Shows
Hunger for Righteousness Podcast SeriesSeason 2, Episode 2: St. Theodora, Empress of ByzantiumTo receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Today’s Episode of the Hunger for Righteousness Podcast is about one of my new favorite saints, St. Theodora. I enjoyed learning about her so much that I read two books about her and consulted two more, in addition to reading a few articles and other sources. Theodora’s rise to power in the 6th century from humble means to empress of Byzantium is all the more extraordinary because she never forgot where she came from—in fact, she used her po...
2026-02-2412 min
New Books in Late AntiquitySusan Ashbrook Harvey, "Ministries of Song: Women’s Voices in Ancient Syriac Christianity" (U California Press, 2025)Ministries of Song: Women’s Voices in Ancient Syriac Christianity (U California Press, 2025) is an open access tour-de-force study of the power of women's liturgical singing in late antique Syriac Christianity. Extending women's religious participation beyond the familiar roles of female saints and nobles, Syriac churches cultivated a flourishing but often-overlooked tradition of women's sacred song. Susan Ashbrook Harvey brings this music to life as she uncovers the ways these now-nameless women performed a boldly sung teaching ministry and invited congregations to respond aloud. By exploring their ritual agency, Harvey demonstrates how these choirs helped to shape the formative ethi...
2025-12-091h 27
New Books in Christian StudiesSusan Ashbrook Harvey, "Ministries of Song: Women’s Voices in Ancient Syriac Christianity" (U California Press, 2025)Ministries of Song: Women’s Voices in Ancient Syriac Christianity (U California Press, 2025) is an open access tour-de-force study of the power of women's liturgical singing in late antique Syriac Christianity. Extending women's religious participation beyond the familiar roles of female saints and nobles, Syriac churches cultivated a flourishing but often-overlooked tradition of women's sacred song. Susan Ashbrook Harvey brings this music to life as she uncovers the ways these now-nameless women performed a boldly sung teaching ministry and invited congregations to respond aloud. By exploring their ritual agency, Harvey demonstrates how these choirs helped to shape the formative ethi...
2025-12-091h 27
New Books in ReligionSusan Ashbrook Harvey, "Ministries of Song: Women’s Voices in Ancient Syriac Christianity" (U California Press, 2025)Ministries of Song: Women’s Voices in Ancient Syriac Christianity (U California Press, 2025) is an open access tour-de-force study of the power of women's liturgical singing in late antique Syriac Christianity. Extending women's religious participation beyond the familiar roles of female saints and nobles, Syriac churches cultivated a flourishing but often-overlooked tradition of women's sacred song. Susan Ashbrook Harvey brings this music to life as she uncovers the ways these now-nameless women performed a boldly sung teaching ministry and invited congregations to respond aloud. By exploring their ritual agency, Harvey demonstrates how these choirs helped to shape the formative ethi...
2025-12-091h 27
New Books in Women's HistorySusan Ashbrook Harvey, "Ministries of Song: Women’s Voices in Ancient Syriac Christianity" (U California Press, 2025)Ministries of Song: Women’s Voices in Ancient Syriac Christianity (U California Press, 2025) is an open access tour-de-force study of the power of women's liturgical singing in late antique Syriac Christianity. Extending women's religious participation beyond the familiar roles of female saints and nobles, Syriac churches cultivated a flourishing but often-overlooked tradition of women's sacred song. Susan Ashbrook Harvey brings this music to life as she uncovers the ways these now-nameless women performed a boldly sung teaching ministry and invited congregations to respond aloud. By exploring their ritual agency, Harvey demonstrates how these choirs helped to shape the formative ethi...
2025-12-091h 27
Beyond the Margins: The University of California Press PodcastSusan Ashbrook Harvey, "Ministries of Song: Women’s Voices in Ancient Syriac Christianity" (U California Press, 2025)Ministries of Song: Women’s Voices in Ancient Syriac Christianity (U California Press, 2025) is an open access tour-de-force study of the power of women's liturgical singing in late antique Syriac Christianity. Extending women's religious participation beyond the familiar roles of female saints and nobles, Syriac churches cultivated a flourishing but often-overlooked tradition of women's sacred song. Susan Ashbrook Harvey brings this music to life as she uncovers the ways these now-nameless women performed a boldly sung teaching ministry and invited congregations to respond aloud. By exploring their ritual agency, Harvey demonstrates how these choirs helped to shape the formative ethi...
2025-12-091h 27
The Lumen Christi InstituteSinging the Sacred: Music and the Holy in Ancient ChristianityThis lecture is entitled Singing the Sacred: Music and the Holy in Ancient Christianity.
It was presented by Susan Ashbrook Harvey of Brown University on May 15, 2022, at the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Chapel.
2025-05-0645 min
Women Who Went Before“The Two Breasts of the Father”: Does Your God Look Like You?We talk to Dr. Susan Ashbrook Harvey about how gender shaped ancient thinking about God, women's church choirs, and the complex web of metaphors for the divine within Syriac Christianity.Women Who Went Before is written, produced, and edited by Rebekah Haigh and Emily Chesley.The music is composed and produced by Moses Sun. This episode was fact-checked by Jillian Marcantonio and George Kiraz.Show notes: womenwhowentbefore.com/two-breasts-of-the-father/Sponsored by the Center for Culture, Society, and Religion, the Program in Judaic Studies, and the Stanley J. Seeger Center...
2022-10-1149 min
A Sacrifice of Praise“Eve's Daughter Mary Has Opened Your Mouth”: A Conversation With Susan Ashbrook HarveyAmy and Richard talk to Brown University’s Susan Ashbrook Harvey about her work, including liturgical aesthetics in late antiquity, and how St. Ephraim the Syrian’s choirs of women in fourth century Edessa might be helpful models for us today.
Show Notes:
Extract from Jacob of Serug’s Homily on St. Ephraim the Syrian [Hyperlink to the pdf which is attached to the email]
More of Susan Ashbrook Harvey’s Work:
Music as Liturgy: Models from Ancient Syriac Christianity:
ISOCM Presentation
ISOCM Publication
Performance as Exegesis: Women’s Liturgical Choirs in Syriac Tradition
On Mary’s Voice: Gendered Words in Syriac Ma...
2022-08-1200 min
Luminous: Conversations On Sacred ArtsSusan Ashbrook Harvey: The Olfactory ImaginationSusan Ashbrook Harvey is one of the foremost scholars in her field of Late Antiquity (with a focus on Syriac Christianity). Two of her particular areas of interest and expertise make her an especially fascinating guest on Luminous. One is her study of fragrance (her book Scenting Salvation: Ancient Christianity and the Olfactory Imagination is a classic), and the other is women’s voices in Syriac liturgical singing.
2021-12-031h 00
Roadstead Project PodcastSeason 2 Episode #8-Church Mothers "Unveiling the Mighty Women in the Early Church Centuries"In this episode you get the privilege of engaging with Heather Gorman, New Testament Professor, at Johnson University in Tennessee. Heather shares with us how women theologians in early church history impacted the Christian Movement. This episode is for all your daughters, mothers and sisters!
Books Recommended by Heather:
Bessey, Sarah. A Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal. New York: Convergent, 2021.
Carnes, Natalie: Motherhood: A Confession. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2020.
Brock, Sebastian, and Susan Ashbrook Harvey. Holy Women of the Syrian Orient. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.
2021-03-2347 min