First full study of women's roles in the early church

This press release is from Fortress:

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“This is the fruit of mature and careful social historians who now do for the study of Christian women what Beryl Rawson and Richard Saller have done for the Roman family—a patient, multidisciplinary, literary, political, and archaeological investigation. . . . The most thorough and far-reaching study to date. . . . No one wanting to engage the lives and roles of early Christian women or their central place in the expansion of Christianity in the first three centuries can afford to miss this book.”

—Harry O. Maier, Professor of New Testament Studies, Vancouver School of Theology

Fortress Press Releases the First Full Study of Women’s Roles in the Early Church

MINNEAPOLIS (October 19, 2005)— A Woman’s Place: House Churches in Earliest Christianity by Carolyn Osiek, Margaret Y. MacDonald, with Janet H. Tulloch gives a 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.

“A wonderful collection of evidence for the participation of women in early Christian house churches, as patrons, leaders, presiders, and funerary banquet hosts. . . . Essential reading for scholars of the New Testament and antiquity alike.”

—Kathleen E. Corley, Professor of New Testament and Christianity and Oshkosh Northwestern Distinguished Professor, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh

“A perceptive and illuminating study of early Christian women in the domestic setting of house churches . . . set in the broader cultural context of the Mediterranean in the first couple of centuries of Christianity.”

—Beryl Rawson, Professor Emerita, Classics, Australian National University

"Uses the all too meager evidence with sophistication and presents their results with engaging clarity."

— Harold W. Attridge, Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament and Dean, Yale Divinity School

Carolyn Osiek is Professor of New Testament at Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas. Her other books include, with Kevin Madigan, Ordained Women in the Early Church: A Documentary History (2005); Shepherd of Hermas (Hermeneia, Fortress Press, 1999); and, with David L. Balch, Families in the New Testament World: Households and House Churches (1997).

Margaret Y. MacDonald is Professor of New Testament at St. Francis Xavier University (Nova Scotia, Canada). Her previous books include Early Christian Women and Pagan Opinion (1996) and The Pauline Churches: A Socio-Historical Study of Institutionalization (1988).

Janet Tulloch, who contributes the chapter on women and funerary banquets, received her Ph.D. in the New Testament from the University of Ottawa.

Format: Hardcover, 6” x 9”, 320 pp

ISBN: 0800636902

Price: $35.00

Format: Paperback, 6” x 9”, 320 pp

ISBN: 0800637771

Price: $35.00

Publisher: Fortress Press

To order A Woman’s Place please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the Web site at www.fortresspress.com. To request review copies or exam copies, or to discuss speaking engagements or interviews, please call 1-800-426-0115 ext. 234 or email toddb@augsburgfortress.org
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