Macrina: A Remarkable 4th-Century Christian Woman

An Interview with Dr. Erin Galgay Walsh
Macrina was born into a wealthy and historically important Christian family. Her virtuous life, devoted to Christ, was based on her ascetic ideals. That is, she rejected human pleasures and comforts in order to free herself to be fully present to Christ. The 4th century text, The Life of Macrina, which was written by her brother Gregory, describes her as a woman living the angelic life, the" life of the resurrected body."
Professor Erin Galgay Walsh teaches at the University of Chicago Divinity School and is a scholar of ancient and late antique Christianity. Her research includes a focus on biblical interpretation, asceticism, and gender. Her courses cover biblical and apocryphal literature, the history of biblical interpretation, embodied practices, and Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity.
She is an affiliated faculty member with the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality and the Joyce Z. And Jacob Greenberg Center for Jewish studies at the University of Chicago. She also serves as Editor in Chief at Ancient Jew Review, a non-profit web journal devoted to the interdisciplinary study of ancient Judaism.