Gender and Christianity in Medieval Europe New Perspectives Edited
by Lisa M. Bitel and Felice Lifshitz In "Gender and Christianity in
Medieval Europe," six historians explore how medieval people
professed Christianity, how they performed gender, and how the two
coincided. Many of the daily religious decisions people made were
influenced by gender roles, the authors contend. Women's pious
donations, for instance, were limited by laws of inheritance and
marriage customs; male clerics' behavior depended upon their
understanding of masculinity as much as on the demands of liturgy.
The job of religious practitioner, whether as a nun, monk, priest,
bishop, or some less formal participant, involved not only
professing a set of religious ideals but also professing gender in
both ideal and practical terms. The authors also argue that
medieval Europeans chose how to be women or men (or some complex
combination of the two), just as they decided whether and how to be
religious. In this sense, religious institutions freed men and
women from some of the gendered limits otherwise imposed by
society. Whereas previous scholarship has tended to focus
exclusively either on masculinity or on aristocratic women, the
authors define their topic to study gender in a fuller and more
richly nuanced fashion. Likewise, their essays strive for a
generous definition of religious history, which has too often been
a history of its most visible participants and dominant discourses.
In stepping back from received assumptions about religion, gender,
and history and by considering what the terms "woman," "man," and
"religious" truly mean for historians, the book ultimately enhances
our understanding of the gendered implications of every pious
thought and ritual gesture of medieval Christians. Contributors:
Dyan Elliott is John Evans Professor of History at Northwestern
University. Ruth Mazo Karras is professor of history at the
University of Minnesota, and the general editor of The Middle Ages
Series for the University of Pennsyvlania Press. Jacqueline Murray
is dean of arts and professor of history at the University of
Guelph. Jane Tibbetts Schulenberg is professor of history at the
University of Wisconsin--Madison Lisa M. Bitel is Professor of
History, Religion, and Gender Studies at the University of Southern
California. She is author of "Isle of the Saints: Monastic
Settlement and Christian Community in Early Ireland." Felice
Lifshitz is Professor of History and Fellow of the Honors College
at Florida International University. Her books include "The Name of
the Saint: The Martyrology of Jerome and Access to the Sacred in
Francia, 627-827." The Middle Ages Series 2008 168 pages 6 x 9 3
illus. ISBN 978-0-8122-2013-1 Paper $19.95s 13.00 ISBN
978-0-8122-0449-0 Ebook $19.95s 13.00 World Rights History,
Women's/Gender Studies Short copy: "Gender and Christianity in
Medieval Europe" seeks to explain the convergence of religion and
gender in medieval Christendom. Essays in the volume examine how
Europeans identified themselves as women, men, and Christians, and
how these identities influenced religious belief and practice in
everyday life.
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