As countries around the world legalized same-sex marriage, many opponents of ending discrimination argued that the change would undermine “traditional marriage.” What is traditional marriage? John Hamer of Toronto Centre place will trace the origins of marriage customs in the western world and how the institution came to be regarded as a sacrament in Christianity.

Abelard and Heloise are among the great scholastic philosophers of the 12th century. Their affair led to their secret marriage, which was discovered with terrible consequences for them both. Nevertheless their letters have kept the romance alive for centuries, and Abelard's philosophical ideas helped change the course Western thought.

The role of women in many historical and religious narratives can be downplayed or ignored. In this talk, you will get to know about the strong and spunky women who played a pivotal role in the early days of Islam.

How does the Bible reconcile the stark contradiction between Ezra's exclusionary practices and Ruth's story of foreign inclusion? Not all Jews agreed with Ezra’s interpretation of the law and his strict policies against intermarriage. The author of the Book of Ruth presented the opposite perspective, showing that a foreigner, a Moabite woman, could not only become part of the Jewish community but also an ancestor in the lineage of King David, and ultimately, of the Messiah, according to Christian tradition.

Queen of Egypt prior to its absorption by Rome, Cleopatra was an important power player in the civil wars that marked the end of the Roman Republic. Her alliance with Julius Caesar included an affair, which resulted in the birth of their son, Ptolemy Caesarion. After the fallout from Caesar’s assassination, Cleopatra began a new alliance and affair with his chief lieutenant, Mark Antony. Anthony and Cleopatra held sway together over the East, but were ultimately defeated by Caesar’s nephew Octavian, who became Caesar Augustus. Demonized by writers loyal to Augustus, Cleopatra’s memory became a cautionary tale against the wiles of female rulers. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place attempts to recover the real life and qualities of Egypt’s famous queen, the last of the Pharaohs.

The art of the theater died out in the West with the fall of the Roman Empire. But in the unlikely setting of Germany in the 10th century, a remarkable woman revived both comedy and drama. Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim was a secular canoness (a member of a religious community living a monastic life) who read the ancient Roman playwrights Plautus and Terrance and used them as models for her own plays. Produced for the edification and entertainment of her fellow sisters, Hrotsvitha's comedies featured the exploits of saintly heroines humiliating their lecherous pagan captors. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Palce read from Hrotsvitha's work (some of the humor is still funny today!) and look at her context and legacy.

In this early Centre Place lecture, John Hamer looks back at the history of England's queens regnant to consider interplay between gender roles and leadership. Mathilda almost became England's first reigning queen. When King Henry I's heir, William Adelin, died in the White Ship disaster, the English nobility swore oaths in support of Henry's daughter Mathilda as heiress. (Mathilda was widow of a Holy Roman Emperor and was known to contemporaries as "the Empress Mathilda.") Upon Henry's death, most of the English nobles preferred to forget their oaths and instead recognized Henry's nephew Stephen as king, plunging the realm into civil war. John Hamer looks at the steep hurdles Mathilda faced attempting to exercise authority over men in the Middle Ages and considers the extent to which these same gender biases continue to the present day.

At the earliest stages of Christianity, the community was remarkable in the ancient world for the prominence of women in the movement, including in positions of leadership. New Testament texts have women acting as apostles and prophets — the two most important roles in the movement’s first generations. Extrabiblical sources confirmed that women served in the important position of “deacon” in the first and second centuries. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at the evidence for women in leadership in early Christianity and how these roles were phased out as leadership passed to a hierarchy of bishops drawn from an all-male priesthood.

Although the Book of Genesis is generally thought of as the time of the patriarchs, in many stories it is the Biblical matriarchs who win the day. Certainly, Rebekah pulls the wool over her husband Isaac’s eyes to make sure that his blessing would pass to her favorite son Jacob over Isaac’s favorite, Esau. Similarly, Eve is far more active than Adam, Sarah laughs at God, Rachel saves Jacob from her father’s wrath, Tamar outwits Judah, Hagar is visited by an angel, and in less edifying examples, Lot’s daughters have their way with him and Potiphar’s wife gets her revenge on Joseph. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place reviews the strong female characters in the Book of Genesis and their implications.

Did powerful female deities rule prehistoric Greece before the rise of Zeus? Powerful female deities exist in the mythologies of almost every ancient society, including that of Greece. Gaia, Rhea, Demeter, Aphrodite and other powerful Greek goddesses may offer us a window to look into the Divine Feminine before the Iliad and the Odyssey. Are all these goddesses aspects of a forgotten prehistoric motherly deity? Did their prominence decline with the establishment of the patriarchal Zeus-centered Olympian pantheon? We'll look at the evidence for this hypothesis and also consider whether the presence of strong female divinities necessarily equates with social status of women in society.

The myth of Pope Joan and the real scandals of the medieval Church that led to the Gregorian Reform. According to a popular tale, a clever woman once secretly ascended St. Peter's throne and ruled as "Pope Joan." While this tale is a myth, the Medieval papacy devolved into even more interesting scandals which set the stage for the Gregorian Reform movement. We will look at the low point of Europe's oldest monarchy and its amazing rebound in the later Middle Ages.

Was the Gospel according to Luke actually written by a woman? The four canonical gospels of the New Testament, called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are all anonymous works whose authors are unknown. Although the 3rd gospel is traditionally ascribed to "Luke," a physician companion of the apostle Paul, many modern scholars have pointed to a number of clues within the text that imply that the actual author had a different perspective. We'll look at the evidence behind the thesis that the author of Luke was actually an early Christian woman.

The gospels cite Mary Magdalene as either the first of Jesus’ followers to testify of his resurrection or as part of a group of women followers who were the first. The gospel of Luke lists her among the wealthy women who provided material support to Jesus and his disciples and states that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her. In the gospel of John, she is among the women who witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion. Several Christian communities, including the Gnostics, looked to Mary Magdalene as an authority greater than many of Jesus’ male apostles. She is included in several apocryphal texts including the Gospel of Thomas, the Dialogue of the Savior, and her own Gospel of Mary. Already in Antiquity, she was conflated with other gospel characters, including the unnamed “sinful woman” who anoints Jesus’ feet in Luke 7:36-50, given rise to the false tradition that she had been a prostitute. More recently, because of fictional accounts like The DaVinci Code and modern frauds like the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife, the completely baseless idea that she was Jesus’ wife has become popular. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will revisit the various accounts of Jesus’ most famous female follower, to discern what can be known about the historical Mary Magdalene and will survey her many, diverse legacies.

Jesus’ mother is present in all four of the canonical gospels and legends about her life were elaborated in apocryphal and pseudepigraphal works. Venerated as a saint, over time her cult evolved to fill the gap left by the Christian understanding of God for the divine feminine. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will consider what we can know about the historical Mary and will review the evolution of her mythology.

Female perspectives of medieval mysticism through the writings of Julian of Norwich & Margery Kempe. In the years after the Black Death decimated Europe, many turned to mysticism to understand life’s questions. In an age where few women were afforded an education, we have the rare survival of two books written in Middle English by female authors: Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe. Although they have very different backgrounds and perspectives, both women became Christian mystics. We’ll look at their works and what they tell us about the lives and ideas of women and mystics in the Middle Ages.