What do you think?
Rate this book
Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns through Two Millennia
Spanning two thousand years of Christian religious women's quest for spiritual and vocational fulfillment, Sisters in Arms is the first definitive history of Catholic nuns in the Western world. Unfolding century by century, this epic drama encompasses every period from the dawn of Christianity to the present. History has until recently minimized the role of nuns over the centuries. In this volume, their rich lives, their work, and their importance to the Church are finally acknowledged. Jo Ann Kay McNamara introduces us to women scholars, mystics, artists, political activists, healers, and teachers--individuals whose religious vocation enabled them to pursue goals beyond traditional gender roles. They range from Thecla, the legendary companion of Paul, who baptized herself in preparation for facing the lions in the Roman arena, to Hildegard of Bingen, whose visions unlocked her extraordinary talents for music, medicine, and moral teaching in the twelfth century. They also include Sister Mary Theresa Kane, who stood before the pope--and an American television audience-in 1979 and urged him to consider the ordination of women. By entering the convent, McNamara shows, nuns gained a community that allowed them to evolve spiritually, intellectually, and emotionally; but the convent was never a perfect refuge. Women's struggles continued against the male church hierarchy, the broader lay community, and the larger cultural and historical forces of change. The history of nuns is an important part of the larger story of western women whose gender provoked resistance to their claims to autonomy and power. As we enter the third millennium, this groundbreaking work pays fitting tribute to the sisters who have labored with prayer and service for two thousand years, who have struggled to achieve greater recognition and authority, and who have forged opportunities for all women while holding true to the teachings of the Gospel.
768 pages, Hardcover
First published February 11, 1996
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 20, 2014
Anyone who has seen and understood the Blues Brothers with John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd will understand what great qualities this book has. It is a profoundly erudite, thoroughly researched and tremendously eloquent book that tells the history of the female religious orders and their extraordinary contributions to the Catholic Church. Christians do not follow a dogma, they follow a person Jesus. You come to know him by letting him become your friend. For large numbers of Christians like Jake and Elwood Blue, it is the nuns through the the love that they display for all human beings that have convinced them of the value of being a follower of Jesus
Despite being very much a mainstream Catholic who believes that it is extremely important that Catholics should rigorously follow the magister of the Church, I feel that Ms. McNamara who clearly has more liberal views than I do f has made an enormous contribution to the discussion of how the Catholic Church (including both clergy and lay members) can more effectively carry out its function to spread the Gospel of the Church.
She explains that the male dominated clergy throughout most of the history of the church has made livfe difficult for the female orders and often exploited them financially. The female orders were frequently founded by bequests from parents or other relatives of the nuns. The first reaction of the male orders was to demand that the female orders be put under their value and that the property bequeathed to the sisters should pass under their control. It was a very long struggle for the female orders to win their independence. They were able to do so because of outstanding churchwoman such as Teresa of Avila and Hildegarde von Bingen,
McNamara who displays an extraordinary knowledge of the writings of Medieval churchwomen in French and Latin makes a very compelling narrative for this phase of the history of the female religious orders.
Prior to the French Revolution, nuns were primarily cloistered and dedicated to prayer. In the nineteenth century, they acquired a role of leadership role in the Church. As the economy evolved from being primarily agricultural to industrial, it was necessary that all members of the population learn to read. The secular nuns took on this task brilliantly. For over 150 years, Nuns assumed the responsibility for providing primary education to Catholic children. They also provided the nursing, cooking and housekeeping services in Catholic hospitals. Finally, as we know from the Blues Brothers they ran orphanages. By performing these vital functions the nuns demonstrated the great value of the Catholic church to society.
In the last 40 years the number of nuns in North American and Europe has declined dramatically. The Catholic Church is much the poorer for it. One senses that Ms.McNamara would like to revitalize the female religions orders by allowing women to say the mass, to become bishops and to be granted more authority. Without wanting to contest the magister of the Church, I feel nonetheless some measures should be taken to make the religious vocation as appealing to women as it was in our very recent past.
