Educating Children in the Early Church: A Conversation with Dr. Margaret MacDonald

Welcome to the first episode of the third season of What Matters Most, featuring Dr. Margaret MacDonald. Margaret MacDonald is Professor of Religion at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Margaret MacDonald is a prominent and preeminent scholar in the fields of New Testament and early Christianity. We discuss Margaret’s excellent book The Power of Children: The Construction of Christian Families in the Greco-Roman World, but much more, as you will soon hear, including her forthcoming lecture at the Promise of Christian Education conference in Vancouver in May 2025 on ancient Christian learning circles, which forms part of her forthcoming book on Christian education in antiquity. In the course of doing that, we talk about household codes, house churches, families, girls, boys, enslaved children, Dead Sea Scrolls, Pauline letters, the Pastoral epistles, Deutero-Pauline epistles, Paul and Thecla, and a lot more. 

She offers an integrated picture of early Christian families, fathers, mothers, children, and enslaved people and their roles in the family, in the Church, and the broader world in this book and in her other, extensive research.  In addition to numerous essays and journal articles, her publications include four other books: Carolyn Osiek and Margaret Y. MacDonald (with Janet Tulloch), A Woman’s Place: House Churches in Earliest Christianity (2006); Colossians and Ephesians (Sacra Pagina; 2000); Early Christian Women and Pagan Opinion: The Power of the Hysterical Woman (1996); The Pauline Churches: A socio-historical study of institutionalization in the Pauline and Deutero-Pauline Writings (1988).

Enjoy this deep dive into the world and lives of ancient children!

Some news on upcoming podcast episodes: 

Coming up next is Dr. Lynn Huber discussing her new commentary on Revelation for the Wisdom Commentary series. You will not want to miss this revelatory podcast, I make no apologies for my pun, and Lynn’s feminist and queer readings of John’s Apocalypse. If you wonder, what does it even mean to read Revelation in this way? Stay tuned.

In the coming weeks we will be hearing from Dr. Jenny Martin of Notre Dame, Dr. Adele Reinhartz of U of Ottawa, Dr. Daisy Vargas of the University of Arizona, and many more excellent scholars and thinkers.

Also, and this is big news for us, we are expanding the sorts of podcasts we do under the umbrella of What Matters Most. We are not changing the bi-weekly format of what you have just heard here today with Margaret MacDonald, but we are adding more. We are adding a Pop Culture Matters podcast, in which music, movies, novels, etc. with religious themes are added to the mix. Martin Strong and I will start off the series by discussing Ry Cooder’s Straight Street – go out and listen to it now; I dare you to listen to it just once – and the Danish/Icelandic movie Godland. Please send in your suggestions for Pop Culture that Matters. Don’t be afraid, suggest away. Maybe you could join us as a co-host for an episode. The wonder of Zoom makes this is a possibility wherever you are! Martin also suggested a podcast on religious sites, local and international, which we call Places that Matter. What’s a place that matters to you? St. Peter’s in Rome? Some obscure shrine? Pacific Spirit forest?  Let us know.

Finally, I am encouraging my colleagues at St. Mark’s to join me as guest hosts this year, so I hope you will soon hear from Kevin Eng, Fang Fang Chandra, Nick Olkovich, Fr. Nick Meisl and more. More What Matters Most.

Upcoming Events:

On September 13, CCE is presenting a film on AI with Regent College and VST in which we screen The End of Humanity followed by a panel discussion. This event is now sold out, but pay attention for news of a livestream and join the waitlist in case a ticket comes open.

On October 29, we will have a webinar on the American election featuring Steve Millies and his new book, A Consistent Ethic of Life: Navigating Catholic Engagement with U.S. Politics. We will also have a Canadian respondent who I can now tell you is Dr. Jane Barter, professor of religion and culture at the U of Winnipeg. She teaches and does research on Christianity, Religion and Gender, and Religion and Political Theory.  

On December 5, we will have Matt Hoven presenting in-person on his new book on Fr. David Bauer, Hockey Priest. Matt will be interviewed by Clay Imoo, Canuck Clay! 

Finally, the CCE is presenting a conference in 2025, The Promise of Christian Education: Past, Present and Future,  MAY 1-3, 2025, at ST. MARK'S COLLEGE, VANCOUVER, CANADA. Please consider sending in a proposal for a paper. If you are a graduate student and we accept your proposal to present a paper, we will cover your conference registration fees and the cost of the conference banquet. You do not have to present a paper to come. You can purchase a conference pass and simply attend all of the sessions. Consider joining us in Vancouver in 2025. You should also know that the plenary or keynote addresses are free and open to the public.

Three Confirmed Plenary Speakers: 

Dr. Margaret MacDonald, St. Mary's University, Halifax

Dr. Samuel Rocha, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Reverend Dr. Stan Chu Ilo, De Paul University, Chicago

The CCE website is now up and running. I am so excited that we now have one stop for all of our events, the podcast, our YouTube videos, and everything else, including upcoming events. Check it out!

What Matters Most is produced by the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark’s College, the Catholic college at UBC. The CCE is a centre at St. Mark’s College that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, members of other religious traditions, and from those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation.

Thanks to Martin Strong, Kevin Eng, and Fang Fang Chandra for all of their help and support in crafting this and all the other episodes. I also want to thank our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. In addition, the Cullen Family, Mark and Barbara, continue to support the work and outreach of the CCE, particularly in our lecture series and support of our conferences. 

Since St. Mark’s Centre for Christian Engagement seeks to enable the creation of a culture of encounter and dialogue, let me invite you into that discussion. Send me questions, send me ideas for guests, send me comments. Please follow me on Twitter, Threads, or BlueSky @biblejunkies, or on Facebook, at Biblejunkies, or on Instagram @stmarkscce. Or email me or Ms. Fang Fang Chandra at cceconferences@stmarkscollege.ca. Let us know what you think.

If you are enjoying the podcast, please let people know by rating and reviewing What Matters Most on your favourite podcasting platform. It really does help people find these inspiring conversations!

John W. Martens

Director, Centre for Christian Engagement, St. Mark's College at UBC