To Nancy: I'll have to get back to you about pagan and Christian women

Claire E. O'Connor claireoc@softdisk.com
Fri, 19 Dec 1997 11:01:20 -0600 (00882572480, 349AA85F.2318@softdisk.com) 


> NANCY

> Claire, I really appreciate your taking the time to type up so much

> information, but this is not quite what I had in mind when I asked for

> specifics. Women had higher status within a still female-dominated religious

> community. So what? This was true of pagan religious communities. What

> happened to the status of women as the xtian community came to be dominated

> by males? What rights accrued to these women because of their status within

> their religious community? Were they educated? Did they have the right to

> own property, even when married? To divorce? To own businesses? To speak for

> themselves in courts of law?

> 

> Just how did xtianity improve the lot of women? Did the women of the Dark

> Ages and Middle Ages enjoy as much or more freedom than the women of the

> Late Roman Republic and Early Empire? Have you studied ancient societies? Do

> you know how women were treated in the ancient Greek city-states? In Egypt

> through the millennia? In Rome?......


(snipped for brevity, not for lack of interest on my part)

CLAIRE

Dear Nancy:

I will have to do some more research on this. Most of what you seem to
be concerned about is outside the scope of Rodney Stark's book. The
impression I have (so far) is that women held high positions in the
early Christian Church (first few hundred years), but lost some of their
power in the church hierarchy as time went on. As far as I know, they
had all the rights which you asked about, except the right to divorce.
But Christian men didn't have the "right" to divorce, either.

Stark does make an interesting comparison between the women of Sparta
and the women of Athens. Infanticide was practiced in both Athens and
Sparta. However, in Sparta, only deformed or sickly babies were killed,
regardless of gender, whereas in Athens, far more girls than boys were
killed. Spartan women were better educated and could own property in
their own right, and in general had much more power and freedom than
their Athenian counterparts. 

Unfortunately for women in the pagan Roman world, the (exclusively male)
philosophers of Athens had more influence on Roman society than the
example of Spartan women. 

If I have not done a good job of defending Christianity, that is my
fault, not the fault of Christianity. Your questions have helped point
out to me where I need to do more research.
 
I shall return to your questions later...

~Claire O'Connor