``Uneasy stability'', creator of bonds between diverse epochs and continents

Abstract

Elisabeth Gossmann is one of the pioneers in theological women's studies in Germany. Along with Joseph Ratzinger she was a student of the theologian Michael Schmaus who influenced her with his impulses of a new historical approach in dogmatic theology. Despite her important studies on medieval Mariology and on the ``analysis fidei'' of the ``Suma Halensis'' she was not allowed to habilitate in dogmatic theology at the faculty of theology in Munich at the beginning of the sixties because she was a woman. She taught dogmatic theology at several universities in Tokio and -after her habilitation in philosophy- also in Munich. She is a specialist concerning medieval theology and starts her researches on the image of women in the tradition of the Christian faith in the sixties at the time of the Second Vatican Council. Until the beginning of the 21st century she published several studies on the ``imago Dei'' in context with women. Especially her study on Hildegard von Bingen has to be emphasized.