Mothers, Children, and the Body Polit..., Nadya Williams
Mothers, Children, and the Body Polit..., Nadya Williams
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Mothers, Children, and the Body Politic
Ancient Christianity and the Recovery of Human Dignity

Author: Nadya Williams

Narrator: Nan McNamara

Unabridged: 8 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/05/2024


Synopsis

How we talk about human life matters.

In western post-Christian society, humans are thought of less like precious image bearers and more like commodities. The canary in the coal mine of this ideological shift is often women and children, which manifests itself in the seemingly built-in disdain towards motherhood and children for their lack of production of economically valuable goods. However, the risk of this utilitarian approach to human life is not just outside the church, but within those spaces as well. Indeed, the commodification of human life within the contemporary body politic is so deeply embedded within the systems, even the church has lost touch with some of the ways it inherently devalues the lives of women and children.

Classics scholar Nadya Williams draws from voices both ancient and modern to illuminate how Christians can value human life amidst an empire that seeks to dehumanize that which is most precious. Bringing insights from the beliefs and practices of the early church in Greco-Roman context about motherhood, raising children, and human life, Williams suggests there is a way to recapture a vision that affirms the imago Dei in each person over and above our economic contribution to society.

About Nadya Williams

Nadya Williams (PhD, Classics and Program in the Ancient World, Princeton University) is a military historian of the Greco-Roman world and the co-editor of Civilians and Warfare in World History. She is Book Review Editor at Current, where she also edits The Arena blog. She is a regular contributor to the Anxious Bench, and has also written for Plough, Front Porch Republic, Church Life Journal, History Today Magazine, History News Network, and The Conversation.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Abigail on February 22, 2025

Any book about Christianity’s influence to dignify and rescue women and children held up with copious references to Homer and Hesiod is … totally my jam. I could be best friends with anyone who feels the same. So I loved this so much, but I felt like the very end of the book (talking about the envir......more

Goodreads review by Abby on November 04, 2024

I liked the first few chapters, but once Williams got into all the classical myths and philosophers and such, I was not interested anymore. 😂 Guess I’m not a classicist at heart? I did come away with a renewed desire to notice those whose lives are devalued around me, and show God’s love indiscrimin......more

Goodreads review by Nicholas on March 18, 2026

Absolutely loved it. Had to return it to the library and never got around to finishing it. Every Christian who calls themself pro-life should be required to read this.......more

Goodreads review by Bob on January 14, 2025

Summary: Parallels the Western disdain for mothers and children with ancient Rome, and what early Christians can teach us. Nadya Williams decided in 2023 to walk away from a traditional academic career. But it was not, primarily, to freelance, or consult. She walked away to homeschool her children. A......more

Goodreads review by alex on January 25, 2026

This review is too long! If anyone actually reads this I apologize, but I didn’t feel like going back to edit down sentences and each of the points below seemed worth bringing up. And I’d like to remember these thoughts about this book. The topic of this book is really interesting and unique, coming......more