This book is a collection of essays that contribute to the debate on the contextual interpretation of scripture from an African context. The book engages biblical narratives from the lived experiences of Africans, insisting that meaning is attained only when people bring their daily experiences into their reading of scripture. The contributors examine the interaction of African peoples with the Bible in juxtaposition with the forces of colonialism, neocolonialism, patriarchy, war, and bad governance. This book gives voice to the lived experiences of African peoples in their quest for full expression of the profundity of their union with God by aiding them to unmask inhumanity and indignity.

How can material artifacts help illuminate the religious lives of women in antiquity? In what ways do archaeological and art historical studies recover women's religious perspectives and experiences that the literary record misses or underrepresents? The authors of the essays in this volume set out to answer such questions in fascinating, new case studies of women and ancient religions in the Near East and Mediterranean world. They cover a broad historical, geographic, and religious spectrum as they explore women's lives from the time of ancient Egypt in the second millennium BCE into the early medieval period, from the Syrian Desert to Western Europe, in the religious traditions of Egypt, Canaan, Greece, Rome, ancient Israel, early Judaism, and early Christianity. Working at the intersections of religion, archaeology, art history, and women's history, these authors make fresh contributions to interdisciplinary studies, and their essays will be of interest to students and scholars across these academic fields.

In a time when the ordination of women is an ongoing and passionate debate, the study of women's ministry in the early church is a timely and significant one. There is much evidence from documents, doctrine, and artifacts that supports the acceptance of women as presbyters and deacons in the early church. While this evidence has been published previously, it has never before appeared in one complete English-language collection.

With this book, church historians Kevin Madigan and Carolyn Osiek present fully translated literary, epigraphical, and canonical references to women in early church offices. Through these documents, Madigan and Osiek seek to understand who these women were and how they related to and were received by, the church through the sixth century. They chart women's participation in church office and their eventual exclusion from its leadership roles. The editors introduce each document with a detailed headnote that contextualizes the text and discusses specific issues of interpretation and meaning. They also provide bibliographical notes and cross-reference original texts. Madigan and Osiek assemble relevant material from both Western and Eastern Christendom.

Description: Twenty-four scholars join their efforts to congratulate David Lee Balch for a long career of dedication to scholarship and teaching. Topics range from the life of early Christian house churches to the kinds of challenges that early Christians needed to negotiate in their artistic and literary worlds as they established their own identity. Contributors Edward Adams Frederick E Brenk Warren Carter John R. Clarke Everett Ferguson John T. Fitzgerald Richard A. Freund Ronald F. Hock Robin M. Jensen Davina C. Lopez Margaret Y. MacDonald Abraham J. Malherbe Aliou Cisse Niang Peter Oakes Todd Penner Leo G. Perdue Turid Karlsen Seim Dennis E. Smith Yancy W. Smith Stephen V. Sprinkle Hal Taussig Oliver Larry Yarbrough Endorsements: ""From captivating glimpses into the microcosm of ancient households to the broader question of a hermeneutics of images, from Christian house churches to visual representations and archeology in the interaction with texts-this is a strikingly rich collection of stimulating essays that each in their own way illustrate the breadth and fecundity of David Balch's scholarship, as well as his great capacity to impel multi-faceted questions and inquiries that are re-defining New Testament Studies."" --Brigitte Kahl Union Theological Seminary ""Richly decorated with images, this remarkably diverse yet unified collection of twenty-one essays serves up a fitting tribute to David Lee Balch. As David Balch has noted throughout his research career, material culture, visual and constructed worlds, and texts are deliberate acts of communication and persuasion. Thus, convinced that archaeology, art, literary documents, and the iconography of the Greeks and Romans situate text in context, each of the essayists picks up on these social-cultural elements and covers a stunning variety of texts, topics, representative artistic images, sculptures, reliefs, and epigraphic remains. Stimulating, provocative, and challenging are the operative words for this festschrift and the person to whom it gives honor."" --Dietmar Neufeld University of British Columbia ""Text, Image, and Christians in the Greco-Roman World provides a vivid mosaic of Christian ritual and regalia, reimagined and reconstructed through the lenses of eminent scholars, and serves as a fitting festschrift honoring David Balch's myriad interests in the relationships between early Christianity and the dominant cultural matrix of Imperial Rome."" --Laurie Brink, OP Catholic Theological Union ""David Balch's academic interests in households, archaeology, architecture, and visual representation in antiquity are the catalyst for this engaging collection of studies honoring him . . . Anyone interested in the social world of early Christianity at any level will find this book immensely rewarding and satisfying."" --Dennis Duling Canisius College, Emeritus About the Contributor(s): Aliou Cisse Niang is Assistant Professor of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary, New York. He is the author of Faith and Freedom in Galatia and Senegal. Carolyn Osiek is Charles Fischer Catholic Professor of New Testament Emerita at Brite Divinity School of Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas. She is now an archivist in St. Louis. She is the author, co-author, and editor of numerous works, including A Woman's Place: Houses Churches in Earliest Christianity (with Margaret Y. MacDonald and Janet H. Tulloch).

This focused look at women in the household context discusses the importance of issues of space and visibility in shaping the lives of early Christian women. Several aspects of women's everyday existence are investigated, including the lives of wives, widows, women with children, female slaves, women as patrons, household leaders, and teachers. In addition, several key themes emerge: hospitality, dining practices, and the extent of female segregation.