 114 /; “Women” and “Heresy” in Patristic Discourses and Modern Studies /; Astrological Determinism, Free Will, and Desire According to Thecla (St. Methodius, Symposium 8.15–16) /; Monastic Exegesis and the Female Soul in the Exegesis on the Soul /; Life, Knowledge and Language in Classic Gnostic Literature: Reconsidering the Role of the Female Spiritual Principle and Epinoia /; “Wisdom, Our Innocent Sister”: Reflections on a Mytheme /; The Virgin That Became Male: Feminine Principles in Platonic and Gnostic Texts /; Bibliography /; Index of Ancient and Medieval Sources /
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• ISBN: 9004344934
• ISSN: 0920-623X
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Ulla Tervahauta [and three others].

Women and knowledge are interconnected in several ways in late ancient and early Christian discourses, not least because wisdom (Sophia) and spiritual knowledge (Gnosis) were frequently personified as female entities. Ancient texts deal with idealized women and use feminine imagery to describe the divine but they also debate women’s access to and capacity of gaining knowledge. Combining rhetorical analysis with social historical approaches, the contributions in this book cover a wide array of source materials, drawing special attention to the so-called Gnostic texts. The fourteen essays, written by prominent experts of ancient Christianity, are dedicated to Professor Antti Marjanen (University of Helsinki).