Patterns of Women's Leadership in Early Christianity

Joan E. Taylor is Professor of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism at King's College London.Ilaria L. E. Ramelli is Professor of Theology (Durham, hon.; Angelicum; KUL); Senior Research Fellow and Member (Bonn University; Princeton; Erfurt MWK; Cambridge University).

• List of Figures List of Maps List of Abbreviations List of Contributors Joan E. Taylor and Ilaria L E. Ramelli: Introduction 1: Joan E. Taylor: Male-Female Missionary Pairings among Jesus' Disciples: Some Further Considerations 2: Ilaria L.E. Ramelli: Colleagues of Apostles, Presbyters, and Bishops: Women Syzygoi in Ancient Christian Communities 3: Harry Maier: The Entrepreneurial Widows of 1 Timothy 4: Margaret Butterfield: Sacred Intercessors: Widows as Altar in Polycarp, Philippians 5: Piotr Ashwin-Siejkowski: The Image of the Feminine in the Gospel of Philip: An Innovative Assimilation of Paul's Gender Legacy in the Valentinian Milieu 6: Nicola Denzey Lewis: Women in Gnosticism 7: Markus Vinzent: More 'Holy Women' in Early Christianity: The Gospels of Mary and Marcion 8: William Tabbernee: Women Officeholders in Montanism 9: Teresa Berger: Women's Liturgical Practices and Leadership Roles in Early Christian Communities 10: John Wijngaards: Women Deacons in Ancient Christian Communities: Leadership and Ordination 11: Karl Olav Sandnes: Eudocia's Homeric Cento and the Woman Anointing Jesus: An Example of Female Authority 12: Ally Kateusz and Luca Badini Confalonieri: Women Church Leaders in and around Fifth-Century Rome 13: Kevin J. Madigan: The Meaning of Presbytera in Byzantine and Early Medieval Christianity 14: Joan E. Taylor: Gendered Space: Eusebius on the Therapeutae and the 'Megiddo Church' Bibliography Index

This collection brings to light many pieces of evidence of how women exercised leadership from the first to the ninth century...This volume clearly shows that most of these leadership roles were not simply titular or honorific but involved actual practices in Christian ministry.