G.E.M (Geoffrey Ernest Maurice) de Ste. Croix, fellow and tutor of New College, Oxford University, delivered seven Townsend Lectures in the Spring of 1988 on "Early Christian Attitudes Towards Women, Sex and Marriage."
The dates and titles of his seven lectures were:
February 16, 1988 - "Saint Paul"
De Sainte Croix argues that St. Paul was not a proto-feminist but was rather an advocate of the repression of women, espousing unity, not equality.
February 23, 1988 - "Jesus, Paul and the Jewish Background"
Sainte Croix describes the typically anti-feminist principles expounded by St. Paul and Jesus.
March 1, 1988 - "The Hellenistic and Roman Background--Part 1"
Sainte Croix presents the Greco-Roman attitudes toward women, sex, and marriage in the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic eras.
March 8, 1988 - "The Hellenistic and Roman Background--Part 2"
Sainte Croix discusses Christian attitudes towards women as manifested in Roman law concerning marriage.
March 15, 1988 - "Post-Pauline Christianity to St. Ambrose and St. John Chrysostom"
Sainte Croix discusses the concepts of the subordination of wife to husband and the overall guilt of original sin attributed to women by St. Paul and its ramifications in Christianity's teachings.
March 29, 1988 - "Virginity and the Cult of the Virgin Mary"
Sainte Croix discusses the validity of certain aspects that comprise the "cult of the virgin Mary".
April 5, 1988 - "St. Augustine and His Influence"
Sainte Croix discusses the sexist influences in Christianity as seen through the writings of St. Augustine. He suggests that these misogynist notions were influenced by Aristotle and St. Paul.
