A Woman's Way

Ranft (history, Central Michigan Univ.; Women and the Religious Life) employs a broad definition of "spiritual direction" to reveal the often unnoticed power and influence women have wielded throughout church history. Beginning in the New Testament, "women were central in the quest for happiness and in the dissemination of Jesus' direction of how to attain it." For instance, "the five great women of John's gospelDMary (mother of Jesus), Mary of Bethany, Mary Magdalene, the Samaritan woman, and Martha" provide important direction. This trend continued in the Patristic and medieval times and was invigorated in the early modern period.