Women of the Catacombs

Women of the Catacombs PDF Author:
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150175405X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
The memoirs presented in Women of the Catacombs offer a rare close-up account of the underground Orthodox community and its priests during some of the most difficult years in Russian history. The catacomb church in the Soviet Union came into existence in the 1920s and played a significant part in Russian national life for nearly fifty years. Adherents to the Orthodox faith often referred to the catacomb church as the "light shining in the dark." Women of the Catacombs provides a first-hand portrait of lived religion in its social, familial, and cultural setting during this tragic period. Until now, scholars have had only brief, scattered fragments of information about Russia's illegal church organization that claimed to protect the purity of the Orthodox tradition. Vera Iakovlevna Vasilevskaia and Elena Semenovna Men, who joined the church as young women, offer evidence on how Russian Orthodoxy remained a viable, alternative presence in Soviet society, when all political, educational, and cultural institutions attempted to indoctrinate Soviet citizens with an atheistic perspective. Wallace L. Daniel's translation not only sheds light on Russia's religious and political history, but also shows how two educated women maintained their personal integrity in times when prevailing political and social headwinds moved in an opposite direction.

The Bone Gatherers

The Bone Gatherers PDF Author: Nicola Denzey
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807013188
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
The bone gatherers found in the annals and legends of the early Roman Catholic Church were women who collected the bodies of martyred saints to give them a proper burial. They have come down to us as deeply resonant symbols of grief: from the women who anointed Jesus's crucified body in the gospels to the Pietà, we are accustomed to thinking of women as natural mourners, caring for the body in all its fragility and expressing our deepest sorrow. But to think of women bone gatherers merely as mourners of the dead is to limit their capacity to stand for something more significant. In fact, Denzey argues that the bone gatherers are the mythic counterparts of historical women of substance and means-women who, like their pagan sisters, devoted their lives and financial resources to the things that mattered most to them: their families, their marriages, and their religion. We find their sometimes splendid burial chambers in the catacombs of Rome, but until Denzey began her research for The Bone Gatherers, the monuments left to memorialize these women and their contributions to the Church went largely unexamined. The Bone Gatherers introduces us to once-powerful women who had, until recently, been lost to history—from the sorrowing mothers and ghastly brides of pagan Rome to the child martyrs and women sponsors who shaped early Christianity. It was often only in death that ancient women became visible—through the buildings, burial sites, and art constructed in their memory—and Denzey uses this archaeological evidence, along with ancient texts, to resurrect the lives of several fourth-century women. Surprisingly, she finds that representations of aristocratic Roman Christian women show a shift in the value and significance of womanhood over the fourth century: once esteemed as powerful leaders or patrons, women came to be revered (in an increasingly male-dominated church) only as virgins or martyrs—figureheads for sexual purity. These depictions belie a power struggle between the sexes within early Christianity, waged via the Church's creation and manipulation of collective memory and subtly shifting perceptions of women and femaleness in the process of Christianization. The Bone Gatherers is at once a primer on how to "read" ancient art and the story of a struggle that has had long-lasting implications for the role of women in the Church.

Crispina and Her Sisters

Crispina and Her Sisters PDF Author: Christine Schenk
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506411894
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
Cripina and Her Sisters explores visual imagery found on burial artifacts of prominent early Christian women. It carefully situates the tomb art within the cultural context of customary Roman commemorations of the dead and provides an in-depth review of women‘s history in the first four centuries of Christianity. From this, a fascinating picture emerges of women‘s authority in the early church--a picture either not readily available or recognized, or even sadly distorted in the written history.

Echoes from the Grave

Echoes from the Grave PDF Author: Michelle Ann Erhardt
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description


Russia’s Uncommon Prophet

Russia’s Uncommon Prophet PDF Author: Wallace L. Daniel
Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
ISBN: 1501751239
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
This lucidly written biography of Aleksandr Men examines the familial and social context from which Men developed as a Russian Orthodox priest. Wallace Daniel presents a different picture of Russia and the Orthodox Church than the stereotypes found in much of the popular literature. Men offered an alternative to the prescribed ways of thinking imposed by the state and the church. Growing up during the darkest, most oppressive years in the history of the former Soviet Union, he became a parish priest who eschewed fear, who followed Christ's command "to love thy neighbor as thyself," and who attracted large, diverse groups of people in Russian society. How he accomplished those tasks and with what ultimate results are the main themes of this story. Conflict and controversy marked every stage of Men's priesthood. His parish in the vicinity of Moscow attracted the attention of the KGB, especially as it became a haven for members of the intelligentsia. He endured repeated attacks from ultraconservative, anti-Semitic circles inside the Orthodox Church. Fr. Men represented the spiritual vision of an open, non-authoritarian Christianity, and his lectures were extremely popular. He was murdered on September 9, 1990. For years, his work was unavailable in most church bookstores in Russia, and his teachings were excoriated by some both within and outside the church. But his books continue to offer hope to many throughout the world—they have sold millions of copies and are testimony to his continuing relevance and enduring significance. This important biography will appeal to scholars and general readers interested in religion, politics, and global affairs.

