Gillian Clark (1) (1946–)

This book impressed me more than I thought it would. It is, as far as I know, the only survey out there on women in late antiquity (roughly 3rd through late 6th centuries). Clark looks at patristic texts concerning women against the Greco-Roman cultural background, covering topics such as marriage, divorce, childbearing, domesticity, health, and philosophical and theological attitudes toward women's personhood. As a survey, it doesn't get into great depth, and by the nature of the sources, it leaves plenty of unanswered questions. She refrains from much evaluative commentary, but her conclusions--that Christianity probably did expand women's horizons and raise their dignity (particularly that of poor women), but that Christian teaching could be used either to reinforce or to subvert Greco-Roman conventions--seems to accord with what I've seen in early Christian writings. I was particularly interested in Clark's research on attitudes to abortion. It's roundly condemned in Christian writings (with perhaps a minority who held to Hippocratic views of the fetus before quickening), though in Fathers like Basil, there is mercy shown to repentant women.… (lisätietoja)

A good entry in the Very Short Introductions series: Clark provides a thematically-organized account of the transition of power from the domains formerly ruled by the (Western) Roman Empire to domains ruled by the various Germanic kingdoms. The focus lies on showing how cultural, theological, administrative and political debates taking place under the latter rule were natural continuations of those ongoing under previous rule, as opposed to the apparently superseded conquer-and-start-anew story I was taught in school. The book clarified the period for me, and corrected some misconceptions I had. Job well done, in other words.

One complaint I have is that Clark could have dealt more with the perspective of the incoming Germanic tribes, or the everyday Gallo-Romans, instead of devoting so much attention to theological disputes. But I suspect that the latter may be one of the things that sets this book apart from similar ones, so I won’t hold it against Clark.

Bonus points for including maps! Tracing migrations of people is so much easier with them!… (lisätietoja)