Ms. McNamara has written a very good book and made an important statement on what directions Church policy should be following.
Despite being very much a mainstream Catholic who believes that it is extremely important that Catholics should rigorously follow the magister of the Church, I feel that Ms. McNamara who clearly has more liberal views than I do f has made an enormous contribution to the discussion of how the Catholic Church (including both clergy and lay members) can more effectively carry out its function to spread the Gospel of the Church.
She explains that the male dominated clergy throughout most of the history of the church has made livfe difficult for the female orders and often exploited them financially. The female orders were frequently founded by bequests from parents or other relatives of the nuns. The first reaction of the male orders was to demand that the female orders be put under their value and that the property bequeathed to the sisters should pass under their control. It was a very long struggle for the female orders to win their independence. They were able to do so because of outstanding churchwoman such as Teresa of Avila and Hildegarde von Bingen,
McNamara who displays an extraordinary knowledge of the writings of Medieval churchwomen in French and Latin makes a very compelling narrative for this phase of the history of the female religious orders.
Prior to the French Revolution, nuns were primarily cloistered and dedicated to prayer. In the nineteenth century, they acquired a role of leadership role in the Church. As the economy evolved from being primarily agricultural to industrial, it was necessary that all members of the population learn to read. The secular nuns took on this task brilliantly. For over 150 years, Nuns assumed the responsibility for providing primary education to Catholic children. They also provided the nursing, cooking and housekeeping services in Catholic hospitals. Finally, as we know from the Blues Brothers they ran orphanages. By performing these vital functions the nuns demonstrated the great value of the Catholic church to society.
In the last 40 years the number of nuns in North American and Europe has declined dramatically. The Catholic Church is much the poorer for it. One senses that Ms.McNamara would like to revitalize the female religions orders by allowing women to say the mass, to become bishops and to be granted more authority. Without wanting to contest the magister of the Church, I feel nonetheless some measures should be taken to make the religious vocation as appealing to women as it was in our very recent past.
Ms. McNamara has written a very good book and made an important statement on what directions Church policy should be following.
September 18, 2024
A MARVELOUS, COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF SISTERS AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS
Jo Ann McNamara is professor of history at Hunter College and at the graduate center of the City University of New York; she has also written books such as 'A New Song: Celibate Women in the First Three Christian Centuries,' 'Sainted Women of the Dark Ages,' 'Gilles Aycelin: The Servant of Two Masters,' etc.
She wrote in the Preface to this 1996 book, "the title 'Sisters in Arms' evokes the comradeship which has always given the military life its luster of heroism and virtue. Our sisters have been united in a long war not only against the enemies of their religion but also against the misogynist elements within that religion that have mocked and constrained their efforts. Like Voltaire, I have grown up to be a secular humanist, yet, like him, I must concede that all I am I owe to my Catholic education." (Pg. x)
She notes that in New Testament times, "The widows may have acted as a particular unit or subdivision within the group, possibly even directed by Jesus' mother and the women who had been with her at Jesus' death. Peter came to be credited with the institution of three orders of widows." (Pg. 18) Later, "Women who adopted the appearance and lives of men infiltrated the literature of the ascetic movement... the typical story follows her as she joins a male community and lives among the monks undetected. In some stories, the heroine's sanctity is so outstanding that she is elected abbot, the truth being uncovered when the dying saint confesses to avert violation by her ignorant followers after her death." (Pg. 68)
But later, "Many monks failed to follow Cassian's lead in making provision for women as well as men." (Pg. 91) She observes, "Monks learned to fear and shun women as nuns learned to fear men and fear their own sexual attractions... They took precautions to prevent intimacy between the sexes but they were equally uneasy about the perils of attraction within the same sex. Female monasteries normally had a fairly large cluster of men attached to them as priests or laborers, and fellow monastics were obvious candidates for these places. Indeed, many factors promoted cross gender identification between monks and nuns." (Pg. 144)
