This course will explore female figures in the Church’s history that occupied diverse roles in the early Church such as patrons, pilgrims, martyrs, mothers, religious, mystics, educators, missionaries, and activists. The course examines the complexity of women’s role against a fluctuating social and theological environment that both curtailed and empowered women’s intellectual pursuits, public endeavors, and religious experience. Amidst shifting ground, women wielded influence and humility to become some of the Church’s most memorable spiritual figures and institutional leaders, including Perpetua and Felicity, Thecla and Egeria, Monica, and Macrina the Younger. (Enrollment limited to 15)