Abstract of the Book and Index


 
Dag Tessore
The Christian Woman According to the Teachings of the Apostolic Tradition
(La donna cristiana secondo gli insegnamenti della tradizione apostolica, Il Leone Verde, 2008; 452 pages).
Available only in Italian. 

 
The equality of rights between man and woman and women’s right of working outside and of dressing themselves as they like are facts nowadays given for granted and unquestioned (in the modern Western world), so deep-rooted as to exclude any dissenting voice.
In the late centuries of the Roman Empire, too, women reached a condition of remarkable emancipation. But Christianity, as expressed by the New Testament and the writings of the Church Fathers, presented itself as a dissenting voice, or even better, as a total overturning of perspective: this book intends exactly to expose the Christian teachings about woman, and show its originality and distinctiveness compared with the mentality of those times.
In 450 pages many biblical and patristic extracts are quoted and explained (most of them are translated for the first time from Greek, Latin and Syriac), concerning women's nature and role. After a survey of the historic and social situation of the Hellenistic-Roman world, the book goes on explaining the traditional Christian doctrine about women: their metaphysical subordination to men, the spiritual value of obedience, the biological and psychological trends of being woman, the question of the veil, the exclusion of women from priesthood and many other themes.
So, this book is a useful and scientific means of study thanks to the large and detailed documentation which it offers (the notes' section contains more than 2000 biblical and patristic references), but it is also an attempt to understand the profound "philosophical" motivations of the patriarchal conception. Leaving aside the usual mental patterns of today -which consider "submission", "seclusion", "veil", "obedience to the husband" necessarily negative things-, this book intends to make understandable, with critical approach, but also with some humility and without prejudices, the reasons of those (the Church Fathers and, today, some parts of the Islamic world) whose conceptions are different from the Western ones and who uphold that women's true dignity does not consist in claiming exterior rights, nor in working outside earning money, but, on the contrary, in devoting themselves to the family, in abandoning themselves to God and in following a mystical and spiritual route opposite to the "materialist" model.

 


BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTERS
 

Chapter I: What does it means to be Christian: the Sources of the Faith
            A previous explication about the sources that we use in this book. Why are we adopting as a criterium of the Christian teaching the ancient Church Fathers? Which is the  "original" doctrine and tradition of the Church? What is the "Christian law"? The precepts of the Fathers and of the Bible (for ex. about the duty of women to wear the veil) can be revoked by the Church? Moreover, they have to be followed literally or with flexibility?
 

Chaper II:  Family and Society in the Early Centuries of Christianity
            Survey of the historical and social context of the first centuries of Christianity. Emancipation of women in the Hellenistic-Roman world: widespread eroticism, consumerism, fashion for summer holidays. Way of life and mentality of the people addressed by the Church Fathers.

 
Chapter III: Confusion and Misunderstandings on the Nature of Christianity
            Big differences between the Christianity of today and the Fathers’. Some main points of the ancient Christian mentality: “fundamentalism” and struggle against the heathen society; vocation to martyrdom, primacy of inwardness; obedience as a way of liberation from the bondage of egoism and craving.

 
Chapter IV:  Women’s Subordination in the Project of God
            Biblical conception of the woman. In what sense woman is “inferior” to man? Submission to the husband “as to the Lord”. Total love and total obedience. The true freedom is the inner one. Before God no rights exist.

 
Chapter V: Women's Submission: a Fact of Nature
            The biological woman’s structure influences her mind, drawing her to be more fragile and emotional. Woman has an inborn instinct towards the care of children, towards love and submission to man. It’s useful that only one in the family takes the lead.

 
Chapter VI:  Marriage and Sexuality
            Christian marriage is a commitment to a religious and ascetic life, substantially similar to the monastic way of life. Birth regulations and bioethics. Homosexuality. Polygamy. Rules on sex. The duty to marry while young. The bride has to be virgin. Betrothal rite. The attitude of humbly accepting the fate.

 
Chapter VII: Guarding the Senses and Defence of Modesty
            Sacredness of sex and the necessity to protect it through a scrupulous protection of modesty. The ascetic discipline of “guarding the senses”: not listening to exciting music, practising silence, learning how to detach oneself from sensual pleasure, cultivating one’s mind and not being deluded by the fleeting fascination of the world.

 
Chapter VIII:  Clothes of a Christian Woman and the Issue of Veil
            The duty to wear the veil for Christian women: theological assumptions, ethical implications, practical rules. How a Christian woman has to dress herself? A comparison with Islam. Th fathers against masculinization of women (the habit of wearing trousers) and the tyranny of fashion. “Filokalia”: elegance and dignity of simple and modest women’s clothing.

 
Chapter IX:  Woman’s Role inside Family and Society
            Woman’s domestic duties and the atmosphere created by taking care of the house with love and painstaking. A wife must not leave home and work outside. Vocation to poverty, simplicity and trust in Providence. Christian woman in her relation with relatives and parents-in-law. The mother and her role in the education of children.

