Lexington Books / Fortress Academic
Pages: 254
•
Trim: 6 x 9
978-1-9787-0066-6 • Hardback • July 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)
978-1-9787-0067-3 • eBook • July 2019 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Anne E. Inman taught theology at various universities, including Birkbeck College, University of London and the University of Notre Dame London Centre, before retiring from teaching in 2014.
Introduction to Hild: A Brilliant Light in a Dark Age
1. The Anglo-Saxon Princess
2. The Forgotten Women of Early Monasticism
3. The Celts, Ireland, and Saint Patrick
4. The Augustinian Mission
5. Hild Embarks on the Religious Life
6. Life in Hild’s Monasteries
7. Hild the Confessor
8. A Window onto Ancient Liturgies
9. Hild the Overseer
10. Whitby: At the Origins of English Poetry
11. Underlying Tensions Come to a Head
12. The Synod of Whitby
13. The Aftermath
14. Hild Departs This Life
15. Hild and Aelffled
16. Further Developments
17. The Untold Story
The book compels us to consider the many contributions made by Hild and other women religious to the traditions of pastoral care, liturgy, and learning, but now eclipsed by a patriarchal historical agenda. Uncovering the religious authority of Hild and other medieval women religious "could open the way not only to a more balanced pastoral practice but to a practice that reflects more authentically the mind of Jesus himself, who included women in his mission in a way quite remarkable for his time" (20l). This book is an integral resource for those concerned with the history of women in the Christian Church, as well as the historical development of ministry and practice.
— MAGISTRA: A Journal of Women's Spirituality in History
At a time when women in the Church, and especially women in the Catholic Church, are asking fundamental questions about their place within an ordained ministry that has not only been an exclusively male preserve but one which has been profoundly male oriented in its vision, it is important that we reflect on the ministry of women in the past and see what that tells us about the story of how we have come to where we are today. Anne Inman does just this in this book on Hild - its significance is not what it tells us about early medieval Northumbria but what questions we need to ask in the early part of the twenty-first century.— Thomas O'Loughlin, University of Nottingham
Anne Inman has provided a quite readable study of Hild of Whitby that places her within her contemporary context as well as within this more honest telling of the Christian story.
— MAGISTRA: A Journal of Women's Spirituality in History
In this highly readable study, Inman restores Hild of Whitby to her rightful place in the history of Anglo-Saxon England and charts the way she has influenced the current determination to recover the ministry of women in the Roman Catholic Church. This work is well researched, innovative in some of its conclusions, and clearly the fruit of great respect and admiration for Hild, who is probably the best known of the early, powerful, and influential abbesses who ruled over double monasteries. It is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the early history of these islands in Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England and anyone who has concern for the ministry, past, present and future, of women in the church.— Patricia M. Rumsey, honorary associate professor, University of Nottingham
Inman’s hugely engaging and accessible book argues from a basis of solid scholarship for a more reliable reading of church history. Hild of Whitby emerges as an authoritative example of the widespread and diverse ministries of women in the Anglo-Saxon church. Engaging in many liturgical, pastoral, and sacramental activities currently considered the sole preserve of the male priesthood in the Catholic church, Hild challenges the deficiencies of a patriarchal system of ministry and governance by offering a more complete picture of the Church’s tradition.— Gemma Simmonds CJ, Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology
Anne Inman uses the best of scholarship and provides a solid context of the world of Abbess Hild to tease out what we can know of this important woman and her era. Her writing style is accessible to any reader. I highly recommend Hild of Whitby and the Ministry of Women in the Anglo-Saxon World for anyone interested in Hild and her era, and of the little-known contributions of women to early Christianity.— Laura Swann, OSB, author of The Forgotten Desert Mothers and The Wisdom of the Beguines
Inman’s book offers a history of the life of Hild born from careful and skilful interrogation of primary sources and their context, and from which follows valuable debate about the role of women in the church in the Anglo-Saxon world. Inman argues that her study confirms that "abbesses once held positions of authority that were in many respects on a par with those of bishops and that they engaged in many pastoral, liturgical and sacramental activities, which, in the Catholic Church are now the sole preserve of the male priesthood." (xi)... Inman convincingly argues, through careful analysis, that Hild was a spiritual master of her time, and her influence should not be underplayed. Readers of Inman’s study will enjoy her academic rigour and bold advocacy for Hild, produced so that “her brilliant light might shine out more fully in the tradition that she helped to shape”. (204).
— Ampleforth Journal