She points out that in the Medieval period, "Some women are known as a matter of course to have performed quasi-liturgical services involving caring for vestments, supplying oil, wine, and other ingredients for the ceremonies, lighting candles, and ringing bells. It is highly probable that women in a number of parishes and monastic establishments also filled in as acolytes and in other auxiliary capacities for priests." (Pg. 153)
She states, "The Carolingians ... viewed convents as a convenient place to store women not serving as wives or mothers. Royal women often found convents comfortable and attractive places for permanent or temporary retirement." (Pg. 169)
She notes, "In 1298, Boniface VIII... decreed that all religious women everywhere must be cloistered. He stressed the peril of men's inability to resist raping women and women's natural inability to refrain from tempting men... Although the bull did little to change and actual daily lives of most religious women, they remained in force and were reinstated at the Council of Trent and again at the First Vatican Council in the nineteenth century." (Pg. 317)
She recounts, "The Dutch reformer Gerhard Groote... maintained that the provision of dowries encouraged donors to use monasteries for incapacitated and unwanted children. The evidence that dowry inflation and other family strategies impelled parents to place their daughters in chronically overcrowded convents remains compelling." (Pg. 354)
She admits, "Just as come convents were crucibles of mystics, others were barrels of bad apples... It is true that nuns from at least thirty three convents were prosecuted for fornication and others may have escaped uncharged. The greatest number, however, were heavily concentrated in one particular convent. Nuns from the notorious Sant'Angelo di Contorto entertained lovers in their private cells, and their abbess occasionally took them out for picnics and other excursions with their lovers... Sant'Angelo was closed down in 1478." (Pg. 358)
She states, "Protestants blamed their failure to convert nuns on the sisters' stiff-necked, disobedient attitude. They saw them as undisciplined womanhood, ever prone to rebellion against all authority." (Pg. 446)
This is a detailed, fascinating history of women religious that will be "must reading" for anyone seriously studying the matter.
Jo Ann McNamara is professor of history at Hunter College and at the graduate center of the City University of New York; she has also written books such as 'A New Song: Celibate Women in the First Three Christian Centuries,' 'Sainted Women of the Dark Ages,' 'Gilles Aycelin: The Servant of Two Masters,' etc.
She wrote in the Preface to this 1996 book, "the title 'Sisters in Arms' evokes the comradeship which has always given the military life its luster of heroism and virtue. Our sisters have been united in a long war not only against the enemies of their religion but also against the misogynist elements within that religion that have mocked and constrained their efforts. Like Voltaire, I have grown up to be a secular humanist, yet, like him, I must concede that all I am I owe to my Catholic education." (Pg. x)
She notes that in New Testament times, "The widows may have acted as a particular unit or subdivision within the group, possibly even directed by Jesus' mother and the women who had been with her at Jesus' death. Peter came to be credited with the institution of three orders of widows." (Pg. 18) Later, "Women who adopted the appearance and lives of men infiltrated the literature of the ascetic movement... the typical story follows her as she joins a male community and lives among the monks undetected. In some stories, the heroine's sanctity is so outstanding that she is elected abbot, the truth being uncovered when the dying saint confesses to avert violation by her ignorant followers after her death." (Pg. 68)
But later, "Many monks failed to follow Cassian's lead in making provision for women as well as men." (Pg. 91) She observes, "Monks learned to fear and shun women as nuns learned to fear men and fear their own sexual attractions... They took precautions to prevent intimacy between the sexes but they were equally uneasy about the perils of attraction within the same sex. Female monasteries normally had a fairly large cluster of men attached to them as priests or laborers, and fellow monastics were obvious candidates for these places. Indeed, many factors promoted cross gender identification between monks and nuns." (Pg. 144)