 
Chapter X:  Discipline inside the Family and the Issue of Corporal Punishments
            How should behave a husband if his wife is insubordinate? Patience, forgiveness and kindness, but also discipline, correction and severity. Psychological utility and dangers of coercion’s use. A husband can not hit his wife. Use and efficacy of corporal punishments. Private and public punishments: lashing and stoning. Remark on “human rights”.

 
Chapter XI: Incompatibility between the Woman and the Sacred
            Biblical conception of the “sacred” and the “tremendous”. Ritual purity and impurity. Menstrual impurity. Women cannot get near the altar. Inside the church they must remain in the “women’s area” (gynaeceum), with modesty and fear of God. The reasons of women’s exclusion from priesthood. The diaconesses, the virgins and the participation of women to the Church’s life.

 

 

DETAILED SUMMARY


 
1st  CH.: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A CHRISTIAN: THE SOURCES OF THE FAITH

  1. The choice of believing in Christ
  2. The testimony of the Apostles and the oral Tradition
  3. The role of the Fathers and the Councils
  4. The attitude of the earliest Church
  5. The attitude of the recent Catholic Church
  6. The Holy Writ: Old and New Testament
  7. The Holy Fathers
  8. The Holy Councils
  9. The liturgical and iconographical Tradition
  10. The meaning of the obedience to the rules
  11. To go by the letter or by the spirit?
  12. The scrupulous fidelity to the Tradition

2nd CH.: FAMILY AND SOCIETY IN THE EARLY CENTURIES OF CHRISTIANITY

  1. Globalization in the Hellenistic-Roman Empire
  2. Secularization
  3. Hellenization of Rome and the beginning of women’s protest
  4. The chaotic life in Rome and on the summer beaches
  5. Dance and shows
  6. The Roman ideal of women in the classical period
  7. Toward women’s emancipation
  8. The “modern” women in the II century of the Christian era
  9. Women’s condition in classical Greece
  10. Women in the Hellenistic era
  11. The body- care obsession
  12. The overflowed eroticism and the consumerism
  13. The mode of oriental religions
  14. The Christian communities between moral rigour and “modernism”

3rd CH.: CONFUSION AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS ON THE NATURE OF CHRISTIANITY

  1. Is Christianity the religion of the West?
  2. Christians have to obey the law of God
  3. The radical vocation of Christians between monasticism and lay state
  4. Christians, “fundamentalists” in a secolarized world
  5. The concept of idolatry
  6. The Christian vocation to martyrdom
  7. Not claiming rights, but spirit of sacrifice and penitence
  8. The spiritual perspective and God’s primacy
  9. The body’s influence on the mind
  10. The passions and the Christian ascetical way
  11. The dynamics of desires and dissatisfaction
  12. «Desiring less is better than having more»
  13. A way of liberation: obedience
  14. On  the illusions of a false freedom
  15. The demoniac presence
  16. Words’ deception and the Media

4th CH.: WOMEN’S SUBORDINATION IN THE PROJECT OF GOD

  1. The creation of the woman in the Earthly Paradise
  2. The sin of Adam and Eva
  3. Male and Female in the Old Testament
  4. Women in the Gospel
  5. Submissiveness of the woman and submissiveness to God
  6. Everybody has his humble place in the cosmic hierarchy
  7. Lucifer’s envy
  8. Woman, submitted  to man «as to the Lord»
  9. The husband is the image of Christ
  10. The wife is like the body, the husband is like the soul
  11. Like man worships God, so wife should woship the husband
  12. He should love, she should fear
  13. What claiming of rights?
  14. «Remember your end and stop hating»
  15. In front of God there are no rights
  16. The husband’s duties
  17. Which is the difference between being a wife and being a servant?
  18.  «The man is the glory of God, the woman is the glory of man»
  19. Is the woman too the image of  God?
  20. What does it really mean to be subordinated?
  21. Are there cases in which a woman may disobey her husband?
  22. Was St. Paul influenced by the misogyny of his time?
  23. «The woman should learn in silence, with all submissiveness»
  24. How could we understand the “misogynous” expressions of the Fathers?
  25. Woman’s subordination is a law of nature
  26. A comparison with Islam and Hinduism

5th CH.: WOMEN'S SUBMISSION: A FACT OF NATURE

  1. Feminism and the cancellation of the natural differences between the two sexes
  2. Woman’s body is weak, her sexuality is passive
  3. Being woman according to nature
  4. Women should be docile
  5. How can a woman “tame” her husband
  6. «The woman represents the flesh and the passions»
  7. «The one who’s superior in rationality should be superior also in governing»
  8. From Edith Stein to Joseph Ratzinger
  9. It is necessary that only one person comands in the house
  10. Women’s vocation to take care of the house and of the children

