In memoria di lei: Una ricostruzione femminista delle origini cristiane

by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Mirella Corsani Comba (Translator)

Part one contains chapters on feminist hermeneutics, critical methodology and a feminist model of historical reconstruction. Schussler Fiorenza's method goes beyond the general skepticism of most biblical scholars. Since the biblical writings were presumably written by men, Schussler Fiorenza assumes that the biblical texts were, therefore, strongly biased against women.

Genres: Theology, Feminism, Religion, Christianity, History, Nonfiction, Spirituality

397 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Born Elisabeth Schüssler in Tășnad, in the Transylvanian region of the Kingdom of Romania, Professor Schüssler Fiorenza is a German feminist, theologian and Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School. Schüssler Fiorenza identifies as Catholic and her work is generally in the context of Christianity, although much of her work has broader applicability.

Reviews

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well research, densely argued, academically rigorous exploration of the role of women in early Christian leadership as revealed in a critical reading of biblical and extra biblical texts and a study of the role of women in various social subgroups of the time.

[Francine Apollo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the 10th Anniversary edition...1993.

This book is timeless; it addresses questions women have had for centuries. That women supported Jesus financially in his public ministry is well documented and this book asserts that it marked Him as a prophet.

This book states that women were engaged in ministry and leadership roles in the Church before, during and after Paul. The author asserts, as I have read elsewhere, that home churches were most often led by women.

If you are not familiar with Church vocabulary, keep a dictionary handy. Even so, this book is highly readable by all interested parties.

Extensive notes after each chapter are handy for further study.

This book is highly recommended for women and men searching for a deeper theology of women...the evidence is there if one has an open heart and mind.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, I had high hopes for this book when I picked it up. It is a classic of feminist biblical interpretation from a world-class scholar. That said, there were just too many methodological problems, cases of special pleading, speculations passed off as fact (upon which subsequent speculations passed off as fact were then built), and arguments from silence. She admits as much in the introduction and the first section of the book, which is devoted to methodology. Her reason for permitting this is, more or less, her conviction that feminism is true and so, therefore, it is permissible to reconstruct a proto-feminist early Christianity "behind" the androcentric texts we now possess regardless of what those texts may actually say. This, in turn, leads her (shockingly!) to conclude that early Christianity was proto-feminist and egalitarian, and only later corrupted by androcentrism and patriarchy. The circularity of that argument should be self-evident, and she seems aware of it, but that doesn't deter her in the slightest. On purely historical grounds, then, this text cannot stand.

As a theological exercise, it demonstrates that one can, in fact, read the New Testament in a positive light while holding feminist convictions - on that level, it succeeds and, one may hope, serves to de-stabilize any false dichotomy between Christianity and Feminism. Since that dichotomy is perpetuated by both fundamentalist Christianity AND by more radical branches of Feminism, her attempt at reading the earliest texts of the Christian heritage in this way remains relevant. The historical reconstruction she engages in does have some promising passages - in particular when she is arguing over the social realities of the missional communities to which Paul wrote his authentic letters. Her analysis of Jesus himself, though, simultaneously rejects the historical Jesus project while being hopelessly indebted to its methods and presuppositions (both historical and theological).

[Ryan Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fiorenza is a force to be reckoned with. She brilliantly and thoroughly deconstructs canonical and extra-canonical sources and reconstructs Christian origins with an eye towards placing the role of women in its proper context. She argues convincingly that one of the reasons why early Christianity was so appealing to women was because it called believers into a fellowship of equals, where women and men officiated at church, performed baptisms and eucharist, and prophesied and served as apostolic witnesses of the divinity of Jesus Christ.

It was this equality that contributed to the persecution of Christianity due to its unwillingness to submit to the patriarchal mode of the family and society. This tension led to the eventual subordination of women in the church, and the familiar "house codes" in the New Testament, in which women are commanded to submit to their husbands, silenced in church, and stripped of their authority. By reconstructing and imagining the true role of women in the early church, Fiorenza lays out an authoritative argument to reconstitute the present-day church as the fellowship of equals that Jesus intended and instituted, and provides ways for women-church to fight for their own liberation and the liberation of women everywhere from the oppression of patriarchy.

