Women Doctors of the Church (CH3217Y)

Undergraduate, 18.0 points

Content

Paul’s injunction that women remain silent in the Church (1 Cor 14: 34-36) could be said to have led to a significance absence of Women’s Wisdom from the official teaching of the Church over its 2000 year history. Of the 37 Doctors of the Church, only 4 are women, Teresa of Ávila, Catherine of Siena, Thérèse of Lisieux and Hildegard of Bingen, all of whom have only been recognised in the last 50 years. This unit will concentration on the contribution of these women to our theological understanding of God and also explore other important female voices that have been overlooked through the centuries.

Unit code: CH3217Y

Unit status: Approved (Major revision)

Points: 18.0

Unit level: Undergraduate Level 3

Unit discipline: Church History

Delivery Mode: Intensive

Proposing College: Yarra Theological Union

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Learning outcomes

1.

Analyse the particular challenges facing women in church history, particularly in terms of recognition of their wisdom and capacity for leadership.
2.

Evaluate and articulate the major issues of the context where these challenges arose.
3.

Analyse the writings, and depiction in art, of the four Women Doctors of the Church.
4.

Critically discuss the implications of the understanding of these texts for ministry in the contemporary Christian church.

Unit sequence

1x foundational CH or DS unit

Pedagogy

Asynchronous and synchronous lectures, tutorials, and discussion forums

Indicative Bibliography

  • Acevedo Butcher, Carmen. Hildegard of Bingen: Doctor of the Church: A Spiritual Reader. Brewster MA: Paraclete Press, 2013.
  • Bro, Bernard and Nash, Englund. Saint Therese of Lisieux: Her Family, Her God, Her Message. San Francisco : Ignatius Press, 2003.
  • Hilkert, Mary Catherine. Speaking with Authority: Catherine of Siena and the Voices of Women Today. New York: Paulist Press, 2008.
  • Malone, Mary T. Four Women Doctors of the Church. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2017.
  • Muir, Elizabeth. A Women's History of the Christian Church: Two Thousand Years of Female Leadership. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019.
  • McGinn, Bernard. The Doctors of the Church: Thirty-Three Men and Women Who Shaped Christianity. NY: Crossroads, 2009.
  • Newman, Barbara*. Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine*. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989.
  • Teresa of Avila, Saint. The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila. Translated by Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez. Vols. 1 and 2. Washington: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1976-80.
  • Thérèse of Lisieux, Saint. Story of A Soul: The autobiography of Saint Therese of Lisieux. 3rd ed. Washington, Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1996.

Assessment

Type Description Word count Weight (%)
Portfolio

Portfolio of 5 Tutorial Exercises of 200 words each

 1000 20.0
Essay

Short Essay

 1000 30.0
Essay 3000 50.0
Approvals

Unit approved for the University of Divinity by Prof Albert Haddad on 28 Jul, 2025

Unit record last updated: 2025-07-28 09:33:33 +1000