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Morphing Mary: The Medieval Transformation of the of Jesus Christ Kristin Johnson

What happened to Mary? ture and to the Apostle’s Creed, which states that Jesus Christ was “conceived by the Holy Ghost [and] born of the Virgin Mary,”6 an In the time of Herod, king of Judea, a young Jewish girl gave birth accurate picture of Mary should be of concern. to a child who would change the course of history. What is men- The church argued strenuously in the fourth century regard- tioned of her in Scripture is significant, yet, throughout the cen- ing the accurate understanding and portrayal of Jesus as the Son turies, the identity and person of Mary has been elaborated upon of in relationship to in the Trinitarian con- by Catholics and often overlooked by Protestants. The biblical troversies.7 In fact, it was the equality of the Son and the Father Mary was a woman who is to be revered not only for her faith in established at the Nicene (a.d. 325) and Chalcedonian (a.d. 451) God, but also for what God accomplished through her. However, Councils that inadvertently encouraged the elevation of Mary’s the metamorphosis of Mary’s identity from humble Jewish girl to status as Theo-tokos,or “Mother of God.”8 However, while the di- semi-divine Mother of God was born out of the tradition of the vine status of Jesus was revealed from his own lips in Scripture,9 medieval church, not the Scriptures. the elevated status of Mary is only to be found in the traditional Mary has come a long way in the history of the church. Her documents of the church. As today’s Roman has depiction in the Scriptures as a humble young woman with enor- overemphasized Mary to the point of calling her Mediatrix,10 a mous faith and courage who, as a virgin, gave birth to Jesus, the Son concept found nowhere in Scripture, Protestant churches, con- of God, and raised him (as well as more than seven or eight other versely, have tended to deemphasize Mary in order to elevate children) has been overshadowed by church tradition that depicts Jesus. Protestants do not believe that Mary is intrinsic to one’s Mary as a devoutly religious celibate (conceived immaculately) salvation. Jesus’ emphatic words, “I am the way the truth and the who never consummated her marriage and gave birth to Jesus life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” (John 14:6) without disrupting her hymen so as to insure her perpetual vir- are used by Protestants to argue against Mary’s role as “Co-Re- ginity.1 The Mary of the gospels who proclaimed, “I am the ’s demptrix”11 and are considered authoritative because they are servant. . . . May it be to me as you have said,” (Luke 1:38)2 is a far scriptural and have passed the test of canonical authority. How- cry from the Mary enshrined in gold leaf who, as Theo-tokos, or ever, the medieval church’s reliance on such documents as the Mother of God, and intercessor, “occupies the principal mediat- Protoevangelium of James (a.d. 120) and its tendency to interpret ing position, as a creature belonging to both and .3 Scripture allegorically allowed for “exegesis [to] sometimes play The biblical Mary, who, in her humanity, misunderstood Jesus’ handmaiden to personal and cultural assumptions.”12 mission at one point and came to “take charge of him” because The tendency of the church, Catholic and Protestant, to distort Jesus’ family thought that he was “out of his mind” (Mark 3:21), or ignore the person of Mary has less to do with than it stands in opposition to the Mary of the medieval tradition, who, does with physiology. The one indisputable yet controversial fact “from the first instance of her conception, [is] totally preserved is that Mary, who was the chosen instrument of God for the great- from the stain of original sin throughout her life.”4 est display of his power and mercy on earth, was a woman. The What happened to the faithful young virgin who bore Jesus church has had a hard time dealing with the feminine, so much so Christ and, with Joseph, became a mother of several sons, one of that women used by God, such as Mary, simply have been ignored whom (James) became the leader of the Jerusalem church (Acts or morphed into creatures devoid of female sexual- 12:17; 15; 21:18; Gal. 2:9, 12) and writer of an epistle (James 1:1), ity. These anti-feminine views are rooted in the medieval church, and another by the name of Judas who wrote the epistle of Jude which was notorious for defaming the feminine to the point (Jude 1:1)? What happened to the identity of this brave, godly that women were taught that they had to become men to serve woman who experienced supernatural events surrounding her Christ.13 Consequently, celibacy and virginity were embraced as pregnancy, yet who was neither perfect nor omniscient and did