The Acts of Thecla and Notions of Gender
A few Mondays ago we completed our analysis of the two major story arcs in the Acts of Thecla. Today we’ll take some time to recap the two previous posts.
The first arc of the Acts of Thecla serves to introduce Paul and Thecla and to begin the critique of the opponents of the writer’s community. [...]
Arc Two – Completing the Reversal
Friday we looked at how Thecla began her journey from the standard Roman passive feminity on through standard Roman active masculinity toward the early Christian ideal of nongendered activity. Today, we will look at the second arc of the Acts of Thecla and see how she completes her journey.
The second arc begins in much the [...]
Mary’s Magnificat: A National Anthem for Terrorism
Over the last few weeks I’ve been studying Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55). I’ve never paid much attention to this text – it’s just one of those passages churches sappily pull out once a year to reinforce our American sentimentality about Christmas.
But I recognize quite quickly that this passage does not buttress our sentimentality toward [...]