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21 " The disciples have lost their beloved teacher and when he returns to console them, he reminds them that he has already given them, in the shared breaking of bread, a way to conjure his presence among them again and again. "
― Kate Cooper , Band of Angels: The Forgotten World of Early Christian Women
22 " Reading had come to mean something new to the women of the fourth and later centuries. In the imagination, it is deeply linked to travel: both were methods by which an individual could explore the world. Equally, both were a way to nudge a person out of an unquestioning view of the world. Writers knew that readers were tightly bound within the network of relationships and obligations which governed their position in the Roman world, and one of the goals of literature was to persuade readers to adopt a more thoughtful approach to these commitments and relationships. "
23 " When she hears the news that God has chosen her to play a physically and emotionally dangerous role in history, Mary reacts not with confusion or reluctance, but with swift acceptance. To any of her contemporaries who heard about this for the first time, the young woman's acceptance would have seemed surprising, almost shocking. For an unmarried woman in first-century Galilee, a pregnancy of any kind would be frightening news, even if the child were wished-for and the identity of the child's father was not in doubt. "
24 " The abba seems far more interested in the effect her presence will have on him than in the effect his teaching may have on her. "
25 " The second lesson Pulcheria learned from her mother had to do with what kind of man one could trust. Fundamentally, any outstanding man at court who had sons of his own - or hope of having them - was a potential usurper. This is why eunuchs played such an important role in the imperial palace. But Christian priests and bishops constituted another class of men who - even if they did have children - had sworn themselves to a vocation in the Church. This meant that however much trouble they stirred up, they could not threaten the Emperor's person. Still, they had to be managed expertly. Eudoxia had discovered that bishops could be valuable allies and formidable enemies, and Pulcheria took this lesson to heart. "
26 " If Pulcheria were able to pose as the human embodiment of the Theotokos, in so doing she would be blurring the line between Christianity and the rituals of imperial cult, which had existed since pagan times.This would also raise the disturbing question, whether it was the bishop or the imperial family who had the right to define the nature of Christian piety and liturgical practice. A law of Theodosius II promulgated in 425, for example, reassures those who fail to participate in some public ceremony related to civic cult in order to attend a church service because 'due reverence is paid to the emperor when God is worshipped'. This law reveals that Christian liturgy had now taken precedence over the old civic cult, but it also shows a blurring between the person of the emperor and the person of Christ. One can see why a bishop of Constantinople might have resisted this. Nestorius may have suspected that Theodosius was using Pulcheria to draw the Church even more tightly under the control of the imperial family. "
27 " Cyril's main interest seems to have been in the relationship between Christ's human and divine natures, while Pulcheria's was in Mary herself. He may only have attained the support of the Empress insofar as his theological commitments overlapped with her desire to promote the cult of the Virgin Mary as a form of imperial civic religion. "
28 " In fact, studies have demonstrated that the ‘success rate’ of missionary encounters that take place in the home of a friend or family member is five hundred times higher than encounters in an institutional setting or a public place. "