Women and Faith
Catholic Religious Life in Italy from Late Antiquity to the Present
Women and Faith
Catholic Religious Life in Italy from Late Antiquity to the Present
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Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674954786
Number of Pages: 432
Published: 01/11/1999
Width: 15.6 cm
Height: 23.5 cm
Feminist thought has wrestled with the question of whether religion has been principally responsible for the oppression of women or instead has provided access to culture, public life, and--sometimes--power. This study of Italian women and Catholicism from the fourth through the twentieth century reflects this conflict and the tension between the masculine character of divinity in the Catholic Church and the potential for equality in the gospels and early writings ("neither male nor female, but one in Jesus").
The various chapters in this book consider the institutions within which religious women lived, many of which they themselves founded or reorganized. In addition to overviews of women and the religious life throughout the periods under study, specific chapters focus on mystical marriage, religious writings by women, secular writings by nuns, women in sacred images, women in the nineteenth-century Christian family, Marian pilgrimages, and depictions of sisters and saints in film. The authors, leading American, Italian, and French scholars, have drawn on rich resources to provide a panorama of sixteen centuries of Italian history, religious history, and women's history.
Introduction Lucetta Scaraffia and Gabriella Zarri Translated by Keith Botsford Female Asceticism and Monasticism in Italy from the Fourth to the Eighth Centuries Franca Ela Consolino Translated by Keith Botsford Mystical Marriage E. Ann Matter Translated by Keith Botsford Society and Women's Religiosity, 750-1450 Giulia Barone Translated by Keith Botsford Women, Faith, and Image in the Late Middle Ages Dominique Rigaux Translated by Keith Botsford From Prophecy to Discipline, 1450-1650 Gabriella Zarri Translated by Keith Botsford Spiritual Letters Adriano Prosperi Translated by Keith Botsford The Convent Muses: The Secular Writing of Italian Nuns, 1450-1650 Elissa B. Weaver Little Women, Great Heroines: Simulated and Genuine Female Holiness in Early Modern Italy Anne Jacobson Schutte Models of Female Sanctity in Renaissance and Counter-Reformation Italy Sara F. Matthews Grieco From the Late Baroque Mystical Explosion to the Social Apostolate, 1650-1850 Marina Caffiero Translated by Keith Botsford Mystical Writing Marilena Modica Vasta Translated by Keith Botsford Female Dynastic Sanctity, 1650-1850 Sara Cabibbo Translated by Keith Botsford Sacred Imagery and the Religious Lives of Women, 1650-1850 Karen-edis Barzman "Christianity Has Liberated Her and Placed Her alongside Man in the Family": From 1850 to 1988 (Mulieris Dignitatem) Lucetta Scaraffia Translated by Keith Botsford A Voyage to the Madonna Emma Fattorini Translated by Keith Botsford Sisters and Saints on the Screen Giovanna Grignaffini Translated by Keith Botsford Notes Index
These thought-provoking essays explore the rewards, ambiguities, and contradictions experienced by women in their relationship with Christian spirituality and the Catholic Church from late antiquity to the twentieth century. Virtually all the essays are excellent, some are a real tour de force. This book will have a wide audience among those interested in the history of women and the history of religion. -- Judith C. Brown, Rice University Originally published in Italian, this is the English translation of a series of excellent essays exploring the tenuous relationship experienced by women between their spirituality and the Catholic Church These assorted essays make significant contribution to the ongoing conversations around whether institutional religion is primarily responsible for the continued oppression of women or instead opened doors toward autonomy, empowerment, and access to culture and public life. * Magistra * They are remarkably successful in offering a wealth of information and skillfully guiding the reader through historiographical controversies This collection makes an important contribution to the ongoing debate about the relation of Christianity and the status of women by showing the enormous complexity of the question, and provides much food for thought. -- Elisabeth G. Gleason * The Catholic Historical Review *
