Female Ministers & Shapers of Theology from the Early and Medieval Church Part 4: Influencers of Men

Botticelli’s Madonna of the Magnificat reveals Mary writing the Magnificat while holding her infant, Jesus. Certainly, Mary should be top of mind when we think of women influencing men, as she raised her sons.

Image source: Shala Graham, Visual Museum of Women in Christianity

Influencers of Men

So many important church fathers were influenced by the theology of women, one must wonder why modern protestants tend to only recognize the names of the men.

Augustine, whose theological works continue to heavily influence Western theology today, credits his mother Monica as not only faithfully praying for his salvation but also acting as a mother and teacher to the monastic community he eventually created.[1]

The fourth-century Cappadocian fathers Gregory of Nyssa and Basil of Caesarea also credit their sister Macrina as an important influence on their lives. Macrina held them accountable and modeled a faithful life.[2] Gregory even portrayed her in his work On the Soul and Resurrection “as a wise philosopher, akin to Socrates, and himself, in humble deference, as her student.”[3]

In the same century, Olympias, a female deacon, discussed church matters with John Chrysostom[4] through a prolonged friendship revealed by Chrysostom’s many surviving letters.[5]

These great women, and many others, influenced the faith and theology of the men around them, whose work shaped the future doctrine of the church.

References

[1] Leanne M. Dzubinski and Anneke H. Stasson, Women in the Mission of the Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2021), 65.

[2] Dzubinski and Stasson, Women in the Mission, 66-67.

[3] Dzubinski and Stasson, Women in the Mission, 67.

[4] Dzubinski and Stasson, Women in the Mission, 52-53

[5] V.K. McCarty, From Their Lips: Voices of Early Christian Women (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2021), 128.