[Ola · Rating 5 out of 5]

classic in its field; should be required reading for all ministers

[Deborah Brunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fiorenza deconstructs canonical and noncanonical early christian writings to reconstruct lives of women in early Christianity. She writes of the struggle of the early Christians to live the gospel of peace, to create Gal 3:28 as a reality for the Christian community within the tension created living in the Greco-Roman world. She writes that the communities had more success regarding Jew and Gentile as equivalent than men and women, and master and slave.

Fiorenza outlines many issues the church faced trying to maintain co-equal discipleship, particularly issues with the conflicts between oppressive patriarchal marriage and women joining the church. She gives context to the sexist pauline/pseudo-pauline writings as efforts to accomodate the cultural- social structures of domination.

Despite women in the original house churches propheysying and ministering as leaders, teachers, and missionaries, the societal kyriarchy was ultimately stronger and these structures became incorporated into the church with the creation of male hierarchy, separation of doctrine and praxis, and separation of authority from freely available spirit. Thus male superiority/female subordination became theologised through the christian creation story as well as metaphor and reinforced into the emerging institution of the patristic Christian tradition.

Moving from the Pauline works into the Gospel traditions collated by the Marcian community she explores a memory of Jesus based in suffering and solidarity. She describes a discipleship and leadership based not in glory but in the role of the suffering servant. She presents the Johannine tradition as preserving a richly woman-centric tradition. Jesus' ministry opened and closed with the testimonies of women, and they declare a discipleship based in altruism and love. Both traditions recall women as primary witnesses and apostles in their traditions.

Fiorenza's dense but passionate work has been foundational in shining the light into the darkness of the patriarchy in the early christian church and the ongoing fallout of patriarchal language and structures that restricts women to defined roles and relationships to the divine.
She concludes with a powerful vision for the ekklesia, a community that realises the full humanity of women as co-equal spirit endowed disciples of Jesus.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite being published in 1983 and despite the progress that has been made by and for women in (some) churches since, I was struck reading In Memory of Her by how refreshing and challenging and imaginative Fiorenza's project still feels. Her main insight – that all reconstructions of early Christianity require assumptions and frameworks to colour in the blanks, so why must we consider feminist assumptions and frameworks less valid? – allows for a genuinely exhilarating re-discovery of the core of God's revelation to us in Jesus Christ: that is, an urgent and radical solidarity with the marginalised and oppressed that totally re-configures sinful relations of domination and subordination into a community of coequal disciples, founded on mutual service and love.

[Rosie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating read, one I had meant to read for years. It is academic and dense, so not very easy reading.... but she covers so many vital aspects of the role of women as we see them in the NT texts, and in other early Christian writings, and goes back behind them to try to discover how women were originally viewed in the early church. She builds a convincing case for the view that after early egalitarianism, the status of women was reduced in the second century. I agree with much of what she says but not all.

[Noelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Her deconstructive approach is rigorous and compelling but i think she falters some in her reconstruction. Regardless, it's thought-provoking.

[Laura Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love a lot of this book -- namely, the project (reconstructing the history of Christian women that lurks underneath the texts of the New Testament) and the methods (casting a broad net for sources, paying attention to redaction), etc. But as often occurs when you're trying to reconstruct history outside the "official" narrative, there's some speculation involved. There's an over-emphasis on the role of Sophia in the earliest theology of the church, I think, and also a historical Jesus who is THOROUGHLY non-apocalyptic. Listen to my podcast for more! :D

[Den S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like how Schussler Fiorenza uses a confessional approach. I expected her to be more critical of Saint Paul, but surprisingly she was not. In my earlier Christian growth, I disliked Paul; hence, I disliked that this book was supportive of him. But I've come to terms with Paul, and that makes this book all the more refreshing.

[Jenna Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is perhaps the most important works of theology of the 20th century, laying the groundwork for feminist theologies over the past 40 years. But Fiorenza, through her brilliant work on the Jesus movement and the early church, also helped shaped how we think about early christianity, textual reconstruction, discipleship and context.

[Michael Walker · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dr. Fiorenza takes slim pickings to build a case for a feminist reading of Scripture. She reveals nothing new here. Built on sand, her thesis fails to sway - much less to set one to thinking. Disappointing!

