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Women in early Christianity

dynasties, and has recounted with care and exactness the
details of the
great political movements that have changed the map of
continents, there
remains the question: What was the cause of these
revolutions in human
society--what were the real motives that were operative
in the hearts
and minds of the persons in the great drama of history
that has been
displayed? The mere chain of events as they have passed
before the eye
as it surveys the centuries does not give an explanation
of itself.
There must be a cause that lies behind these events, and
of which they
are but the effects. This cause, the true cause of
history, lies in the
minds and hearts of the men and nations. The student of
the past is
coming more and more to see that the only hope of making
history a
science, and not a mere chronicle, is to be found in the
ascertainment and study of those psychological
conditions which have
made actions what they were. Foremost among those
conditions have been
the hopes, aspirations and ideals of men and women.
These have been the
greatest motive forces in the history of the world.
These, quite as much
as merely selfish considerations, have guided the
conduct of the men who
have made history, not merely those who have been
leaders in the great
movements of society, but the multitude of followers who
have not
attracted the attention of historians, but have,
nevertheless, given the
strength and force to the revolutions of the world.
The deepest interest in the history of Christian women
lies in the way
in which woman's status in society has been modified by