Women Doctors of the Church (CH9217Y)

Content

Paul’s injunction that women remain silent in the Church (1 Cor 14: 34-36) could be said to have led to the absence of Women’s Wisdom from the official teaching of the Church over its 2000 year history. Of the 36 Doctors of the Church, only 4 are women, Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, Thérèse of Lisieux and Hildegard of Bingen, all of whom have only been recognised in the last 50 years. This unit will concentration on the contribution of these women to our theological understanding of God and also explore other important female voices that have been overlooked through the centuries.

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

The Unit is an elective within the disciplines of Church History & Spirituality. Pre-requisite: CH1001Y – Survey of Early and Medieval Church History or equivalent.

Pedagogy

The unit will consist of Lectures, Tutorials and discussion forums all delivered in a Seminar style so that students can interact with the ideas presented, engage with other students and their reflections and ideas and develop skills in critique, debate and practical application.

Indicative Bibliography

• Catherine of Siena. The Dialogue. Translated by Suzanne Noffke. The Classics of Western Sprituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1980.
• Hildegard of Bingen. The Book of Divine Works. Translated by Nathaniel M. Campbell. Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2018.
• Hildegard of Bingen. Scivias. Translated by Columba Hart and Jane Bishop. The Classics of Western Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1990.
• Malone, Mary T. Four Women Doctors of the Church. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2017.
• Muir, Elizabeth. A Women's History of the Christian Church: Two Thousand Years of Female Leadership. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019.
• Newman, Barbara. Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989.
• Radford Reuther, Rosemary. Women and Redemption: A Theological History. 2nd Ed. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2012.
• Teresa of Avila, Saint. The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila. Translated by Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez. Vols. 1 and 2. Washington: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1976-80.
• Thérèse of Lisieux, Saint. Story of A Soul: The autobiography of Saint Therese of Lisieux. 3rd ed. Washington, Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1996.
• Tyler, Peter and Edward Howells, eds. Teresa of Avila: Mystical Theology and Spirituality in the Carmelite Tradition. London: Routledge, 2018.

Assessment