qualities of piety so that monasteries flourished and even married not always understand her son’s mission (Mark 3:34)? What hap- couples were encouraged to refrain from the sin of sexual rela- pened to Scripture’s depiction of a faithful, ordinary woman who endured the horrific death of her son and the seeming death of all Kristin Johnson is a Lydia Scholar for the Network of Presbyterian the promises God had given to her, yet became a faithful disciple Women in Leadership and the Executive Director and pillar in the Christian church (Acts 1:14)? for OneByOne, a Presbyterian renewal ministry Why is the Mary of the Scriptures so different from the Mary that educates and equips the church to minister Christ’s truth and grace to those who struggle depicted in the traditions of the church that came to full flower in with unwanted same-sex attraction, sexual addic- the medieval era? For those who do not believe in the virgin birth tion, and the effects of sexual abuse. She has also of Jesus, the portrayals of Mary in the Bible and in the Roman served as the President of Christians for Biblical Catholic Church can be written off as or as dramatized Equality, Boston chapter. elaborations at best.5 However, for those who adhere to Scrip-

Priscilla Papers ◆ Vol. 22, No. 1 ◆ Winter 2008 • 11 tions unless they intended to procreate.14 Sexuality and feminin- and “a man may give testimony against his wife by which she may ity became deterrents to salvation, so virginity became a means to be executed by stoning if his testimony may be shown true”; a holiness and even salvation. Still, in the twenty-first century, the woman who does not submit to her husband, her head, is “guilty Roman Catholic Church’s Catechism states, “Christ’s birth did not of the same crime as a man who does not submit to his head diminish his mother’s virginal integrity but sanctified it” (emphasis (Christ)”; “a woman has no power but in all things may be sub- mine).15 The fact that the church has to qualify childbirth (even ject to the power of man”; and “because of original sin [woman] the birth of Christ!) shows how disparagingly a woman’s body ought to be seen to be subordinate . . . in church she may not have and reproduction were viewed in the medieval church, even in her head uncovered and she is not allowed to speak.”20 marriage, when contrasted with virginity and chastity. Thomas Aquinas (d. a.d. 1247), appointed by Pope Leo XIII, This negative view of women was not exclusive to the me- became one of the most influential and authoritative Christian dieval church. In fact, the view of women as inferior and more theologians for Catholics and Protestants alike. Thomas was not susceptible to evil was directly transplanted from several Church only influenced by the Church Fathers’ negative view of women, Fathers who were influenced by rabbinic teachings as well as the but also was highly influenced by Greek philosophy, which depre- pagan Greco-Roman culture, which venerated such cated women. He “interpreted the writings of Saint Paul through as Athena while demeaning female nature.16 It would seem at the mind of Aristotle, and the Greek deprecation of women be- first glance that elevating Mary to semi-divine status would el- came solidly infused within Christian theology.”21 Thomas wrote: evate the status of women; however, women remained in a state The active power in the seed of the male tends to produce of subjectivity and inferiority. In fact, the elevation of Mary as something like itself, perfect in masculinity; but the procre- otherworldly was predicated on the misogynist assumption that ation of a female is the result either of the debility of the active ordinary women were inferior to men, prone to deception, and power, of some unsuitability of material, or of some change untrustworthy. Therefore, Mary, the mother of Jesus—the mother effected by external influences, like the south wind, for ex- of the Son of God—could not have been a mere woman, for how ample, which is damp, as we are told by Aristotle. . . . Aristotle could a woman, who is by her own female nature prone to evil, says, “with man male and female are not only joined together have been chosen and entrusted by God to execute his most holy for purposes of procreation . . . but to establish a home life and anticipated mission? . . . in which man is head of the woman.”22 In the medieval, patristic, and Greco-Roman mind, the bib- lical view of women and, thus, God’s choosing of Mary went Thomas also infused into his theology the Greek notion that rea- against humanity’s entire patriarchal culture. The fact is that the son dominates emotion and that man represents reason, which medieval church had to deify Mary in order to continue to rel- is superior, while woman represents emotion, which is inferior. egate women to