Few would dispute that the Reformation had a significant impact on views of women and their roles in society. Where scholars disagree is in their assessments of this impact. Did the Reformation bring freedom and new opportunities to women, or did it instead result in new restrictions? In her latest work, Women and the Reformation, Kirsi Stjerna makes a valuable contribution to this debate. She clearly demonstrates that no simple answer exists to this question, but that the place of women in the Reformation is just as complex as the history of the period as a whole.
Stjerna's work is divided into two parts. The first begins with the medieval context and explores how the roles and views of women were affected by the Reformation. While in the Middle Ages women had important leadership positions as mystics and prophets, as members of convents, and as mothers and wives, the Protestant Reformation brought changes to these roles. The reformers' rejection of the idea of a direct experience of God, unmediated by word or sacrament, brought a virtual end to the vocations of mystic and prophet. Nonetheless, some Protestant women, particularly among the Anabaptists and spiritualists, continued in these roles and had a lasting influence on their communities. The closing of the convents in Protestant territories meant the loss of the most important institution for fostering education, literary activity, and theological reflection among women. And, unlike their male counterparts, women could not turn to the universities for a replacement. Nonetheless, many women embraced the freedom they found in Protestant teachings and gladly left their convents for a newly sanctified life in the “world,” particularly as wives and mothers. As Stjerna concludes, the Protestant Reformation produced changes in women's sense of themselves, even if little changed for the better in their social setting. The result was both gains and losses in the lives of sixteenth-century women (39).
To illustrate these trends, Stjerna next introduces readers to ten women whose lives were both shaped by and provided shape to the Reformation in a variety of contexts. A chapter or shared chapter is devoted to each so that these brief biographies make up the bulk of the book. They also are its most intriguing part. The women come from Germany, Scandinavia, France, Switzerland, and Italy. Perhaps the only area not well represented is England, although central female figures of the English Reformation are mentioned in part I. The women are all Protestants, primarily Lutheran or Calvinist; Stjerna mentions her regrets that the scope of the work would not allow for Roman Catholic women to be included as well (4). Finally, the women encompass a wide range of societal roles. Katharina von Bora Luther became a model for Protestant women by leaving the covenant and embracing fully the vocations of wife and mother. Despite male opposition, Argula von Grumbach, Katharina Schütz Zell, Marie Dentière, and Olimpia Fulvia Morata were women who claimed the full promise of the priesthood of all believers, serving the church as theologians, teachers, and preachers. Elisabeth von Brandenburg, Elisabeth von Braunschweig, Marguerite de Navarre, Jeanne d'Albret, and Renée de France used their political and social status to support the Reformation both publicly and privately in their territories.
From a combined perspective of social and theological history, the chapters review how the Reformation influenced the lives of these women and highlights their contributions to the movement. Each begins with a portrait and brief genealogy. The text is clearly written and engaging, although a few small stylistic redundancies occur throughout. Stjerna builds on previous studies of these women, combining biographical introductions with primary source materials. The inclusion of writings by the women themselves is a particularly valuable attribute of this work. One hopes Stjerna will follow this book with a full anthology of writings from Reformation women. (The back cover of the book indicates the existence of an accompanying website that includes writings by the women, but the URL is no longer valid.) A substantial bibliography of primary and secondary sources also has been created for each chapter. Notes are included as well, but Stjerna reveals that they had to be pared down for the sake of clarity and flow of the text (7). These notes are in the form of in-text citations, and one wonders why endnotes or footnotes were not used simply in order to keep the original detail. Then again, the text is meant to be an introduction to the subject, not an in-depth study. The book will work well in general courses on the Reformation but should be used in conjunction with other materials because it assumes previous knowledge. Additionally, it can serve nicely as the starting place for more in-depth research, providing a guide to other valuable resources. For all those interested in the place of women in the Reformation, this book will be a wonderful asset.