6th CH.: MARRIAGE AND SEXUALITY

  1. The wedding is holy and not to get married is against nature
  2. The marriage is an undertaking of an ascetical and religious life
  3. The troubles of the conjugal life
  4. «We’re now in the end of time»
  5. The wedding, «a medicine against fornication»
  6. Regulation of births and bioethics
  7. Sterility, abortion, contraceptives
  8. Nature of sexuality and rules concerning sex
  9. The condemnation of homosexuality
  10. Polygamy is not against nature
  11. Mixed marriages are admissible?
  12. The parents’ consent
  13. What does it mean “to love”?
  14. The role of the body’s beauty
  15. To accept the destiny
  16. Premarital intercourses
  17. The bride has to be vergin
  18. The rite of the engagement
  19. People should get married when they’re young
  20. To live as a Christian means to  be poor
  21. The uselessness of studies, mainly for girls
  22. Some significant moments of the wedding celebration
  23. The wedding expenses and the nuptial reception
  24. Adultery and repudiation
  25. How to behave with the adulterous consort
  26. Monogamy and possibility to get married again
  27. Why do we  talk about widows and not about widowers?

7th CH.: GUARDING THE SENSES AND DEFENCE OF MODESTY

  1. The concept of modesty
  2. Modesty and sexuality
  3. Modesty as a custody of the inward morality
  4. “Guarding the eyes”
  5. Women should keep the  eyes low
  6. “Guarding the ears” and the seduction of music
  7. “Guarding the tongue” and the art of being silent
  8. The silence of a woman in front of her husband
  9. “Guarding the palate” and the alimentary discipline
  10. The practice of the fasting
  11. Fasting as a battle against idolatry
  12. “Guarding the olfaction” and the use of perfumes and cremes
  13. “Guarding the touch” and the ascetism through pain
  14. The modesty in the physical  contact between people
  15. “Guarding the mind” and Hesychasm
  16. The condemnation of shows (and television)
  17. The condemnation of art
  18. The condemnation of baths and promiscuous beaches
  19. Tanning, hygiene and health
  20. Severity or flexibility?
  21. Parties, banquets and dances

8th CH.: CLOTHES OF A CHRISTIAN WOMAN AND THE ISSUE OF THE VEIL

  1. The sacredness of the body hairs
  2. The cutting of hair
  3. The prohibition for men to shave their beard
  4. Introduction to women’s clothing
  5. Should Christian women wear the veil?
  6. The theological meaning of veil
  7. The veil as a defence of women’s modesty
  8. Practical rules about the veil
  9. Should the veil cover also the neck and the face?
  10. Social importance of the veil    
  11. The Islamic model
  12. How should a Christian woman get dressed
  13. The woman should not wear trousers or other masculine clothes
  14. May a Christian man wear trousers?
  15. Against the tyranny of the fashion
  16. The importance of the belt at the hips
  17. Which colours for the Christian clothing?
  18. The choice of the material for the clothes
  19. “Filokalia”: elegance and dignity of the Christian woman
  20. Necklaces, earrings, jewels
  21. May Christian women put on make-up?
  22. About hair dye and again about make-up
  23. “Sin” or “Illness”?
  24. Which are the most serious sins?
  25. The way in which the Church must transmit her moral teaching
  26. To have good intentions is  not enough
  27. The wife should get clothed by the way that her husband likes

9th CH.: WOMAN'S ROLE INSIDE FAMILY AND SOCIETY

  1. The seclusion of the married woman
  2. To clean the house, to cook, to sew, to look after the children
  3. To earn  money is man’s business
  4. May women go out,  to go to the church?
  5. Domestic economy: agriculture and farming
  6. If  money for living is not enough?
  7. The exclusion of the women from holding a public office
  8. May a woman have her own money?
  9. The Christian vocation to poverty and nomadism
  10. The furnishing of the Christian house
  11. Charity and hospitality
  12. Rules about the contact between men and women
  13. «Honour thy father and thy mother»
  14. The wife becomes a part of the husband’s family
  15. Paternal and maternal role in childrens’ education
  16. Compulsory schooling and Christian “ghetto”

10th CH.: DISCIPLINE INSIDE THE FAMILY AND THE ISSUE OF CORPORAL PUNISHMENTS

1. What should a husband do when the wife is insubordinate?
2. The first duty of a husband: to be an example
3. To treat the wife with love, patience and indulgence
4. The husband's role of guidance and correction
5. The difficult art of guiding and punishing
6. «Do not loose yourself to save the other»
7. The use of corporal punishments
8. The punishment  for the adulterers and the  flogging
9. The public punishments and the death sentence

 
11th  CH.: INCOMPATIBILITY BETWEEN THE WOMAN AND THE SACRED

  1. The biblical concept of the Sacred
  2. Ritual purity and impurity
  3. The menstrual impurity
  4. Sexuality and prayer
  5. The purification rite for the woman that has birthed a child
  6. Women cannot touch holy objects
  7. Women cannot come close to the altar
  8. The right behavior of a woman in the church
  9. The reasons of women’s exclusion from priesthood
  10. The sacred purity and married priests
  11. The origins of women’s monasticism
  12. Consecrated verginity
  13. The diaconesses
  14. Conclusion



Where to buy this book (25 €): Amazon, Libreria Universitaria, E-book (18 €)

The other books of Dag Tessore


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