| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 106.1

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 106.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Comparative/World

Patricia Ranft. Women and Spiritual Equality in Christian Tradition. New York: St. Martin's. 1998. Pp. xii, 307. $39.95.

This is not an easy book to review. On the one hand, its main thesis is incontrovertible. "Within Christianity," Patricia Ranft writes, "there is a strong and enduring tradition that maintains the spiritual equality of women" (p. x). Ranft is aware, of course, that the history of Christianity is replete with evidence of misogynism and antifemale rhetoric. Her point, however, is that the negative portrayal and treatment of women is not all there is to the Christian tradition. Assuming that the very presence of holy women in every age of church history "had an effect on society and therefore is evidence of a positive tradition," Ranft proposes to give expression to these positive "muted voices" in the tradition by documenting "incidences of woman's presence in Christianity" (p. xi). 1

It is incontestable that Christian tradition has been diverse and ambiguous in its apprehension of the nature and roles of women. To undertake to document even one strand of the tradition over such a span of time (from the early church to the Enlightenment), as Ranft has done, is a formidable task. For a nonspecialist or someone interested in the broad sweep of the Christian tradition and approaching the subject of women in Christianity for the first time, Ranft's book provides a helpful survey of the many ways in which women have functioned (and, occasionally, even flourished) in that tradition. . . .

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