Modest, Industrious, and Loyal: Reinterpreting Conflicting Evidence for Women's Roles
Scholars have long recognized the diverse and contradictory evidence for women's activities in the Roman world. Women are expected to be modest and subordinate to men; yet they are also found in leadership roles. A common solution has been to say that women leaders were exceptions to the rule....
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage
2014
|
| In: |
Biblical theology bulletin
Year: 2014, Volume: 44, Issue: 1, Pages: 3-12 |
| Further subjects: | B
Ancient Women
B New Testament B Patronage B Social norms B Modesty |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
|
| Summary: | Scholars have long recognized the diverse and contradictory evidence for women's activities in the Roman world. Women are expected to be modest and subordinate to men; yet they are also found in leadership roles. A common solution has been to say that women leaders were exceptions to the rule. Certain women or groups stepped outside of cultural norms and took on influential roles. Instead of reading the conflicting reports as evidence of distinct groups of women, I interpret them as evidence of a tension that pervades the culture. At the same time that women are ideally described as modest and confined to the home, some virtues required women to exercise leadership and to pursue the broad interests of their households and cities. Women who exhibit leadership are not stepping outside of culture but also inhabit familiar social norms. Because of this, I argue that we should approach the contradictions in early Christian sources as evidence of participation in this shared cultural background. Both inside and outside the church, conformity to social norms for womanly virtue left open a range of possibilities for women's behavior, including active leadership. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1945-7596 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Biblical theology bulletin
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/0146107913514199 |