About the Author

Kate Cooper is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Manchester. Born in Washington, DC and educated at Princeton, Harvard, and Wesleyan universities, she is the author of The Virgin and the Bride and The Fall of the Roman Household. She is the recipient of the Rome Prize and a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome.

Reviews

"A distinguished ancient historian s elegant study of the extraordinary women who helped lay the foundations of the early Christian church Engaging reading for specialists and general readers alike." "Kirkus Reviews"
Advance praise for "Band of Angels"
This remarkable book is the best sort of engaged history, looking at familiar texts in new ways, while also revealing unfamiliar personalities and sources covering five centuries of early Christian development. It offers reflection on the meanings for contemporary Christian Churches which emerge from the stories that it tells. It makes an elegant and enjoyable contribution to unravelling centuries of unwarranted assumptions about the role of women in ministry and Christian life. - Diarmaid MacCulloch, "New York Times" bestselling author of "Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years"
"I don't quite know another book like this one...One great gift of this book involves women's agency. Contrary to the worn-out canard that Roman women "were just property," Cooper explains how Roman law allowed widows and even daughters control over property and wide room for influence Cooper has presented us with a wide-ranging, informative study. I admire her learning and her guidance, and she knows how to lead an audience. I am especially grateful that she chose to follow the lives of individual women rather than to build an abstract argument." "Huffington Post""

"A distinguished ancient historian's elegant study of the extraordinary women who helped lay the foundations of the early Christian church...Engaging reading for specialists and general readers alike." --"Kirkus Reviews"
Advance praise for "Band of Angels"
"This remarkable book is the best sort of engaged history, looking at familiar texts in new ways, while also revealing unfamiliar personalities and sources covering five centuries of early Christian development. It offers reflection on the meanings for contemporary Christian Churches which emerge from the stories that it tells. It makes an elegant and enjoyable contribution to unravelling centuries of unwarranted assumptions about the role of women in ministry and Christian life." ---Diarmaid MacCulloch, "New York Times" bestselling author of "Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years"
"I don't quite know another book like this one...One great gift of this book involves women's agency. Contrary to the worn-out canard that Roman women "were just property," Cooper explains how Roman law allowed widows and even daughters control over property and wide room for influence... Cooper has presented us with a wide-ranging, informative study. I admire her learning and her guidance, and she knows how to lead an audience. I am especially grateful that she chose to follow the lives of individual women rather than to build an abstract argument." --"Huffington Post"

Advance praise for "Band of Angels"
"This remarkable book is the best sort of engaged history, looking at familiar texts in new ways, while also revealing unfamiliar personalities and sources covering five centuries of early Christian development. It offers reflection on the meanings for contemporary Christian Churches which emerge from the stories that it tells. It makes an elegant and enjoyable contribution to unravelling centuries of unwarranted assumptions about the role of women in ministry and Christian life." ---Diarmaid MacCulloch, "New York Times" bestselling author of "Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years"

Advance praise for "Band of Angels"

"This remarkable book is the best sort of engaged history, looking at familiar texts in new ways, while also revealing unfamiliar personalities and sources covering five centuries of early Christian development. It offers reflection on the meanings for contemporary Christian Churches which emerge from the stories that it tells. It makes an elegant and enjoyable contribution to unravelling centuries of unwarranted assumptions about the role of women in ministry and Christian life." ---Diarmaid MacCulloch, "New York Times" bestselling author of "Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years"