10 THINGS I Learned (or learned more about) during my first week in a doctoral program at Northern Seminary

...in no particular order

A couple months ago I put on my adventure boots and headed to Northern Seminary for my first one-week intensive course in my doctoral program. Here are a few things I learned.

Let me know what you think—is anything here new to you?? (Would LOVE to hear from you in the comments below)

1. At 57, I'm not even the oldest one in the program. Isn't that cool?! (Your older sisters are learning, growing, and active in the Church, so...watch out. Haha.)

2. "Widow" and "Virgin" were offices in the early church. I sort of knew this--think of someone like Anna, a Jewish woman and prophet who lived and served in the temple in Jerusalem, and who recognized Jesus as Messiah. Here's an interesting new take: "Virgins" became part of this official role of Widows in the church. These unmarried women served a ministerial role and this role could even fit women who had been married before. (Historically, we can draw a line from this church office to the later desert mothers, nuns and abbesses who lived and served the Church apart from general society.)

3. The apostle Paul is at the center of much debate about his views on women, but Paul himself was wrestling with existing social structures in the ancient world (idolatry, slavery, disability, women's agency, and more) and how they played out in the churches he planted and cared for--he was NOT creating new rules or prescribing social structures. When we use Paul's letters to create rules for women, we are misunderstanding what was going on. Context is crucial.

4. Why it's important to study women in the early church: Because most writers were men, and they wrote about what men were interested in. Men are over-represented in ancient literature, including the Bible, and sometimes it seems like women didn't do much, and men did much more. Studying the lives of women through coinage, inscriptions, art in the churches and catacombs, and writings beyond the Bible, gives us a fuller picture of women in Judaism and Christianity in those early years.

5. Crucial: Don't think of women in the ancient world as a homogenous group--all acting the same and being treated the same. They were varied in many ways, as are women today. There is no such thing as a protoypical first century woman, or Old Testament woman. We can't view them as caricatures.

Society, including in the Church, was complex.

6. In the ancient patriarchal systems, some men (the powerful ones) ruled over women and men. But some men did not have power or status, and so there were some powerful women who ruled over some men. Women existed at different levels of power, status, and influence.

7. Protestants, on the whole, don't know much about early church history, OR the books and other documents that early Christians read. I fall into this camp. Think of books like Pilgrim's Progress, The Shack, The Purpose Driven Life, The Case for Christ, In His Steps, Jesus Calling, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. These enduring bestsellers aren't part of the Bible, but they're important in trying to understand the Church and what people believed and practiced. Reading and studying what Christians were reading and studying in the first several hundred years of the church is important. So is getting to know the influential early leaders and thinkers, both men and women:

• Who is Phoebe?

• Priscilla?

• Chloe?

• Nympha?

• Perpetua?

• Thecla?

• Helena?

• Blandina?

• Macrina?

• Egeria? Lots to learn!

8. The idea of martyrdom was central to early Christian identity. As it played out, it remade the culture as women (and men) refused to make pagan sacrifices and embraced Christ over family responsibilities, resulting in gruesome public deaths for some. As a result, the Roman family system, and the honor-shame culture, began to melt away.

9. Art in ancient churches and in the catacombs is becoming an important area of scholarly investigation, as it's hard to erase or censor or remake these images that depict women in early church leadership (including the role of bishop). Art operates in theological space.

10. Theology is dialogue--it is dynamic and continuing. Think about how Jesus dialogued with everybody. Theology can be useful, transformative, and open to many voices. Theology can be generous, collaborative, and challenge exclusionary approaches. Theology starts with questions, not dry definitions from a theology textbook.

Theology is the church in dialogue with God, with the church itself, and with the world. The aim is transformation, loving, making peace, and bringing about reconciliation.

Thanks to Amy Brown Hughes, (scholar and co-author with Lynn Cohick of Christian Women in the Patristic World), for these thoughts on theology from a class discussion at Northern.