My summer seminary class, “Missional Churches and Leadership,” is a practical theology course. Practical theology is what unites knowledge with our lives. We take what we have learned and make changes to how we practice our faith. It’s a collision between what we say is true and what we live as truth. There is a whole loop involved in doing practical theology1 and intermingled with discussion on the loop, we talked in small groups about a time when we had changed our minds. My discussion partner mentioned to the class that the big thing I had changed my mind2 on was complementarianism.3 The professor immediately stopped the group discussion and asked if I felt comfortable elaborating and started writing down the things that I said moved me along in my change of both theology and practice.4 I named many things: my own personal sense of calling, reading and rereading Scripture, scholars who were mutualist, stories of current women serving in church leadership, the problems that we see in practice when women are excluded from church leadership, the trickle down effect of believing that women can’t be pastors.5
I realized later that evening that I had left out how formative learning church history had been in this process. It is easy to study church history and walk away thinking that women had little to do with God’s initiatives in the world. But that’s only because of the way we are telling the story. Church history is overrun with women who have led and studied and partnered with God in His work in the world and learning their stories shaped my view of women, including myself.
Because of this, I’m going to start The Stories of Women, a (mostly) monthly series which will highlight women who are involved in the work of the church. This might be a woman from the Bible, like last week’s sermon on Huldah. It might be a woman from church history, like this week’s reflection on Macrina. It might be a woman who is right now serving the church. I don’t intend for these reflections to be comprehensive, but only bite-sized.6 I want you to know their names, know their places, and maybe feel intrigued and go on to learn more. Maybe they’ll even change how you look at your own life.
Macrina the Younger7
327-379 AD
Born in Cappadocia,8 Macrina was the oldest of ten children. Her fiancé died when she was quite young and she vowed never to marry. Afforded an extensive education for a female (though much of it self-taught), she was competent theologically and lived in congruence with what she believed. Her brothers, St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Basil, are two-third of the “Cappadocian Fathers,” renown men from early church history.9 But you only get the Cappadocian Fathers because of Macrina. She was a teacher and mentor to her brothers and much of her life and instruction are recorded in Gregory’s writing.
Following her father’s death, she took over leading the family and directed the complete education of her youngest brother. She regularly encouraged and corrected both Gregory and Basil even after both of them were bishops. She used the family resources to care for the community and emancipated their slaves, instructing her family to treat the former slaves as their equals. She even arranged their home into a semi-monastic community for women.
Here’s a brief bit of her teaching according to Gregory-
“But, she proceeded, the trust does not lie in these arguments, even though we may find it impossible to give a rhetorical answer to then, couched in equally strong language. The true explanation of all these questions is still stored up in the hidden treasure-rooms of Wisdom, and will not come to the light until that moment when we shall be taught the mystery of the Resurrection by the reality of it, and then there will be no more need of phrases to explain the things which we now hope for. Just as many questions might be started for debate amongst people sitting up at night as to the kind of thing that sunshine, and then the simple appearing of it in all its beauty would render any verbal description superfluous, so every calculation that tries to arrive conjecturally at the future state will be reduced to nothingness by the object of our hopes, when it comes upon us.10
Macrina was a woman who used all the social status and intelligence that she possessed to partner with God’s work in the world.
Here’s a longer article if you’re interested!
Other sources: In Her Words by Amy Oden and Women in the Mission of the Church by Leanne M. Dzubinski and Anneke H. Stasson.
Macrina reminds me that we’re not responsible for our opportunities. We can’t always change culture or other people’s mind. Macrina could not travel to three prestigious cities for education like her brother Basil did. She was probably only able to not marry because her fiancé had died and because they were a family of means. We don’t always make our opportunties,11 but we are responsible for what we do with what we have. And Macrina used what she had for the glory of God and the good of others. I truly believe that God has different “scorecard” than we humans usually use. That is both encouragement and warning. It’s encouragement because how other people would mark us does not matter. It’s a warning because God actually makes and holds us responsible, not for things beyond our control, but for ourselves.
Macrina’s story might lead you to ask what opportunity you have been waiting for that might not come. Where are you using the world’s scorecard to measure success? She might also ask you what you could do with what you have if you stopped waiting for something else.
Macrina also forces me to reckon with who I listen to and who I value as teachers.12 Am I learning from the margins?13 Am I acknowledging only the people with status and platforms who teach? Do I name the poor and illiterate and unacknowledged (by people) who show me much of what it means to follow Jesus? Learning to follow Jesus requires the participation of the entire community of faith, not just the words of the few. Who do you listen to? Who are your teachers?
What reflections do you have on Macrina the Younger? This would be more fun in a group discussion so jump in the comments!
As a reminder, I’ve talked extensively about women and Scripture. Some it is is in highlights saved on Instagram and some of it is on the blog. There’s even a teeny bit tucked in Substack archives but not as much. Oh, a little bit more. We’ll probably have to change that.
We’ll probably talk about that some other time.
After small group instruction, we discussed the topic in the class as a whole. Each person would share what their partner had shared with them, not their own thoughts. It was an interesting dynamic that I will use in my own teaching.
I am not here to hate on complementarians, though I am not one. I believe that most complementarians are seeking to be faithful to Scripture, though I find other interpretations to be more consistent throughout Scripture and to bear better fruit.
This change was a years-long process both because I had no guide (which is why I insist on talking about it now) and because I took the topic seriously. Most people move slowly.
This always comes out sideways somewhere because there has to be a reason for women to not be pastors. The reasons are where things get weird.
Often we only know a little about these women. There’s a real conversation here about who writes history and who we think is important enough to tell stories about.
Yes, there was an Macrina the Elder, Macrina the Younger’s grandmother.
Modern-day Turkey.
Gregory of Nazianzus was the other third.
In Her Words, Oden, 59.
Regardless of what we’re told as Americans, we are limited beings with limited power.
I feel a heavier weight here because I work in a church and am receiving a seminary education. Who do I listen to? The first thing I learn from Macrina’s life is for everyone. The second one is directed at church leaders, though it is also good for everyone.
Of course, in some ways, Macrina wasn’t “in the margins.” She had wealth and relationship to status. In other ways, as a woman, she was. There’s a reason she wasn’t a bishop, but her brothers, whom she taught, were. Life is complicated and nuanced and complex.
I’ve never heard of Macrina the Younger, so thanks for sharing what you’re learning through reading and church history.
She reminds me of my late grandmother, whom I hold responsible for my faith and my earliest understanding of Scripture. Despite her lack of education, she systemically studied Scripture and served in leadership at church.
My former senior pastor just preached her funeral a few months ago. Hilariously, he talked about her facial expressions. He said that most of the time, she looked at him as proud as his own mother (he was still in his 20s when he became our senior pastor) but if he had misquoted Scripture or said something theologically off-base, he always knew because of the puzzled look on her face.
I wonder how many unnamed women through history have kept the men they love on their toes, holding them accountable to high standards, and encouraging them in humility and service when their positions and peers might otherwise tempt them toward power and pride. (Obviously this goes both ways, but I’m speaking historically here.)
Excited for this series!
Oh I'm so excited for this series! You are a big part of the reason I've pushed and prodded my own understanding of women in ministry, and begun exploring with more intentionality women in the history of the church and what the Bible teaches regarding how women honor Him in the body of Christ with their gifts. I'm so glad you've shared your own thoughts and ideas and wrestling along the way, because it's edified me! In this piece, I love how you've pointed out that we are responsible for our opportunities -- how we respond to the circumstances we face in our culture, context, and ministries is what we're responsible for before the Lord. That's a good word. I'm looking forward to learning more!