Lanta Davis grew up believing that women could do it all. As a South Dakotan surrounded by farm women, Davis thought of women as tough, resilient, and hard-working both inside the home and outside of it. Determined to follow in their footsteps and do whatever she set her mind on, Davis encountered a gap.
“That gap,” she writes at CT, “was distinctly female-shaped.”
As Davis studied in seminary, she only had one female professor. Her doctoral program had two, but none of them taught religion. Where were the female theologians who, with Paul, could say, “Imitate me, just as I imitate Christ?” she wondered.
On a trip to Italy, Davis discovered those women she’d longed to find. In Rome, there were churches named after Christian women, built literally on their buried bones. In Ravenna, she saw mosaics of Perpetua, Felicity, and other female heroes who “lived such lives of holiness that the early church wanted women and men to look up to them, both figuratively and on the wall.”
Witnessing these historical women helped Davis better see the women in her personal history, as well. She thought of women who prayed for her, of Sunday School teachers and advice-givers.
As we look for the women who have shaped our history—over centuries and in our daily lives—may we find ourselves part of a rich heritage of women who are devoted to Christ.
