Overview

"Scholars and mainline pastors tell a familiar narrative about the roles of women in the early church-that women held leadership roles and exercised some authority in the church, but, with the establishment of formal institutional roles, they were excluded from active leadership. Evidence of women's leadership is either described as ""exceptional"" or relegated to (so-called) heretical groups, who differed with proto-orthodox groups precisely over the issue of women's participation. For example, scholars often contrast the Acts of Paul and Thecla (ATh) with 1Timothy. They understand the two works to represent discrete communities with opposite responses to the question of women's leadership.In A Modest Apostle, Susan Hylen uses Thecla as a microcosm from which to challenge this larger narrative. In contrast to previous interpreters, Hylen reads 1Timothy and the ATh as texts that emerge out of and share a common cultural framework. In the Roman period, women were widely expected to exhibit gendered virtues like modesty, industry, and loyalty to family. However, women pursued these virtues in remarkably different ways, including active leadership in their communities. Reading against a cultural background in which multiple and conflicting norms already existed for women's behavior, Hylen shows that texts like the ATh and 1Timothy begin to look different. Like the culture, 1Timothy affirms women's leadership as deacons and widows while upholding standards of modesty in dress and speech. In the ATh, Thecla's virtue is first established by her modest behavior, which allows her to emerge as a virtuous leader. The text presents Thecla as one who fulfills culturally established norms, even as she pursues a bold new way of life.Hylen's approach points to a new way of understanding women in the early church, one that insists upon the acknowledgment of women's leadership as a historical reality without neglecting the effects of the culture's gender biases."

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Reviews

Hylen's model of an early church in which women exercised agency and power within the constraints of the complex cultural expectations of their times will resonate with the experience of their times will resonate with the experience of many women readers who engage in Christian ministry while navigating the competing expectations of family, church, and society. --<em>The Catholic Biblical Quarterly</em> With rare clarity about cultural complexity, Susan Hylen disrupts overly sharp contrasts that assume some early Christian texts grant women exceptional social freedoms and influence (so The Acts of Thecla) while others impose patriarchal social restrictions (so 1 Timothy). Instead, Hylen subtly traces conflicting norms within texts, offering rich ancient evidence for women's civic and religious leadership and the gendering of virtue. A compelling analysis, poised to refresh debate on women in the ancient church. --B. Diane Lipsett, author of <em>Desiring Conversion: Hermas, Thecla, Aseneth</em> <em>A Modest Apostle</em> is sure to spark vigorous discussion and debate among scholars of early Christianity. Countering readings of Thecla as a subversive or transgressive figure, the author argues for Thecla's conformance to conventional Greco-Roman expectations regarding the virtue of modesty, which Hylen sees as compatible with both the teachings of 1 Timothy and public practices of female leadership in ancient society. --Stephen J. Davis, author of <em>The Cult of St. Thecla: A Tradition of Women's Piety in Late Antiquity</em> <em>A Modest Apostle</em> offers a fresh and welcome new approach to the study of Thecla, 1 Timothy, and the role of women in earliest Christianity. Calling attention to a shared ideal of 'modesty, ' Hylen shows that the disciplining rhetoric of female submission did not preclude active feminine leadership. Even the staunchest proponents of women's passivity could also offer praise for their active roles and literary endorsements of women's leadership did not necessarily imply a preference for gendered equality. Highly recommended. --Jennifer Knust, Associate Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins, Boston University

With rare clarity about cultural complexity, Susan Hylen disrupts overly sharp contrasts that assume some early Christian texts grant women exceptional social freedoms and influence (so The Acts of Thecla) while others impose patriarchal social restrictions (so 1 Timothy). Instead, Hylen subtly traces conflicting norms within texts, offering rich ancient evidence for women's civic and religious leadership and the gendering of virtue. A compelling analysis, poised to refresh debate on women in the ancient church. --B. Diane Lipsett, author of Desiring Conversion: Hermas, Thecla, Aseneth A Modest Apostle is sure to spark vigorous discussion and debate among scholars of early Christianity. Countering readings of Thecla as a subversive or transgressive figure, the author argues for Thecla's conformance to conventional Greco-Roman expectations regarding the virtue of modesty, which Hylen sees as compatible with both the teachings of 1 Timothy and public practices of female leadership in ancient society. --Stephen J. Davis, author of The Cult of St. Thecla: A Tradition of Women's Piety in Late Antiquity A Modest Apostle offers a fresh and welcome new approach to the study of Thecla, 1 Timothy, and the role of women in earliest Christianity. Calling attention to a shared ideal of 'modesty, ' Hylen shows that the disciplining rhetoric of female submission did not preclude active feminine leadership. Even the staunchest proponents of women's passivity could also offer praise for their active roles and literary endorsements of women's leadership did not necessarily imply a preference for gendered equality. Highly recommended. --Jennifer Knust, Associate Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins, Boston University

Hylen's model of an early church in which women exercised agency and power within the constraints of the complex cultural expectations of their times will resonate with the experience of their times will resonate with the experience of many women readers who engage in Christian ministry while navigating the competing expectations of family, church, and society. --The Catholic Biblical Quarterly With rare clarity about cultural complexity, Susan Hylen disrupts overly sharp contrasts that assume some early Christian texts grant women exceptional social freedoms and influence (so The Acts of Thecla) while others impose patriarchal social restrictions (so 1 Timothy). Instead, Hylen subtly traces conflicting norms within texts, offering rich ancient evidence for women's civic and religious leadership and the gendering of virtue. A compelling analysis, poised to refresh debate on women in the ancient church. --B. Diane Lipsett, author of Desiring Conversion: Hermas, Thecla, Aseneth A Modest Apostle is sure to spark vigorous discussion and debate among scholars of early Christianity. Countering readings of Thecla as a subversive or transgressive figure, the author argues for Thecla's conformance to conventional Greco-Roman expectations regarding the virtue of modesty, which Hylen sees as compatible with both the teachings of 1 Timothy and public practices of female leadership in ancient society. --Stephen J. Davis, author of The Cult of St. Thecla: A Tradition of Women's Piety in Late Antiquity A Modest Apostle offers a fresh and welcome new approach to the study of Thecla, 1 Timothy, and the role of women in earliest Christianity. Calling attention to a shared ideal of 'modesty, ' Hylen shows that the disciplining rhetoric of female submission did not preclude active feminine leadership. Even the staunchest proponents of women's passivity could also offer praise for their active roles and literary endorsements of women's leadership did not necessarily imply a preference for gendered equality. Highly recommended. --Jennifer Knust, Associate Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins, Boston University The strengths of this book are considerable: it advances scholarship through reappraisal of conclusions that often go unchallenged, and it culls data about women from numerous sources, including papyri Hylen's important contribution to scholarship on early Christian women is recommended particularly for graduate students. Hylen's appeal for more complex analysis will require scholars to be more careful about what they assert about gendered social norms. --Horizons

Author Information

Susan E. Hylen is Associate Research Professor of New Testament at Candler School of Theology at Emory University.

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