Feb. 10 talk at UNL to take historical look at ordination of women

Released on 01/30/2012, at 2:00 AM
Office of University Communications
University of Nebraska–Lincoln

WHEN: Friday, Feb. 10, 2012

WHERE: Nebraska Union Auditorium, 14th and R Streets

Lincoln, Neb., January 30th, 2012 —
Gary Macy
Gary Macy

            An acclaimed scholar and author who has undertaken a groundbreaking exploration of women's role in the Christian church will deliver a free public lecture Feb. 10 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Gary Macy, chair of the Religious Studies Department at Santa Clara University, will present "Ordained Women in the Middle Ages: When Women Were Clergy," beginning at 4 p.m. in the Nebraska Union auditorium.

            His lecture is sponsored by UNL's Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program, which consists of faculty from across the colleges of Arts and Sciences, and Fine and Performing Arts.

            Macy is an internationally known authority on the development of Christian theology in the pre-Modern tradition. He is best known for his work on the Christian ritual and theology associated with the Eucharist, which was understood in the medieval tradition to lie at the heart of the Christian life. His latest book,  "The Hidden History of the Ordination of Women: Female Clergy in the Medieval West," focuses on the role of women in the medieval church.

            In his talk, Macy will explore how understanding the place of women in society has often been complicated by the assumption that recent and contemporary historical descriptions accurately depict how "things have always been."

            Macy's talk will interest not only those who study the nature of the Christian religion and its relation to society, but also to students of the place of women in society, and those interested in the history of the social construction of gender and power.

            The lecture is co-sponsored by UNL's Women's and Gender Studies Program, the departments of Classics and Religious Studies, and History, and is supported by a grant from the UNL Research Council.

Writer: Julia Schleck

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