REL 19.27 Female Saints and ‘Feminine’ Spirituality
The Apostle Paul famously declared to the Galatians that “there is neither male nor female… in Christ Jesus,” (Gal. 3:28). Men, however, came to dominate the Christian ecclesiastical scene despite the apparent position taken by Jesus and Paul on female spiritual leaders and role models. Yet women continued, and continue, to play key and important roles in the development of Christian identity despite the apparent suppression of their voices. In this course, we consider major female saints and spiritual innovators in the late antique and medieval Latin West. We will read and discuss figures such as Tecla, Perpetua and Felicitas, Radegund, Duodha, Hildegard of Bingen, Clare of Assisi, Christina the Astonishing, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Marguerite Porete.