Jerome, Chrysostom, and Friends

Women figured largely in the lives of the two celibates Jerome and John Chrysostom, and in this study Elizabeth Clark investigates friendship between the sexes in the early Church. It includes chapters on Chrysostom's attitude toward women; friendship between the sexes in pagan thought; and friendship between the sexes in early Christian theory and practice. Clark proposes that there was within patristic Christianity an elevation of status for celibate women, but not for married ones.