positions of inferiority and exclude them from Therefore, it is not surprising that Thomas taught and wrote, participation and leadership within the church. Only one woman “Such is the subjection in which woman is by nature subordinate could have a position of authority in the church, and that was the to man, because the power of rational discernment is by nature Blessed Virgin, who was no mere woman, but was the sinless and stronger in man.”23 In addition to perpetuating these Greco- “ever-virgin” . Therefore, the transformation of Roman male/female distinctions, Thomas also taught the “in- Mary from faithful yet fallible servant of God to the immaculate trinsic evil of sexual desire.”24 Only for purposes of procreation Mother of God is paradoxically a product of humanity’s consis- should a married man and woman act on their sexual desires.25 tently negative view of women. The connection between Aristotelian and medieval church views How the negative view of women led to the of women and sexuality was a “mind/senses distinction . . . ac- veneration of Mary cording to which woman, the ‘body’ of man, is necessarily subor- dinate to him as the passions are subject to the intellect.”26 Con- In the medieval church, the status of women met an all-time low sequently, the belief that man was to rule woman was seen as akin while the status of Mary reached an all-time high. The twelfth to reason controlling the appetite. century “marked the high point of Marian devotion as well as Church leaders agreed with the Greco-Roman philosophy the flowering of cathedral-building: it was the age of ‘Notre that the body or soul was seen to be opposed to the spirit. Origen Dame.’”17 However, ordinary women were increasingly excluded stated that “the spirit is said to be male; the soul can be called from leadership roles in the church.18 This was due in large part female.”27 He also taught in his Genesis Homily I that, in order for to the Church Fathers, whose disparaging views of women were the spirit and body to work together, it required them to “turn the engrafted into such documents as the Decretum (a.d. 1140), an inclination of the flesh, which has been subjected . . . and have important reference book of the Middle Ages written by Mas- dominion over it, while the flesh, of course, becomes insolent ter Gratian of Bologna.19 Gratian quotes Augustine, , and in nothing against the will of the spirit.” Therefore, because the and concludes, based on their writings, the following: body, which was considered to be prone to chaos and evil, was women are legally under the authority of men; women are to in need of suppression, it would follow that women, who rep- obey their husbands as sons obey their fathers; women, unlike resented the body or soul, be controlled and restrained as well. men, are not made in the image of God; wives are to be servants R. Howard Bloch states that “the distrust of woman in the writ-

12 • Priscilla Papers ◆ Vol. 22, No. 1 ◆ Winter 2008 ings of the early church fathers is at least partially attributable fasting, my body was ice-cold: yet my mind was burning with to a refusal of, a barrier against, the contumacious presence of desire, and the fires of lust kept boiling up within me. . . .36 the body.”28 Bloch rightly concludes that the “disenfranchising Jerome took these negative notions of marriage and sexual desire alliance of woman with the senses as opposed to mind, with the and, unfortunately, came to the conclusion that virginity was a body as opposed to the soul, has far-reaching implications within means to spiritual attainment, particularly a woman’s spiritual at- the hierarchized ontological op- tainment, and interpreted the vir- positions that dominate medieval he Church Fathers so spiritualized virginity that both gin birth as a model for this spiri- thought, culture, and society.”29 Jerome and Augustine speculated as to whether tual endeavor. Jerome states: Therefore, it is no wonder that T married persons would be allowed into heaven and the silencing of The virtue of continence used to be women in the medieval church because they believed the mere “wanton incentive” to found only in men, and Eve went went hand in hand, and it is no intercourse was sinful—even in marriage. on sustaining the labour-pains of wonder that Mary had to be el- childbirth. But now that a virgin evated as more than a mere woman. This ascetic trend “gained has conceived in the womb and borne for us a child of which momentum with St. Jerome, the influential ascetic who gave the the prophet says that “Government shall be upon his shoulder, church its Latin Vulgate and popularized belief in Mary’s per- and his name shall be called the mighty God, and everlasting petual virginity.”30 Jerome believed that marriage “ranked third Father,” the chain of the curse is