[David Bates · Rating 5 out of 5]

for an evangelical this book will seem quite shocking, but the challenge to preconceptions is eminently healthy.

[Vanda Dien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feminist Theology

[Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy cow this is a dense read!

[Gabriel Pelletier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent scholarly reformulation of a highly paternalistic book (the bible). She searches for the role women played in the early "cult of Jesus," such as leaders of the first home-based churches.

[Doris Raines · Rating 5 out of 5]

In. Memory. Of. Her. Great. Book. Thanks.

[Yefta Wiatmoko · Rating 5 out of 5]

good, because i need this book for my homework

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forty years on and this book has aged remarkably well. Schüssler Fiorenza's work continues to be highly influential in the field of biblical studies—and this well beyond feminist approaches.

While I disagree with this book's reconstruction of Christian origins and its feminist hermeneutic of suspicion, I think it must be seen against the scholarship to which it was responding (e.g., Mary Daly's). What I find so admirable then is Schüssler Fiorenza's attempt to take history seriously—so serious that she feels compelled to reconstruct it—and to craft something from Christian history that could speak to her and other feminists. While the role of women in early Christianity is ambiguous, it is not absent. Yet, by many "Christian" accounts, the real workers and thinkers of the church are (and have always been) men. It does not take a feminist to acknowledge the erasure and subjugation of women by clergy and theologians from the early church on, and that this history stands in considerable dissonance with the picture of women in the New Testament.

We should be, of course, critical of Schüssler Fiorenza's reconstruction. Any approach that seeks to explain the varying portraits of women in Christian writings by placing them on a timeline of institutionalisation is too simplistic. Nevertheless, Schüssler Fiorenza's work goes leaps and bounds further than the average accounts that either downplay or overplay women in the New Testament. In Memory of Her succeeds, then, in casting a light on the activity of early Christian women and challenging readers to explain the ambivalence of various early Christian texts toward women.

Since 1983, a lot has been written that has challenged and expanded the argument in this book, and yet this speaks less to this work's inadequacy than to its importance.

[Ted · Rating 2 out of 5]

A friend asked me to read this book, and I struggled with it for many reasons. I'm not enough of a scholar to appreciate it, and struggled with its arguments about its philosophy and methodology for hermeneutics. While I think many people can raise questions and criticisms about how the Church has treated women from the beginning, I don't find a feminist bias any better than a patriarchal bias. It seemed to me she criticizes traditional interpretation for relying on speculation but then has to rely on speculation to use the texts to support feminism. Just because patriarchal thinking is sometimes wrong in its interpretation and use of some biblical texts, doesn't mean it is always wrong in what it says. And to rely on feminist ideas is often to read into a text things that aren't there and were never intended by the ancient writers. Women are forced to work hard to find their proper place in the Church, and this is an unfortunate result of the Fall which the male leadership of the Church doesn't always recognize.

[John Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

At this point, more interesting as a historical artifact for its huge impact on feminist New Testament and early Christianity scholarship: almost forty years later, her arguments are either familiar in seminaries or have fallen to the wayside in light of new scholarship, and the first third of the book is taken up with methodological essays that are the worst sort of unreadable academic word salad.

[Jennifer Bird · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do keep in mind the year this groundbreaking book was published. ESF has responded to race and class issues, since then. In fact, I've discussed with her the possibility of updating it to reflect these shifts in her own way of thinking!

[Catherine McNiel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read chunks and sections of this many times over the years, but I've never sat down to read it cover to cover and therefore I don't think I've ever included it here on Goodreads. It's a fantastic book.

[Miguel Núñez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uno de los primeros libros que leí de esta autora, realmente extraordinario, con una sensibilidad para entender la Biblia sin estereotipos de género.

[Niwel Rassang · Rating 4 out of 5]

i want to finish my task by read this book

[Leoni Windarti · Rating 5 out of 5]

ich möchte gern lesen!

[K Kriesel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very dense and academic. I'm glad to have my own copy filled with post-its but this was difficult to trudge through

[Chad Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brilliant, but poorly edited. It's a masterwork of feminist theology.