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The Oldest Vocation - Christian Motherhood in the Medieval West (Paperback)
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The Oldest Vocation - Christian Motherhood in the Medieval West (Paperback)
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According to an old story, a woman concealed her sex and ruled as
pope for a few years in the ninth century. Pope Joan was not
betrayed by a lover or discovered by an enemy; her downfall came
when she went into labor during a papal procession through the
streets of Rome. From the myth of Joan to the experiences of
saints, nuns, and ordinary women, The Oldest Vocation brings to
life both the richness and the troubling contradictions of
Christian motherhood in medieval Europe. After tracing the roots of
medieval ideologies of motherhood in early Christianity, Clarissa
W. Atkinson reconstructs the physiological assumptions underlying
medieval notions about women's bodies and reproduction; inherited
from Greek science and popularized through the practice of
midwifery, these assumptions helped shape common beliefs about what
mothers were. She then describes the development of "spiritual
motherhood" both as a concept emerging out of monastic ideologies
in the early Middle Ages and as a reality in the lives of certain
remarkable women. Atkinson explores the theological dimensions of
medieval motherhood by discussing the cult of the Virgin Mary in
twelfth-century art, story, and religious expression. She also
offers a fascinating new perspective on the women saints of the
later Middle Ages, many of whom were mothers; their lives and cults
forged new relationships between maternity and holiness. The Oldest
Vocation concludes where most histories of motherhood begin-in
early modern Europe, when the family was institutionalized as a
center of religious and social organization. Anyone interested in
the status of motherhood, or in women's history, the cultural
history of the Middle Ages, or the history of religion will want to
read this book.
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