WHAT OF THE "MOTHERS" OF THE CHURCH?
By Christopher A. Hall
Without doubt there were many significant women in the life of the early church, some of whom served
as models and mentors for key church fathers. We have the example of the Roman widow Marcella, one of the first female ascetics in Rome. . . . Jerome’s closest personal female friend was Paula, whose wealth made possible the construction of a number of monasteries in Bethlehem. Paula died in A.D. 404. . . . In a letter written shortly after Paula’s death, Jerome comments on Paula’s sharp intellect. . . . Melania the Elder was also renowned for her learning and intellect.
Olympias, a deaconess in the church at Constantinople, was inspired by the example of Melania the Elder. . . . Palladius writes that Olympias "contended eagerly in no minor contests for the sake of the truth, taught many women, held solemn conversations with priests, honored the bishops, and was deemed worthy to be a confessor on behalf of truth."
The relationship between Olympias and John Chrysostom, bishop at Constantinople, demonstrates the love and support not infrequently expressed between leading male and female leaders in the church. . . .
Despite the frequent and often lavish praises women receive from the fathers, marked ambiguity flavors the patristic response to their female counterparts. . . . The fathers’ own interpretive lenses, colored by the strongly patriarchal culture in which they lived, led them to read the Bible’s statements about women selectively. In their exegesis they leaned toward passages that appeared to indicate a subordinate position for women, and largely overlooked the implications of texts such as Galatians 5:1 and 3:28 for relationships between the sexes.
The fathers’ patriarchal culture was not the only factor coloring their perspective on women and the relationship between women and men in the church. Women occupied positions of leadership within "sects on the fringes of mainstream Christianity" such as heterodox gnostic groups. . . . Hence, the role of women in the early church was circumscribed within specific boundaries. . .
The pathway to freedom for women willing to pay the price, then, was to leave the normal routines of domestic life in a patriarchal culture for the rigors of an ascetic lifestyle marked by devotion to spiritual disciplines such as prayer, fasting and alms-giving. Within this context, however, having shed the more threatening and debilitating aspects of their sexuality, opportunities for learning and teaching did exist--though teaching men in an official ecclesiastical role remained off limits, as did the priesthood. . .
The life of Macrina, sister of Gregory of Nyssa and Basil the Great, is a remarkable example of theological acumen and practical spirituality. In fact, Macrina is often known as the "Fourth Cappadocian," in addition to Gregory of Nazianzus and her brothers Basil and Gregory of Nyssa. . . .
It is unfortunate that because of cultural, historical and misconstrued theological considerations and developments we do not have a significant body of writing from the gifted women who inhabited the early church.
Christopher A. Hall is associate professor of biblical and theological studies at Eastern College, St. Davids, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers and associate editor of the 28-volume series, The Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture.
Taken from Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers by Christopher A. Hall. ©1998 by Christopher A. Hall. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, Illinois 60515-1426. http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/isbn=0-8308-1500-7
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