Religious Women in Early Carolingian Francia

Felice Lifshitz is Professor of Women's and Gender Studies and of Religious Studies at the University of Alberta.

"Lifshitz has written an interesting book in which she presents new perspectives and scenarios on an ongoing debate." -TMR: The Medieval Review "Lifshitz's endeavor to map a cultural and intellectual world and explore a collective identity on the basis of a limited-yet unique-set of sources not only forms an important contribution to feminist scholarship but also creates a model for other manuscript-based explorations of collective identities. This is a splendid book." -- -Albrecht Diem Catholic Historical Review "In this pathbreaking book, Felice Lifshitz gives us a magisterial reexamination of the place of women in the early medieval Chritianity. Through an innovative and convincing analysis of a range of manuscripts produced by and for Frankish religious women, she shows us how the Christian culture and intellectual life of the eighth century were gender-egalitarian and even 'feminist' in the sense of a resistance to patriarchal ideas. An exciting book for medievalists, but also for anyone interested in the history of gender relations over the centuries." -- -Anne-Marie Helvetius Professor of Medieval History, University of Paris VIII-Vincennes-Saint-Denis. "Once again, Felice Lifshitz has emerged from the archives with set of neglected texts --this time, documents from the English monasteries of Leoba and Boniface in Germany--and applies her usual fierce scrutiny to the manuscripts in order to show the rest of us what we have missed, misconstrued, and misinterpreted about early medieval history, gender, and religion. This book offers a model method for graduate students and a reminder to all medievalists that the sometimes onerous analysis of manuscripts still has much to tell us about such well-known topics as the Christianization of Germany as well as such seemingly modern issues as gender equity and women's intellectual agency." -- -Lisa Bitel University of Southern California "Erudite, intellectually rigorous, and well-researched, Religious Women in Early Carolingian Francia offers a more detailed study of religious women in eighth-century Francia in greater depth than anyone else has heretofore published." -- -Valerie L. Garver Northern Illinois University

• List of Color Plates List of Abbreviations Preface: Medieval Feminism Acknowledgments Part I: Introductions: People, Places, Things 1. Syneisactism and Reform: Gender Relations in the Anglo-Saxon Cultural Province in Francia 2. The Monastic Landscape of the Anglo-Saxon Cultural Province in Francia 3. The Gun(t)za and Abirhilt Manuscripts: Women and their Books in the Anglo-Saxon Cultural Province in Francia Part II: Textual Analysis 4. "I am Crucified in Christ" (Galatians 2:20): The Kitzingen Crucifixion Miniature and Visions of the Apostle Paul 5. "We Interpret Spiritual Truths to People Possessed of the Spirit" (1 Cor. 2:13): Studying the Bible with the Fathers of the Church 6. "The Sensual Man does not Perceive those Things that are of the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 2:14): History and Theology in the Stories of the Saints" 7. "An Eternal Weight of Glory" (2 Cor. 4: 17): Discipline and Devotion in Monastic Life Part III: Conclusions 8. "Now Concerning Virgins, I Have No Commandment of the Lord" (1 Cor. 7:25): Consecrated Women and Altar Service in the Anglo-Saxon Cultural Province in Francia 9. "Through a Glass Darkly" (1 Cor. 13:12): Textual Transmission and Historical Representation as Feminist Strategies in Early Medieval Europe Notes Bibliography: Manuscripts and Printed Materials Index