The status of women in the patristic age, as defined by the
Church Fathers
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical per ...
, is a contentious issue within
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
because some people believe that the
patristic
Patristics or patrology is the study of the early Christian writers who are designated Church Fathers. The names derive from the combined forms of Latin ''pater'' and Greek ''patḗr'' (father). The period is generally considered to run from ...
writers clearly sought to restrict the influence of women in civil society as well as in the life of the Church. However, others believe that the early fathers actually tried to increase the dignity of women.''Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature'' 1895 ed. John McClintock and James Strong. "Women".
The patristic era, which extends roughly from 100 AD to 500 AD, is claimed to be harsher than the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
themselves in attributing social roles to women.
Anthropological perspectives
Aristotle's views on women
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
believed that women are colder than men and thus a lower form of life. His assumption carried forward unexamined to
Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be one of ...
and others until the 16th century.
Male activity and female passivity
Some people view that the Church Fathers' views were like that of the classical Greeks and Romans. In the classical age, which shaped patristic views, male sexuality and power were closely associated, and female sexuality was associated with passivity. Church Fathers opposed to practice of independent female ascetism because it threatened to emancipate women from men. To take one's pleasure was to be virile, to accept it servile. However, others view that the Fathers actually believed in the dignity of women. "The teaching of the most enlightened of the fathers was. undoubtedly to. the effect that there was no natural inferiority in the woman to the man. Theodoret (Grcee. Affect. Curat. book 5) insists emphatically on their exact equality, and says that God made woman from man in order that the tendencies and action of both might be harmonious. Sometimes, indeed, he observes, woman has been found superior to man in encountering adversity (Migne, 83:836). Chrysostom (Hoern. 61:3) says that no one is more fit to instruct and exhort her husband than a pious woman. This conception differed, however, materially from that of Plato (Repub. 5:455), in that while the Greek philosopher sought to obliterate the ordinary distinctions between the sexes, the Christian father held that nature assigned to woman her special and distinct province of activity. Chrysostom, in a passage of singular beauty, gives us a comparison between the duties of the wife and those of the husband, the former being represented as in some respects the more dignified; for while the husband is described as engaged in the rougher work of life, in the market or the law-courts, the wife is represented as remaining at home and devoting much of her time to prayer, to reading the Scriptures, — καὶ τῇ ἄλλῃ φιλοσοφίᾷ. When her husband returns, harassed with his labors, it is her function to cheer and to soothe him, so that he again goes forth into the world purified from the evil influences to which he has there been exposed, and carrying with him the higher influences of his home-life (In Joann. Hom. 61; Migne, 59:340)."
Ecclesiastical roles
Throughout the
Patristic
Patristics or patrology is the study of the early Christian writers who are designated Church Fathers. The names derive from the combined forms of Latin ''pater'' and Greek ''patḗr'' (father). The period is generally considered to run from ...
age, women held a variety of positions in Church office and performed
ecclesiastical
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Although the gnostics of the
Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel of Thomas (also known as the Coptic Gospel of Thomas) is an extra-canonical Logia, sayings gospel. It was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945 among a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library. Scholars specu ...
promoted a misogynistic view. "“For Women are Not Worthy of Life”: Protology and Misogyny in
Gospel of Thomas Saying 114"
(Ivan Miroshnikov) in
Women and Knowledge in Early Christianity (2017). pp 175.
See also
*
List of Christian women of the patristic age
This is a list of Christian women in the patristic age who contributed to the development of the early Christian churches and communities. The list is roughly in chronological order of year when they lived or died. The patristic era is considere ...
Patristics
Patristics or patrology is the study of the early Christian writers who are designated Church Fathers. The names derive from the combined forms of Latin ''pater'' and Greek ''patḗr'' (father). The period is generally considered to run from ...