MAYER, Cornelius (ed.), EISGRUB, Alexander (coll.), Würde und Rolle der Frau in der Spätantike: Beiträge des II. Würzburger Augustinus-Studientages am 3. Juli 2004 (Res et Signa Augustinus-Studien 3) (Würzburg: Augustinus-Verlag bei echter, 2007)

This book is the stimulating result of lectures given at the Würzburger conference devoted to the study of Augustine, more specifically to the place and role he ascribed to the female person.

The first text, written by Cornelius MAYER, deals with the anthropology of Augustine; it is a fundamental inquiry, and it focuses on the growing appreciation of the body in the writings of Augustine.

In a very interesting article Michael ERLER presents a list of female philosophers in antiquity, pagan as well as Christian, in order to illustrate what Augustine, referring to his mother, says about them in De ordine I.31. One mostly finds female philosophers among the Stoics, because stoicism holds that all human persons participate in the Logos. The same is true for the garden school of Epicurus in Athens, where Epicurus’ followers defended the principle that all have the same human nature. Special mention deserves Diogenes of Oinoanda and his Epicurean inscription.

Bernard HEININGER speaks about women in the beginning of Christianity and analyzes some of Paul’s texts. According to the author, we must understand the sending of the disciples as the sending of married couples: both husband and wife were sent. The role of women must have been important, otherwise there would not have existed the prohibitions of 1 Cor 14:34 and 1 Tim 2 : 8-15 . 1 Cor 14:34 is to be considered an interpolation and 1 Tim 2 : 8-15 an application of the cultural situation of those days.

Larissa SEELBACH shows that hasty psycho-analytical conclusions should be avoided with regard to the relationship between Monnica and Augustine. In many cases Augustine follows the opinion of his time and culture when he deals with anthropological questions, but on the higher level of spirituality between the two sexes he indubitably accepts the Bible as norm: both man and female are image of God. This article is a must for patristic scholars and systematic theologians.

A last text by Albert RAFFELT is a presentation of the second edition of the Corpus Augustinianum Gissense (CAG 2).

The book concludes with a bibliography and each article is followed by a summary of the discussion held after the papers.

Tarsicius J. van Bavel OSA