Mondays, February 6 – April 24, 2017
6:30 – 8:30 pm
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History: who makes it and who tells it? Who decides the story line and cast of characters? Women’s scholars such as Church historian Mary T. Malone retell Christian history with women widening the path of discipleship through the centuries. From the beginning a company of men and women accompany Jesus, follow him, and serve the emergent community.
In every generation women find their voices, claim authority, act creatively, confront heedless power, and participate in the upheavals of their times. Some are wives and mothers, some celibate; some reign, others preach and inspire. What do we inherit from these foremothers? What do their lives inspire in those of us who seek God today? To what is God summoning us from the future?
Join creative and resilient women in wrestling with the gospel message today, pondering what the Reformation asks of us in its 500th anniversary year, seeking the holy in a world many label secular, reimagining women’s leadership in our churches. Where will ecumenical dialogues take us? Marriage, divorce?
Built around Mary T. Malone’s history Women & Christianity, the seminar will delve into historical persons and controversial topics as well as include guest presenters.
Weekly Topics:
- February 6: Reading Women into History, Trajectories into the Future
Instructor: Joan Mitchell
- February 13: Women of the Gospels, Early Christian Communities and Mission
Instructor: Joan Mitchell
- February 20: Gnostic Heroines, Christian Martyrs, Women Using Their Heads & Hearts
Instructor: Joan Mitchell
- February 27: Were Women Ordained or Just Blessed? Queens and Abbesses
Instructors: Joan Mitchell and Susan Hames - March 6: Second Millennium: Marriage, Celibacy, Eleanor of Aquitaine
Instructors: Joan Mitchell and Mary Kaye Medinger
- March 13: Mystics, Their Poetry and Purpose; Monastic Missionaries
Instructors: Joan Mitchell and Mary Kaye Medinger
Required Texts:
Women & Christianity: Volumes I, II, & III
Mary T. Malone
The First Thousand Years
From 1,000 to Reformation
From the Reformation to the 21stCentury
Instructors:
Susan Hames, CSJ, ABD
Rev. Barbara Lund
Mary Kaye Medinger, Consociate, MA
Joan Mitchell,CSJ,PhD
Cathy Steffens, CSJ.