This collection of essays focuses on issues related to gender at the intersection of religious discourses in antiquity. To that end, an array of traditions is analyzed with the aim of more fully situating the construction and representation of gender in early Christian, Jewish and Greco-Roman argumentation.
Taken as a whole, these essays contribute to the goal of displaying the wide range of options that are available for examining the interconnection of gender, rhetoric, power, and ideology, especially as they relate to identity formation in the ancient world during the early centuries of the common era.
The focus on ancient conceptions of gender makes this collection particularly useful not only for biblical scholars, but also for classicists and researchers working in the field of gender studies, as well as for those interested in exploring similar issues in other religious traditions or in Western religious traditions of different time periods.
Todd Penner (Ph.D.) is the Gould H. and Marie Cloud Associate Professor in Religious Studies and Director of the Gender Studies Program at Austin College (Sherman, TX, USA). He has published on a variety of topics related to early Christianity, including, most recently, the book of Acts.
Caroline Vander Stichele (Ph.D.) is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Her research focuses on the cultural reception of biblical characters and images and the rhetoric of gender in early Christian literature. Together they have co-edited three other collections of essays and co-authored a number of essays related to gender in early Christianity and to the Bible and film.
"...there is much to be learned from the volume and readers interested in gender constructions in the Greco-Roman context will not be disappointed." – Colleen M Conway, in:
Biblical Interpretation, 2010
All those interested in biblical studies, ancient Judaism and Christian origins, the history of religion, classical studies, and gender studies.