In conversation with Church Historian Dr. Hannah Hunt, we explore the Substantive view of the imago Dei with an eye to Hellenistic influences on early Christian thought. These cultural and theological views led many virtuous women to reject their feminine bodies, forsake marriage and perform spirituality through masculinization.Dr. Hannah Hunt is a Church History scholar and former Senior Lecturer in Theology at Leeds Trinity University. She is the author of the books “Clothed in the Body: Asceticism, the Body and the Spiritual in the Late Antique Era” and "Joy-Bearing Grief: Tears of Contrition in the Writings of the Early Syrian and Byzantine Fathers" along with numerous scholarly articles. As a poet, she writes under the name Hannah Stone. You can read her history related poems in the book New Crops from Old Fields: Eight Medievalist Poets.* Thanks to Borrtex for the use of his song "Courage." 'r2up8tnv'