Catacombs of Time

Catacombs of Time PDF Author: Dylan Doose
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780994828361
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
A fantasy adventure for fans of Joe Abercrombie, Mark Lawrence and Scott Lynch! In a world where the Rata Plaga and ghouls feast on the dead, doctor Gaige De'Brouillard believes science, not magic, conquers all. Even death is just an equation to be solved. When De'Brouillard is called upon by the Lord Regent to cure a curse and save one of the damned, he must battle for his career, his faith in science, and even his life. In the darkest slums and deepest catacombs, the doctor finds himself staring death in the eye with no scientific solution at hand. Has the doctor finally come across a question that science cannot answer, and will he pay with his life? Don't miss the dark fantasy that reviewers are calling 'visceral, ' 'fantastic, ' and 'intriguing'-get your copy of Catacombs of Time today! Bonus Short Story: I Remember My First Time-Timothy Golden Boy O'Connor chose a life of piracy over a life at the seminary. When he and the crew of the Sea Maggot are cornered by Brynth's navy, outnumbered and outgunned, O'Connor is forced to prove his bones and carve his place into the annals of outlaw history next to his comrades, the ship's mythic mage, and their fabled captain. When the cannons have been fired, when the blades have sung their song, when the smoke clears, will a legend rise or will only death linger?

Queen of the Martian Catacombs

Queen of the Martian Catacombs PDF Author: Leigh Brackett
Publisher: BEYOND BOOKS HUB
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 69

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Book Description
Stark’s mind veered away from the incredible thing that was about to happen. It spoke words to him, hurried desperate words of sanity, about the electrical patterns of the mind, and the sensitivity of crystals, and conductors, and electro-magnetic impulses. But that was only the top of his brain. At base it was still the brain of N’Chaka that believed in gods and demons and all the sorceries of darkness. Only pride kept him from cowering abjectly at Berild’s feet....FROM THE BOOKS.

Nightshade City

Nightshade City PDF Author: Hilary Wagner
Publisher: Holiday House
ISBN: 0823426866
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
Deep beneath a modern metropolis lies the Catacombs, a kingdom of remarkable rats of superior intellect . . . Juniper and his maverick band of rebel rats have been plotting ever since the Bloody Coup turned the Catacombs, a once-peaceful democracy, into a brutal dictatorship ruled by decadent High Minister Killdeer and his vicious henchman, Billycan, a former lab rat with a fondness for butchery. When three young orphan rats—brothers Vincent and Victor and a clever female named Clover—flee the Catacombs in mortal peril and join forces with the rebels, it proves to be the spark that ignites the long-awaited battle to overthrow their oppressors and create a new city: Nightshade City. This digital edition now includes the first chapter of The White Assassin, the second book in the Nightshade Chronicles.

Patterns of Women's Leadership in Early Christianity

Patterns of Women's Leadership in Early Christianity PDF Author: Joan E. Taylor
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198867069
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
This authoritative collection brings together the latest thinking on women's leadership in early Christianity. Featuring contributors from key thinkers in the fields of Christian history, it considers the evidence for ways in which women exercised leadership in churches from the 1st to the 9th centuries CE.

A Women’s History of the Christian Church

A Women’s History of the Christian Church PDF Author: Elizabeth Gillan Muir
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1487593864
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
Tracing two thousand years of female leadership, influence, and participation, Elizabeth Gillan Muir examines the various positions women have filled in the church. From the earliest female apostle, and the little known stories of the two Marys – the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene – to the enlightened duties espoused by the nun, the abbess, and the anchorite, and the persecutions of female "witches," Muir uncovers the rich and often tumultuous relationship between women and Christianity. Offering broad coverage of both the Catholic and Protestant traditions and extending geographically well beyond North America, A Women’s History of the Christian Church presents a chronological account of how women developed new sects and new churches, such as the Quakers and Christian Science. The book includes a timeline of women in Christian history, over 25 black-and-white illustrations, a glossary, and a list of primary and secondary sources to complement the content in each chapter.