Women, Men, & Spiritual Power: "You Draw Us After You"

One of the my ongoing desires for this blog is to review books on gender relations--books you won't find in any Christian family bookstore in your local mall.  This blog is a bit outside the box for traditional stereotypes when it comes to male-female social sexuality. 

John Coakley has written an in-depth, fascinating book entitled, Men, Women & Spiritual Power: Female Saints & Their Male Collaborators

This significant piece of scholarship blows the doors off any simplistic stereotyping of male-female relations during the era of medieval Christianity.  Even though men clearly held ecclesisastical authority and power over women during this time period, there were male leaders who witnessed what was for them, extraordinary female mystical powers.  As a result, these men "typically cast themselves as the women's admiring followers, pupils, or friends."