Further reading on women’s roles in the early Christian Church

Compiled by Sr. Christine Schenk, Future Church

Brooten, Bernadette. Women Leaders in the Ancient Synagogue. Chico, California: Scholar’s Press, 1982.
Denzy, Nicola. The Bone Gatherers: The Lost Worlds of Early Christian Women. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2008

Eisen, Ute E. Women Officeholders in Early Christianity: Epigraphical and Literary Studies. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2000.

Epp, Eldon Jay and Beverly Roberts Gaventa. Junia: The First Woman Apostle. Minneapolis, MN:Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2005.

Gillman, Florence Morgan. Women Who Knew Paul. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992.

Irvin, Dorothy. Calendar 2003 The Archaeology of Women’s Traditional Ministries in the Church 100 to 820 AD; Calendar 2004 The Archaeology of Women’s Traditional Ministries in the Church 300-1500 AD; Calendar 2005 The Archaeology of Women’s Traditional Ministries in the Church 60-1500 AD. Self published available from Dorothy Irvin, 1360 University Ave. #463, St. Paul, MN 55104 or email irvincalendar[at]hotmail[dot]com.

Jensen, Anne. God’s Self-Confident Daughters, Early Christianity and the Liberation of Women. Westminster John Knox Press, 1996

Kraemer, Ross Shepard and D’Angelo, Mary Rose. (Editors) Women and Christian Origins. London: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Kraemer, Ross S. ed. Women’s Religions in the Greco-Roman World: A Sourcebook. Oxford, 2004.

Malone, Mary T. Women and Christianity: The First Thousand Years, Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2001.

Osiek, Carolyn, and Margaret MacDonald with Janet Tulloch. A Woman’s Place: House Churches in Earliest Christianity. Fortress, 2006.

Schussler-Fiorenza, Elizabeth. In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins. New York:Crossroad, 1983.

Swidler, Leonard. Biblical Affirmations of Women. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1979.

Thurston, Bonnie B. The Widows: A Women’s Ministry in the Early Church. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1989.

Thurston, Bonnie. Women in the New Testament: Questions and Commentary. New York: Crossroad Torjesen, Karen Jo. When Women Were Priests:
Women’s Leadership in the Early Church and the Scandal of their Subordination in the Rise of Christianity. New York: Harper Collins, 1993.

Winter, Bruce W. Roman Wives, Roman Widows: The appearance of new women and the Pauline communities. Eerdmans, 2003.

Zagano, Phyllis. Holy Saturday. An Argument for the Restoration of the Female Diaconate in the Catholic Church. New York: Crossroad, 2000.