The phenomenon of medieval women's middle age is a stage in the lifecycle that has been frequently overlooked in preference for the examination of female youth and old age. The essays collected here draw variously from literary studies, history, law, art and theology in order to address this lacuna.

Medieval mystics have much wisdom to offer contemporary middle-aged women grappling with empty nests, evolving careers and relationships, spiritual growth, and physical issues. Mechthild, for example, began her writing career at the age of fifty. And Julian, referring to Christ as “our kind mother, our gracious mother,” has a vision of Christ allowing us to make mistakes, a helpful image for women mothering nearly adult children. Each chapter focuses on a topic of interest to modern middle-aged women. Useful for individuals and groups.

Many Christians today tend to view the story of medieval faith as a cautionary tale. Too often, they dismiss the Middle Ages as a period of corruption and decay in the church. They seem to assume that the church apostatized from true Christianity after it gained cultural influence in the time of Constantine, and the faith was only later recovered by the sixteenth-century Reformers or even the eighteenth-century revivalists. As a result, the riches and wisdom of the medieval period have remained largely inaccessible to modern Protestants. Church historian Chris Armstrong helps readers see beyond modern caricatures of the medieval church to the animating Christian spirit of that age. He believes today's church could learn a number of lessons from medieval faith, such as how the gospel speaks to ordinary, embodied human life in this world. Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians explores key ideas, figures, and movements from the Middle Ages in conversation with C. S. Lewis and other thinkers, helping contemporary Christians discover authentic faith and renewal in a forgotten age.

As this useful collection of writings proves, Medieval mystics have much wisdom to offer contemporary middle-aged women grappling with empty nests, evolving careers, spiritual growth, and physical issues.

Blazingly intelligent, wickedly funny, and piercingly honest, a memoir that captures the perils and pleasures of girlhood, womanhood, and life itself. “One of my favorite books of the last few years.” —Cheryl Strayed “Sentence for sentence, a more pleasure-yielding midlife memoir is hard to think of.” —The Atlantic At mid-life, Claire Dederer developed a sudden yearning for jailbreak. In this exuberant memoir, she reflects on two periods in her life uncannily similar in their emotional intensity: her present experience as a middle-aged mom in the grip of unruly and mysterious new hungers, and her recollections of herself as a teenager.

Most people have heard of Lady Godiva and her horseback tax protest in the 11th century and Joan of Arc who in the 15th century fought against the English for the French gaining sainthood in 1920. Many know of Eleanor of Aquataine, 12th century Queen of France and England, and powerful manipulator and protector of kings. Some know of Hildegarde and Beatrice and Blanche and Clare. There are many famous women of the Middle Ages whose lives and leadership brought important changes to history. This encyclopedia contains several hundred entries on the culture, history and circumstances of women in the Middle Ages, from the years 500 to 1500 C.E. The geographical scope of this work is wide, with entries on women from England, France, Germany, Japan, and other nations around the world. There are entries on queens, empresses, and other women in positions of leadership as well as entries on topics such as work, marriage and family, households, employment, religion, and various other aspects of women's lives in the Middle Ages. Genealogies of queens and empresses accompany the text in an appendix.