In her recent book "The Gendered Palimpsest: Women, Writing and Representation in Early Christianity" (Oxford University Press), Kim Haines-Eitzen reveals a layered history of early Christianity through an analysis of women represented in early Christian texts and of women's roles in text transmission.

She will discuss the book Oct. 23 at 4:30 p.m. in 106G Olin Library. The talk is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a Q-and-A and book signing.

Haines-Eitzen is the H. Stanley Krusen Professor of World Religions at Cornell. In the book, she analyzes female figures represented in early texts of Christian literature and how the stories of women were transformed when manuscripts -- particularly of the New Testament and the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles -- were copied and transmitted. Variations in the text that occurred during the process of copying reflect the influence of debates in the earliest Christian churches about the human body and asceticism, and varying ideas of female sexuality.

She also examines how women may have participated in producing, reproducing and disseminating the Christian texts as authors, scribes/copyists, book lenders and patrons.

The book asserts the historical and representational evidence of women writers and readers in early Christianity, and argues for the rhetorical, literary and historical value students and scholars may obtain from the multiple representations and stories of such figures as Eve, the Virgin Mary, Thecla and Mary Magdalene.

Haines-Eitzen chairs the Department of Near Eastern Studies and is director of the Religious Studies Program at Cornell. Her other books include "Guardians of Letters: Literacy, Power and the Transmitters of Early Christian Literature" (2000).