SEVEN BRAVE WOMEN

A midwife reflects on the role of women in the nascent Christian church in this spiritual book.

As a seminary student, Lombardo was intrigued with biblical accounts of how women “had been instrumental in guarding the fledging church.” Moreover, drawing on her career as a doula and midwife, she began to make connections between the countless mothers whom she guided during childbirth and those who joined the early Christian church. “Women,” both past and present, she notes, “are determined, intentional, and brave.” This book argues that Luke deliberately provided readers with parallel birth stories—the first being the birth of Jesus in his Gospel, and the second being the birth of the church in the book of Acts. Just as a woman, Mary, gave birth to and raised Jesus in Luke’s first book, so too did women help create and protect the church in his second. While some of the volume’s “Seven Brave Women” are well known, particularly Mary and Mary Magdalene, others are traditionally marginalized figures who receive only passing references in the New Testament. Through convincing biblical exegesis, Lombardo highlights the roles of lesser-known figures such as Priscilla and Chloe of Corinth, Lydia of Macedonia, and other “trailblazers” who were “brave apostles.” Some, like Junia and Phoebe, traveled “great distances” from Asia Minor to Rome in their evangelism. At under 100 pages, this work is not designed to be an encyclopedic, scholarly history but rather a devotional that encourages Christian women to meditate on the actions and follow in the footsteps of their foremothers. Discussion questions centered on “how do these stories apply to me” complement this endeavor. Though the volume’s extended metaphor that links contemporary women and midwives to Christians in the early church is a bit forced at times, this is nevertheless a charming read that sheds light on the role of women in the history of early Christianity. But Roman Catholic and Orthodox readers will be disappointed in the distinctly Protestant book’s exclusion of centuries of Christian prayer and veneration toward Mary and other female saints.

An important, if flawed, reminder of the role of women in the history of Christianity.