This talk draws on select research from Gender Violence in Late Antiquity, which examines how Christian authors used stories of women’s suffering to construct theological authority and communal identity. Narratives of domestic violence— wives beaten or silenced within the home—were reshaped into theological lessons. Rather than reflecting lived realities alone, these stories functioned as fantasies of control. Exposing this dynamic makes clear how the normalization of intimate violence in late antiquity continues to echo in Christian thought and practice today.

Wilmer Lecture in Christian Studies