She points out that in the Medieval period, "Some women are known as a matter of course to have performed quasi-liturgical services involving caring for vestments, supplying oil, wine, and other ingredients for the ceremonies, lighting candles, and ringing bells. It is highly probable that women in a number of parishes and monastic establishments also filled in as acolytes and in other auxiliary capacities for priests." (Pg. 153)
She states, "The Carolingians ... viewed convents as a convenient place to store women not serving as wives or mothers. Royal women often found convents comfortable and attractive places for permanent or temporary retirement." (Pg. 169)
She notes, "In 1298, Boniface VIII... decreed that all religious women everywhere must be cloistered. He stressed the peril of men's inability to resist raping women and women's natural inability to refrain from tempting men... Although the bull did little to change and actual daily lives of most religious women, they remained in force and were reinstated at the Council of Trent and again at the First Vatican Council in the nineteenth century." (Pg. 317)
She recounts, "The Dutch reformer Gerhard Groote... maintained that the provision of dowries encouraged donors to use monasteries for incapacitated and unwanted children. The evidence that dowry inflation and other family strategies impelled parents to place their daughters in chronically overcrowded convents remains compelling." (Pg. 354)
She admits, "Just as come convents were crucibles of mystics, others were barrels of bad apples... It is true that nuns from at least thirty three convents were prosecuted for fornication and others may have escaped uncharged. The greatest number, however, were heavily concentrated in one particular convent. Nuns from the notorious Sant'Angelo di Contorto entertained lovers in their private cells, and their abbess occasionally took them out for picnics and other excursions with their lovers... Sant'Angelo was closed down in 1478." (Pg. 358)
She states, "Protestants blamed their failure to convert nuns on the sisters' stiff-necked, disobedient attitude. They saw them as undisciplined womanhood, ever prone to rebellion against all authority." (Pg. 446)
This is a detailed, fascinating history of women religious that will be "must reading" for anyone seriously studying the matter.
July 7, 2026
This book moves through the entire history of the church to trace the role that nuns have had in their own development and within the church. This is the culmination of McNamara's many years of research into the sisterhood. It provides a wonderful resource and reference to the lives of nuns and their contributions to the Catholic church. This is a very long book and covers both some foundational ideas related to nuns, such as chastity and female identity as well as historical periodization of how monastic life developed among women. There is a section on different ages, such as the Roman Age, Middle Ages, High Middle Ages, Early Modern Era, and the Modern Era. If you are interested in the history of nuns, this book provides such a rich resource to explore and see the changes that have occurred over time.
March 10, 2024
BE READY!!!!!! This is a very (and I mean VERY) long book.... 600 plus pages. You will definitely get your moneys worth if you are interested in how the Catholic Sisters every got "started" and their history. I was taught by Nuns for 11 years so was interested in what made them "tick".
I bought this in a thrift store and someone had on the fly page.... ''Very hard to read". Right away in the first chapter I understood "why".
This book is VERY COMPREHENSIVE. I think it could have been written in 300 pages and you would still have gotten the history of sisterhood.
I finally had to skip to the last few chapters; which were more interesting to me. If you are studying about the sisterhood it's for you.
I bought this in a thrift store and someone had on the fly page.... ''Very hard to read". Right away in the first chapter I understood "why".
This book is VERY COMPREHENSIVE. I think it could have been written in 300 pages and you would still have gotten the history of sisterhood.
I finally had to skip to the last few chapters; which were more interesting to me. If you are studying about the sisterhood it's for you.
May 22, 2024
Forgot to add this one when I read it! Very long and I stopped reading when it got to some of the more recent history because of my personal interests, but I found this really fascinating. Really paints a detailed picture of nun life and it’s political/cultural implications. Sometimes I would’ve preferred more analysis to historical details but overall got a lot out of it as someone who is interested in the ways people tried to organize for a different world through history.
December 25, 2021
Stuk gelezen voor PWS.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews