The Church Mothers Teach Us to Delight in Scripture
CHRISTIANITY TODAY
By Han-Luen Kantzer Komline
”What are you doing? In those books which you read, have I ever heard that women were introduced into this kind of disputation?” This almost awkwardly direct question comes from Augustine’s mother, Monica, when she finds out he is recording her comments for his book On Order. She is not so much honored as dismayed by the censure her inclusion may bring him. In response, Augustine concedes that some may dismiss him for including the voice of a woman in his writings. But he doesn’t give a whit for such critics, he says; such “proud and ignorant men” should attend more to the substance and less to the “dress” of what they read.
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| Monica and Macrina didn’t just influence Augustine and Gregory of Nyssa. They were biblical interpreters in their own right. Image: Illustration by Sarah Gordon |
