Educating the body of the female child : feminisms in dialogue with Jerome(d 420)

Abstract

At the beginning of the 5th century, Jerome sent a letter to Laeta, the daughter of his co-ascetic Paula, on how to raise a female child. Jerome, in short, views disembodiment as redemption, and therefore also as the final goal of education. In this article, different views on the embodiment of the female child are placed in dialogue with Jerome. These views are informed, mainly but not exclusively, by feminist notions of the body as expressed (1) in Body Theology, (2) in the International Resilience Project, and (3) in work on the intersection between feminisms and childhood education. Views on the education of the female child as educating her towards the embodiment of relationship, resilience and interconnectedness are put forward to invite dialogue from Jerome whose work was seminal in starting a tradition of an ‘education of disembodiment’ in the Christian tradition.