#Get your panties in a twist how to

Where were women writing in the Middle Ages, and what were they writing about?ДЄs it turns out, the medieval women whose writings have survived through today tend to be mystics and/or contemplatives ( especially from the mid-12th through the 15th centuries)-and, as it also turns out, many of the texts these women produced prove both interesting for their relation to ideological and cultural movements and philosophically significant in their own right.

#Get your panties in a twist how to

This was an unacceptable state of affairs to both of us.but how to address the problem? Adding a chapter on 'Women and Medieval Philosophy' struck us as the worst sort of alienating ad hoc maneuver possible, and adding more mentions of women in the chapters on, say, poverty or religious orders or war didn't exactly address the central issue. Bob had worked really hard when soliciting chapters to include the Greek, Islamic, and Jewish traditions as well as the more familiar Latin Christian material, but you could read all 1200+ pages of the medievally goodness in progress and fairly form the impression that women had taken a collective 'pass' on living through the Middle Ages. You know, just in case you were wondering what to buy the medieval enthusiast in your midst for the holidays.)ДЄs the chapter drafts started rolling in and we got a sense of how the project as a whole was shaping up, we became aware that virtually none of the entries we were editing discussed women. ( The official editor-approved acronym is CHiMP.the 2nd edition of which is now available in an attractive and affordable two-volume paperback set, with entirely new material in place of the 1.5 chapters originally attributed to Martin Stone. I spent the academic year 2007-8 at CU-Boulder working with Bob Pasnau on the Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy. In what follows, I'll describe both how and why I've started to address this challenge. That said, it turns out that I have some fairly strong opinions about (and even some experience with) incorporating primary texts by medieval women into philosophical discussions. This is a detail of an illustration from Hildegard of Bingen called 'The Six Days of Creation' that pretty much captures how I feel trying to say meaningful things about this topic.namely, wading into dark, star-filled waters which may or may not contain a bright red, bearded man.) So, Um, Why Are You Still Talking? ( This is not a picture of Julian of Norwich. The dearth of medieval women self-consciously engaging in these is so acute, in fact, that I've titled my Pacific APA paper: 'Women Didn't DO Philosophy of Religion in the Middle Ages: So Why Am I Still Talking?' Apart from the famous epigram of Julian of Norwich- 'All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well'-what else is there to say?

For another, philosophy and theology are integrally intertwined in the Middle Ages, and women weren't any more welcome in scholarly theological debates than they were in philosophical disputations. Why is this question daunting? Well, for one thing, women were explicitly excluded from studying or holding positions at the universities (and the earlier monastic and cathedral schools), which is where most of what we generally consider 'medieval philosophy' comes from. They're so hot right now.) And now, following up on discussions during his NEH Institute this past summer, Bob Pasnau has asked me to write up a guest post for In medias PHIL on the rather daunting question of how to integrate primary sources by women into courses on medieval philosophy. This year, I've been asked both to participate in a panel at the Eastern APA showcasing women working in the history of philosophy and to give a paper at the Pacific APA on women in the history of the philosophy of religion. It's clearly meant to be Mary 'pondering all these things in her heart,' but I love how it looks like she's tossed Jesus up to the animals so she can have just one minute to herself already.) On a totally different note, the photo for this post is of the ('Heiliger Grab'/Sepulcrum Domini in the Maritiusrotunde (ca. ( I was going to summarize that paper here, but then I thought to myself, 'Self! Isn't this pretty much exactly what blogs are for?' So if you're curious about that earlier piece, see here. A few years ago, I was asked to give a talk on the dearth of women in the philosophy of religion.which I promptly titled Don't Get Your Panties in a Bunch: the Dilemma of Addressing the Absence of Women in the Philosophy of Religion.