Her Share of the Blessings
Women's Religions Among Pagans, Jews, and Christians in the Greco-Roman World
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:28th Apr '94
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
In this ground-breaking interdisciplinary study, Ross Kraemer considers the full spectrum of women's religious experience in the Graeco-Roman world. Examining the scriptural, literary, and archaeological evidence for the beliefs and practices of pagan, Jewish, and Christian women, Kraemer attempts to discover the relationship between these women's religious behaviour and the rest of their lives. She presents and analyses a bewildering diversity of activities, and finds consistent correlations between the religious behaviour of women and the constraints under which they live in an androcentric society. She goes on to argue that the religious experiences of women are importantly different from those of men, and that these differences are vital to a fuller understanding of the universal human phenomenon of religion.
`this book will provide a useful and reliable guide to all interested in the topic, as well as provoking a range of new questions' Theology
'powerfully-argued and challenging book' N R M de Lange, Bulletin of Judaeo-Greek Studies
'In Her Share of the Blessings Ross Kraemer does a much better job of making sense of women's religions in the ancient world than most of her predecessors ... she tracks down and reconstructs (often with great scholarly expertise) the activities of that half of the ancient world who were biologically female.' Mary Beard, London Review of Books
`offers a fresh appraisal of women's roles in a range of ancient cults in the light of recent social anthropological theory ... The work is amply documented with notes and bibliography. It should serve as a fine stimulus to further study in this important and controversial area Expository Times
'this book will provide a useful and reliable guide to all interested in the topic, as well as provoking a range of new questions' Judith Lieu, Theology
'The work is amply documented with notes and bibliography. It should serve as a fine stimulus to further study in this important and controversial area.' Ruth B. Edwards, The Expository Times, August 1993, Volume 104, Number 11
'Her study stands out among scholarship about women in the area of Christian origins in that she does not approach the material from a theological perspective ... she has made a significant contribution to the study of Christianity ... Kraemer's book, in attempting to move away from the deprivation model, is a positive step toward finding new ways to come to terms with women's participation in religion ... an excellent resource that compiles, describes, and analyses primary source materials that focus on women in ancient Greece, Rome, and Asia Minor. The fact that she securely locates, for the most part, her study within a social historical context makes the book invaluable for the study of women's religions and women in religious movements in the ancient world.' Darlene Juschka, Centre for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 5-2 (1993)
ISBN: 9780195086706
Dimensions: 140mm x 216mm x 18mm
Weight: 372g
288 pages