The Heretical Woman as Symbol in Alexander, Athanasius, Epiphanius, and Jerome

Abstract

Some three decades ago Michel Foucault sought to reestablish communication between “madness” and “non-madness” by going back to what he called the “zero point” in history at which the distance between reason and madness was first established. In Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, Foucault suggested that returning to this point of initial differentiation requires renouncing all that we as modern persons know to be true about madness and reason. If we are to locate “that realm in which the man of madness and the man of reason, moving apart, are not yet disjunct,” he wrote,we must speak of that initial dispute without assuming a victory, or the right to a victory; we must speak of those actions re-examined in history, leaving in abeyance all that may figure as a conclusion, as a refuge in truth. … Then, and then only, can we… begin the dialogue of their breach, testifying in a fugitive way that they still speak to each other.

Vidua — Presbytera — Episcopa Women with Oversight in the Early Church

“…56 This tendency leads to a closed circle of interpretation which can still be observed today. 57 Epiphanius, convinced that women should not exercise (sacramental) authority within the church, developed an image of the 'true' or 'orthodox' church which complied with his own views, in this case a church without women in leadership roles or as office holders.…”

“…Virginia Burrus argues that in the fourth century, theologians began to re-categorize previously 'orthodox' writings as 'heretical' simply on the grounds that they offered evidence for women's leadership, pointing to a 'feminising tendency' in the definition of heresy from the fourth century onwards. 56 This tendency leads to a closed circle of interpretation which can still be observed today. 57 Epiphanius, convinced that women should not exercise (sacramental) authority within the church, developed an image of the 'true' or 'orthodox' church which complied with his own views, in this case a church without women in leadership roles or as office holders.…”

Approaches to orthodoxy and heresy in the study of early Christianity

“…The discursive approach has been by far the most influential of the various post‐Bauer modes of articulating orthodoxy and heresy in early Christianity—indeed, the study of discourse has been prevalent in the humanities and social sciences for the last few decades—and Le Boulluec's opus was rapidly followed by numerous important studies developing this point of view (e.g., Buell, ; Burrus, ; Burrus, ; Cameron, ; Clark, ; Pourkier, ; cf. Iricinschi & Zellentin, 2008a).…”

“…Attention to discourse allows scholars to make historical claims about how particular ancient Christian agents utilized the language of orthodoxy and heresy in order to negotiate and articulate self‐identity vis‐à‐vis notions of both Judaism and paganism (Boyarin, ; Buell, ; Lieu, ). Scholars have illuminated how early Christian polemicists' heresiological narratives overlapped with those of gender (Burrus, , ), rationality and madness (Nasrallah, ), and sexual slander (Knust, ). With this theoretical apparatus, scholars are even equipped to compare heresiological discourses with alternate discursive methods of negotiating problematic diversity within a religious community.…”

Athanasius Ve İzni̇k Konsi̇li̇

“…6 Peter J. Leithart, Athanasius, Usa: Baker Academic, 2011, s. 1;Virginia Burrus, "The Heretical Woman as Symbol in Alexander, Athanasius, Epiphanius, and Jerome", The Harvard Theological Review, 84/3, 1991, s. 233 Konstantin, konsile katılımı arttırma ve rahatlatma adına Senato prosedürünün piskoposlar için de uygulanmasını söyler. Yani yol masrafları imparatorluğa aittir ve posta teşkilatı da piskoposlara yardımcı olacaktır.…”