A Modest Apostle: Thecla and the History of Women in the Early Church

by Susan Hylen

Scholars and mainline pastors tell a familiar narrative about the roles of women in the early church-that women held leadership roles and exercised some authority in the church, but, with the establishment of formal institutional roles, they were excluded from active leadership. Evidence of women's leadership is either described as "exceptional" or relegated to (so-called) heretical groups, who differed with proto-orthodox groups precisely over the issue of women's participation. For example, scholars often contrast the Acts of Paul and Thecla ( ATh ) with 1Timothy. They understand the two works to represent discrete communities with opposite responses to the question of women's leadership.

In A Modest Apostle , Susan Hylen uses Thecla as a microcosm from which to challenge this larger narrative. In contrast to previous interpreters, Hylen reads 1Timothy and the ATh as texts that emerge out of and share a common cultural framework. In the Roman period, women were widely expected to exhibit gendered virtues like modesty, industry, and loyalty to family. However, women pursued these virtues in remarkably different ways, including active leadership in their communities. Reading against a cultural background in which multiple and conflicting norms already existed for women's behavior, Hylen shows that texts like the ATh and 1Timothy begin to look different. Like the culture, 1Timothy affirms women's leadership as deacons and widows while upholding standards of modesty in dress and speech. In the ATh , Thecla's virtue is first established by her modest behavior, which allows her to emerge as a virtuous leader. The text presents Thecla as one who fulfills culturally established
norms, even as she pursues a bold new way of life.

Hylen's approach points to a new way of understanding women in the early church, one that insists upon the acknowledgment of women's leadership as a historical reality without neglecting the effects of the culture's gender biases.

Genres: Religion, Church History

200 pages, Hardcover

First published July 17, 2015

Reviews

[Amy Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Susan Hylen has offered an excellent example what kind of research is now possible when looking at early Christian women. She proposes a new way of reading Thecla's story - not seeing her as an exception to a rule but an indication of the complex lives that women led in Late Antiquity and the vast range of influence they had in their communities and the things that were important to them. Instead of focusing on how women like Thecla subverted norms and somehow exercised what we would consider a valid version of agency in the face of oppression, Hylen leans into their reality and their situatedness. What she finds is that "the demands for traditional feminine behavior did not cancel out women's active roles. As with Thecla, the two exist side by side."

In order to explore this dynamic, Hylen reads Thecla and 1 Timothy together. 1 Timothy is, of course, a text known for its seeming constraints placed on women but also reports of women's leadership. Hylen demonstrates just how important it is for us to understand the complex position of women in Greco-Roman culture - "at the same time that women are ideally described as modest and confined to the home, some virtues required women to exercise leadership and to pursue the broad interests of their households and cities" - and how this should inform our read of texts about early Christian women.

One of the most important contributions Hylen makes is her articulation of the way we tend to make exceptions out of "active" women in Late Antiquity, granting them a kind of agency that rips them from their social-cultural moorings. By doing so, we actually flatten the landscape for them as well as for other women in order to find the heroine we wish to (or need to) find in the text. What Hylen demonstrates, however, is that with a better read of the text and context, we actually end up with a fuller and richer picture of what it was to be a woman in Late Antiquity and then how Christianity negotiated that picture in light of the gospel.

A great read. Thrilled to see where scholarship on women in early Christianity is going!

[Michael Summers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hylen compares 1 Timothy with the second century The Acts of Paul and Thecla, then surveys ancient literature to explore the world for women in the early Romans Empire and attitudes toward female leaders, especially Thecla, during the first five hundred years of Christian history. She also examines whether Thecla best fits as an example of orthodoxy or heresy. I found this book thought-provoking and challenging in a most positive way.

[Brian LePort · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hylen juxtaposes The Acts of Paul and Thecla with 1 Timothy. Often scholars see the former as liberating for women while the latter is oppressive. Hylen argues that they both evidence the struggle to promote women to leadership within the patriarchal ancient world where "modesty" was a prime virtue for women, so that they aren't so different after all when read again their culture background.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5 stars*

The author does a good job of bringing The Acts of Paul and Thecla into conversation with 1 Timothy and Roman laws and social norms.