Abbreviations ; 1. The State of the Question ; 2. What Did Ordination Mean? ; 3. The Ministry of Ordained Women ; 4. Defining Women Out of Ordination ; 5. Conclusion ; Historical and Theological Postscript ; Appendix 1: Prayers and Rites for the Ordination of a Deaconess ; Appendix 2: Ordination Rites for Abbesses from the Early Middle Ages ; Notes ; Bibliography
Gary Macy is John Nobili, S.J. Professor of Theology in the Department of Religious Studies at Santa Clara University.
"Here is a truly groundbreaking book, essential reading for anyone
interested in the complex story of how the ministry of women has
been valued (and devalued) within the Christian church. Gary Macy
convincingly demonstrates that in the early church women were
ordained into various roles, but in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries a new definition of ordination was rigorously applied,
which served to exclude them. This study is of crucial importance
not only for
an understanding of the development of medieval Christianity but
also for the material it brings to contemporary debate on the
ordination of women." --Alistair Minnis, Yale University
"The Hidden History provides a revelatory synthesis of the evidence
for women's ordination in the late antique and early medieval
church in addition to tracing the process of its occlusion in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries. With admirable clarity and
compelling detail, Macy reveals fundamental changes in western
understandings of ordination and suggestively explores their
ecclesiological implications. This book is essential reading for
medieval
ecclesiastical historians, illuminating a profound transformation
in the western church and its clergy." --Maureen C. Miller, author
of The Bishop's Palace: Architecture and Authority in Medieval
Italy
"In a clear narrative, supported by massive scholarly evidence,
Macy had revealed a lost component of first millennium Christianity
that should serve as an inspiration for the churches of the third
millennium." --Jo Ann Kay McNamara, author of Sisters in Arms
"This is an important book that brings together and makes sense of
a series of recent findings about the history of women's
ordination. ...The book is beautifully produced and will change how
we teach and think about the medieval church." --Church History
"Highly recommended." --Choice
"Macy's excellent Hidden History is both a scholar's book and a
comfortable read that is hard to put down." --Catholic Historical
Review
"Careful scholarship based on solid historical method and backed up
by 97 pages of dense Latin citations and documents drawn from a
bibliography consisting of five pages of primary sources and
thirteen pages of secondary material make this book definitive on
the question of women's ordination in the early middle ages.
...[P]ainstakingly written and worthy of equally painstaking
study." --Catholic Books Review
"Exceptional in its thoroughness and thoughtfulness both in
addressing the state of the question in the medieval period and in
challenging Rome's tradition-based theological position."
--Anglican Theological Review
"this is a fascinating and sccessible study....It is a first-rate
book on a very important topic."
Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg, University of Wisconsin
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