Invisible Women

This engaging book is about how women have fared in the Christian Church. Church history is about men, historians hardly mention women, as a gender or as individuals; it is as if they were invisible. This book looks at women's position in the early church, where they were accepted, and at how they were restricted as Christianity became a state religion. It describes some of the gifted women who lived in the Roman Empire, during the so-called dark ages, under the misogyny of the early medieval Church and during the Reformation and Enlightemment. It covers the outstanding women in recent centuries who were involved in creating a more just and compassionate society; spreading the Gospel across the world; and seeking to increase women's rights and opportunities in their own and other cultures. Finally it brings the story up to date and describes recent changes that have brought opportunities that women in the past could not have hoped for or even imagined.