A History of Women in Christian Worship

A History of Women in Christian Worship, by Susan J. White (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004; pp. xv + 351. £27.50). This book offers a delightful exploration of the place of women in Christian worship. Although formally banned from acting as priests, all through the history of the Christian church women have carved out unofficial roles for themselves. Within their families, as wealthy mistresses of large households, or as poor dwellers in the countryside, women were actively involved in the practice of worshipping. Whether in the preparation of food for Christmas, Easter, or rites of passage such as baptism or marriage, women not only took the lead in translating the official pastoral care instructions from priests and bishops into practice, but they helped to shape the act of worshipping to the specific circumstances of their time. What makes this book so attractive is that Susan White, ambitiously, surveys the female role from the early Christian church through the middle ages and early modern periods to our own time, ranging from early Christian Italy, through western Europe, Byzantium and the extra-European world of Asia and the Americas. Guided by whatever sources shed light on women's religious tasks—autobiographies, letters, legal documents and material culture—she shows how, despite different circumstances, women were at the forefront of the practical application of Christian worship. It is highly instructive to be reminded that the ninth-century noble woman Dhuoda, in writing a booklet of Christian instruction for her fifteen-year-old son William, is doing something not so very different from what Lady Mildmay did for the members of her household in sixteenth-century England, or the wife of the American migrant who crossed the Rocky Mountains of northern America in the early nineteenth century. All three lived through politically dangerous times, in an environment that was relatively hostile and unforgiving. Their thoughts were centred on the moral education and behaviour of their children and other dependants in an effort to ensure that, should they die, they would have lived a life according to Christian instructions and that the salvation of their souls in the afterlife would be safeguarded. Seven chapters treat the subject under headings such as ‘places of women's worship’, which often was not necessarily in churches or chapels, or ‘forms of women's liturgical piety’ which highlights the thin line between official orthodox religion, sanctioned by bishops, and the informal gospel readings by Lollard women, organised without the agreement of the church hierarchy, or ‘women's worship and the Christian household’ on the woman's role as mentor and guide for all those attached to her house. Mothers in particular feature prominently—King Alfred's mother in the ninth century and Samuel Johnson's mother in the seventeenth. Naturally much more is known about ‘women of influence’, for whom we have diaries and household accounts which allow us to fill in with much greater detail how they financed their task: again Lady Mildmay's autobiography is an important sixteenth-century source. Women often found it impossible to attend church: all through history pregnant or ill women, with smaller children at home were simply unable to attend Mass. It is striking to read, in an extremely interesting chapter, how many women used their own judgement and filled in the gap of formal pastoral care by providing alternative means, often faced with incomprehension and disapproval from their parish priests. This is a sensitively and elegantly written book, which was a joy to read. It is aimed at the interested lay audience but as a professional medievalist this reviewer found it as instructive as many a detailed scholarly article, thanks to its thought-provoking insights and comparative approach

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