Ministries of Song
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-41237-8 (ISBN)
Ministries of Song is a tour-de-force study of the power of women's liturgical singing in late antique Syriac Christianity. Extending women's religious participation beyond the familiar roles of female saints and nobles, Syriac churches cultivated a flourishing but often-overlooked tradition of women's sacred song. Susan Ashbrook Harvey brings this music to life as she uncovers the ways these now-nameless women performed a boldly sung teaching ministry and invited congregations to respond aloud. By exploring their ritual agency, Harvey demonstrates how these choirs helped to shape the formative ethical and moral ideals of their congregations and communities. Women's voices, both real and imagined, enriched the ritual and devotional lives of Syriac Christians daily and weekly, on ecclesial and civic special occasions, in sorrow or joy, with authoritative theological significance and social and political resonance. Arguing for the importance of liturgy as social history, Harvey shows us how and why women's voices mattered for ancient Syriac Christianity and why they matter still.
Susan Ashbrook Harvey is the Willard Prescott and Annie McClelland Smith Professor of History and Religion at Brown University, specializing in Syriac and Greek Christianity of the late antique and Byzantine eras. She is the author of Scenting Salvation: Ancient Christianity and the Olfactory Imagination.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
A Note on Transliteration
Introduction: A Forgotten History Singing Women
Syriac Voices
Learning from Syriac Women
Practicalities
1. Singing Voices: Women's Ministry, Women's Authority Singing Women in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Christian Song
Syriac Women in Christian Ministry
Syriac Christian Ministry: Daughters of the Covenant
Syriac Women's Service and Syriac Women's Song
Women's Voices in Sacred Song
2. Singing Women: Portraits and Meanings Ephrem: Women's Voices and Biblical Typology
Jacob of Sarug: Typology and Soteriology
The Life of Ephrem: Liturgy and Social Memory
Imagery at Work
Exalted Visions
Modes of Instruction
3. Singing Voices, Voices Sung: Performance, Genre, Biblical Models What, Where, When, and How?
Ephrem's Mary: Singing the Prophetess
Dialogue in Song: The Constraints of Story
Jacob of Sarug and Metrical Narrative
Sounding Voices: Sensing the Issues
4. Voices Sung: Women's Voices in Contextual Narratives Ancient Liturgy and Biblical Women
Liturgical Poetry in Context
Contextual Narratives 1: Holy Foremothers, Sacred Scandal
Contextual Narratives 2: Bold Voices Bearing Witness
Competing Voices: Daughters of Eve
Remembrance and Presence: Why These Matter
5. Singing Voices: Women Among the Assembly The Participation of Laywomen
Laity in the Liturgy
Laity in the Liturgy and Laity in the World
Liturgy in the Civic Community
Jacob of Sarug on Listening: The Experience of Sound
An Image for the Laity: Woman as Priest
6. Models for Laity, Models for Faith Liturgical Listening: Hearing Stories
Liturgical Listening: Hearing Titles, Hearing Scripts
Liturgical Listening in Performative Context
Stock Characters and Moral Exemplarity
The Lamenting Woman: A Type Toward Restoration
Epilogue: The Good Wife
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Publication Permissions
Index of Biblical Citations
General Index
| Erscheinungsdatum | 11.12.2025 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 15 color figures |
| Verlagsort | Berkerley |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 152 x 229 mm |
| Themenwelt | Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte |
| Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-520-41237-0 / 0520412370 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-520-41237-8 / 9780520412378 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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