The 'attraction of women' in/to early judaism and christianity: Gender and the politics of conversion

Abstract

It has become a scholarly truism that women in particular were attracted to early Christianity, and, according to some, to Judaism. In the former case this has been attributed to the status Christianity offered women and has been much used in debates about the status of women in the contemporary church. This paper seeks to show that the sources frequently cited in support cannot be read as 'objective, his torical' evidence. Epigraphic records, particularly important for Judaism, function in the political context of honour and advertised status, while literary sources equally serve a political end of using women to characterize the nature of religion within society. Any analysis of the attraction of women to, and their role within these movements must move beyond the passive model of 'meeting needs' to a firmer recognition of the dynamic involvement of all participants, men and women, in the construction of religious traditions.