Description
Book SynopsisThis book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND license.
This book reveals exciting early Christian evidence that Mary was remembered as a powerful role model for women leaders—women apostles, baptizers, and presiders at the ritual meal. Early Christian art portrays Mary and other women clergy serving as deacon, presbyter/priest, and bishop. In addition, the two oldest surviving artifacts to depict people at an altar table inside a real church depict women and men in a gender-parallel liturgy inside two of the most important churches in Christendom—Old Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome and the second Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Dr. Kateusz’s research brings to light centuries of censorship, both ancient and modern, and debunks the modern imagination that from the beginning only men were apostles and clergy.
Trade Review“Ally Kateusz has written an engaging and extensively researched book examining the evidence for liturgical roles for women in the early Church. … Mary and Early Christian Women will certainly be encouraging to those girls and women who have only seen examples of male leadership in the Church, and for whom the example of Mary has been misused and abused, by providing an alternative image of an empowered, active Mary as a type for female leadership in the early Church.” (Nell Whiscombe, Modern Believing, Vol. 64 (4), 2023)
“This book will inspire Christian scholars, ministers, and congregations to rethink their perspectives on gender roles in Christianity. … this book will assist in breaking the prevalent misperception that early church women leaders were rare. It will challenge readers to fully acknowledge that women have been integrally present throughout Christian history.” (JungJa Joy Yu, Reading Religion, readingreligion.org, April 27, 2021)
“Ally Kateusz presents a multidisciplinary analysis of literary texts, church art, and church … . She supports her literary and iconographic claims with official church commissions, directives, and commentaries, sometimes made by popes. …. For scholars, the book is a treasure trove, with thirty-nine pages of references and fifty pages of notes. … Mary and Early Christian Women: Hidden Leadership is a stimulating read and the author’s perspective on imagination and Christian history will make you think. Highly recommended.” (Elizabeth Ursic, Cross-Currents, Vol. 71 (1), March, 2021)
“Mary and Early Christian Women would certainly interest readers who are invested in women’s roles in churches and especially readers invested in Catholicism. … The artwork included in this book is stunning, and the images portray Mary and other women in significant liturgical roles. Overall, Mary and Early Christian Women is a significant contribution to the field for its attention to extracanonical texts, artistic analysis, and its accessibility.” (Christy Cobb, RBL, Review of Biblical Literature, Issue 12, 2020)
Table of Contents1. Background and Perspective on Mary
Why the Mother of Jesus?
Mary, a Jew
Mary Remembered in the Extracanonical Gospels
Methodology
The Power of Bio-Power
Breaking the Box of Our False Imagination of the Past
2. More Collyridian Déjà vu
The Old Rule of Thumb: lectio brevior potior
Redaction Analysis of Mary’s Religious Authority
A Scene of Mary Exorcising Demons
Women Using Censers and Incense
Kernels of Historicity: Women Using Censers Liturgically
Redaction Analysis of the Markers of Women’s Authority
3. Women Apostles: Preachers and Baptizers
Assembling a Jigsaw Puzzle—The Apostle Mariamne in the Acts of Philip
Sexual Slander as Evidence of Women in the Clergy
Irene, Apostle of Jesus
The Long Narrative about Irene’s Life
Male Re-Baptizers and the Apostle Nino
Irene Baptizes and Seals
The “Apostle” Thecla Baptizes and Seals
Dating Controversy: When Was the Life of Thecla Composed?
The Thecla Tertullian Knew
Cultural Context
4. Mary, High Priest and Bishop
Jesus’s Mother Versus 1 Timothy
Mary in Art: High Priest and Bishop
Mary with the Episcopal Pallium
Mary with the Cloth of the Eucharistic Officiant
Women with the Cloth of the Eucharistic Officiant
5. Mother and Son, Paired
Mother and Son Paired on Objects Used in the Liturgy
Dividing the Mother-Son Dyad: The Maria Maggiore Mosaics
The Mother-Son Dyad in Art Prior to the Council of Ephesus
Mother and Son Paired in Third- and Fourth-Century Funereal Art
6. The Life of the Virgin and Its Antecedents
The Oldest Text of the Life of the Virgin
The Annunciation to Mary in the Temple
Mary at the Baptism of Her Son
The Women at the Lord’s Supper
Partaking at the Temple Altar in the Gospel of Bartholomew
Gender Parallelism in the Liturgy in the Didascalia apostolorum
The Ritual of Body and Blood according to the Apostolic Church Order
7. Women and Men at the Last Supper: Reception
Female and Male Co-Officiants from the Second Century Onwards
Writings that Paired Male and Female Clerical Titles
Women Overseers or Bishops
Cerula and Bitalia, Ordained Bishops
Historicity of Pulcheria inside the Holy of Holies of the Second Hagia Sophia
Female and Male Clergy at the Altar in Old Saint Peter’s Basilica
The Ciborium in Old Saint Peter’s Basilica
The Altar in Old Saint Peter’s Basilica
Possible Identification of the Male and Female Officiants at the Altar Table
Theodora and Justinian in San Vitale: Modeling Mary and Jesus at the Last Supper
Third-Century Evidence of Gender Parity at the Offering Table
8. Modes of Silencing
Modes of Silencing the Past
Breaking the Box of Our False Imagination of the Past
