In Her Words: Women's Writings in the History of Christian Thought

by Amy Oden (Editor)

In Her Words illustrates the contributions made to contemporary Christian theology by the increasing number of female theologians. Oden compiles selections from the writings of major female theologians from the early church through the present. The older selections have been translated into modern English. Each selection is accompanied by a brief introduction outlining its historical and theological context. Selections from the early church include Perpetua, The Martyrdom of Crispina, The Martyrdom of Agape, Irene, and Chione; from the monastic and middle period are Clare of Assisi, Hildegard of Bingen, Leoba, Julian of Norwich, and Catherine of Siena; and post-1500 C.E. include Teresa of Avila, Jane de Chantal, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Georgia Harkness.

Genres: History, Religion, Womens, Theology, Christianity, Feminism, Church History

348 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1994

Reviews

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 4 out of 5]

A usable, approachable sourcebook containing 36 sections of writings by or about women in church history. (Full list of subjects below.) This would be a great resource for anyone who wants a glimpse of women's writing across the history of Christianity, and will be very useful in the classroom when discussing women in church history via primary sources.

Of course, I have my quibbles with the choices, but they mostly regard who is left out rather than who is included. A project like this could easily extend to several volumes, covering each era in much more detail. While I love how many medieval women are present in the book, the final two sections are pretty small in comparison, especially considering how many more texts and identities survive to us from that time. Yet these sources are easier to find in translation, which is not so for many medieval texts. Some of the brief biographies aren't as helpful as they should be, neglecting clear locations (only specialists will know where Septimania was) or important facts (Julian of Norwich's Shewings/Revelations was the first theological work in vernacular English). However, as a place to begin, In Her Words is excellent, and I commend it to those who want to familiarize themselves with women from church history.

Section I: 100-600 CE
Gospel of Mary
Thecla
Perpetua
Blandina, Agapê, Irenê, Chionê, Crispina
Macrina
Paula
Egeria

Section II: 600-1500 CE
Leboa
Dhuoda
Hrotsvit of Gandersheim
Hildegard of Bingen
Hadewijch of Brabant
Beatrice of Nazareth
Clare of Assissi
Mechthild of Magdeburg
Angela de Foligno
Marguerite Porete
Birgitta of Sweden
Julian of Norwich
Catherine of Siena
Catherine of Genoa

Section III: 1500-1800 CE
Vittoria Colonna
Teresa of Avila
Jane de Chantal
Juana Inés de la Cruz
Madame Jeanne Guyon
Susanna Wesley

Section IV: 1800-1947 CE
Ann Lee
Jarena Lee
Phoebe Palmer
Lucretia Mott
Hannah Whitall Smith
Amanda Berry Smith
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Pandita Ramabai
Georgia Harkness

[Keeley · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and valuable collection of theological writings by Christian women. The strengths of the collection are a depth and variety that could be useful in a number of different college settings, and the quality of the writings themselves. I found the writings by African-American women (Jarena Lee, Amanda Berry Smith) particularly interesting as they convey deep perception and feeling while being very outside the theological tradition I'm familiar with.
As with any edited collection there are weaknesses. The book contains numerous proofreading errors. As it collects works first published or translated elsewhere, it's hard to know whether the errors come from the original texts or were introduced for this edition, but hopefully the editor and publisher can take responsibility for correcting them if there's a new edition at some point. To the same point of the varied origins of the texts, some of the early chapters use translations from Latin that could be improved or updated. It would also be nice to see the collection expand to include more Protestant thinkers who wrote in languages other than English; to my knowledge, only Pandita Ramabai represents post-Reformation non-Anglophone thought, and she lived in England and wrote in English in large part.

[Keith Beasley-Topliffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this 1994 anthology, Amy Oden provided 36 brief (5 or so page) excerpts from writings by or about women throughout Christian history (up to 1947). Many were women I'd read before. Others I'd never heard of and I was grateful for the introduction to some of them. Some were pious, not necessarily orthodox, fiction (the gnostic Gospel of Mary (Magdalene), and the Acts of Paul and Thecla). One was a strangely humorous play by a 10th century woman about 4th century women whose martyrdom was described in an earlier chapter. Each selection had a brief introduction to the writer (sometimes so abbreviated as to be only rough sketches) and a brief introduction to the work. The translations used varied in quality from quite good to horrid (an early 20th century translation of 13th century Italian Angela of Foligno into what seemed to be a parody of Shakespearean English). These little irritations knocked what should have been a 4 or 5 star concept down to 3 stars. Sigh.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I appreciated reading Women's views on Christain thought, I found the fact that only two of the 62 readings were from 1900 or later made the writing feel a bit dry and felt a little distant from modern day.

[Doug Browne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection of excerpts from primary sources. My only issue was, unfortunately, with the very nature of such collections -- in order to shed light on the topics in which Professor Oden is interested, the way in which the documents are excerpted casts shadows on other topics.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great sourcebook for information on women in the history of Christianity. Put together well and easy to understand.

[Sarah Boyette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Required reading for a course. I loved it anyway and appreciated the editor's ability to take the most important words of a work and compile them in a concise form.