Salvation and Childbearing
Salvation and Childbearing
Does Motherhood Matter?
Augustus’s prioritization of family life to promote his own masculinity resulted in a simultaneous emphasis on motherhood in the Roman world. Not only did motherhood advertise a man’s masculine purposing of his woman/wife, but it was also a legitimate path to increased agency for free(d) women. Situated in this context, New Testament and other early Christian traditions offer varying constructions of “feminine virtue,” some of which prioritize or assume motherhood and others of which downplay or even reject it. This chapter examines these themes in the Pastoral Epistles, New Testament household codes (Col 3:18–4:3; Eph 5:21–6:9; 1 Pet 2:9–3:12), the Acts of Thecla, Acts of Andrew, and the Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas. In their sustained wrestling with and formations of Christian gender(s), these writings present salvation as masculinization for all followers of Christ, but they disagree on whether motherhood should be a part of this process.
Keywords: Augustus, Livia, Agrippina the Younger, household codes, Pastoral Epistles, Christian Apocrypha, Thecla, Maximilla, Perpetua, Felicitas
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