broken. Death came through after virginity and widowhood in its spiritual yield.”31 He ranted Eve, but life has come through Mary. And thus the gift of virgin- against a monk named Jovinian and eventually had him excom- ity has been bestowed most richly upon women, seeing that it municated for daring to suggest that “baptized Christians can at- has had its beginning from a woman. As soon as the Son of tain equal spiritual merit whether married, single, or widowed.”32 God set foot upon earth, he formed a new household for Him- Jerome refuted Jovinian’s interpretation of 1 Corinthians 7 with self here, so that, just as He was adorned by angels in heaven, his own thoughts on this passage and then cited extensively from angels might also serve Him on earth [emphasis mine].37 Theophrastus, a pagan philosopher who followed Aristotle’s teaching. Jerome’s view “was endlessly quarried by subsequent The Church Fathers so spiritualized virginity that both Jerome writers.”33 He states: and Augustine speculated as to whether married persons would be allowed into heaven because they believed the mere “wanton What am I to do when the women of our time press me with incentive” to intercourse was sinful—even in marriage.38 Clem- apostolic authority, and before the first husband is buried re- ent of Alexandria states, “To indulge in intercourse without in- peat over and over again from memory the precepts which tending children is to outrage nature. . . . [I]f we weave the ideals allow a second marriage? May those who despise the faith- of chastity by day and then unravel them in the marriage bed fulness of Christian purity at least learn chastity from the at night, we do no better than Penelope at her loom.”39 It is not heathen. The Book of Theophrastus on marriage is said to be surprising that Clement of Alexandria had a low view of women. worth its weight in gold. In it the author asks whether the wise He believed that man had a stronger nature than woman and that man marries. And after laying down these conditions—that even a man’s body hair was proof of his primacy.40 a wife must be fair, of good character, and honest parentage, Such great theologians as Tertullian and Augustine taught that the husband in good health and of ample means—and after woman was to blame for the fall of humanity. Tertullian taught saying that under these circumstances a wise man sometimes that being female was a “condition” that required the truly devout enters the state of matrimony, he immediately proceeds thus: woman to dress as if in mourning in order to “expiate more fully “But all these conditions are seldom satisfied in marriage. A by all sorts of penitential garb that which woman derives from wise man therefore must not take a wife. For in the first place Eve—the ignominy . . . of original sin and the odium of being the his study of philosophy will be hindered, and it is impossible cause of the fall of the human race.”41 Tertullian then goes on to for anyone to attend his books and his wife at the same time” quote the curse of Eve as dictating the rightful place of Christian . . . if we have a wife we can neither leave her behind, nor take women: “‘In sorrow and anxiety, you will bring forth, O woman, the burden with us [emphasis mine].34 and you are subject to your husband, and he is your master.’ Do you not believe that you are [each] an Eve?”42 Ambrose, the tutor Jerome also stresses the “unremitting vigilance against desire”35 of Augustine, was of one mind with Tertullian. Ambrose stated, in a letter of advice to his friend Paula’s daughter: “She [Eve] was the first to be deceived and was responsible for When I was living in the desert . . . tears and groans were deceiving the man.”43 Therefore, Augustine also rationalized that my daily routine; and whenever drowsiness overcame my woman was not made in the image of God: “Woman together struggles against it, I bruised my bones . . . although in my with her husband is the image of God so that the whole human fear of hell I had consigned myself to this prison, where I had substance is one image. But when she is assigned as a help-mate, no companions but scorpions and wild beasts, I often found a function that pertains to her alone, then she is not the image of myself surrounded by dancing girls! My face was pale from God; but as far as the man is concerned, he is by himself alone the

Priscilla Papers ◆ Vol. 22, No. 1 ◆ Winter 2008 • 13 image of God”44 John Chrysostom agreed and added that “the their husbands.58 Even Irenaeus, who did not deprecate women ‘image’ [of God] has rather to do with authority, and this only the like other Church Fathers did, still believed that women were the man has; the woman has it no longer. For he is subject to no one, cause of the fall.59 Therefore, women were told by later Church while she is subject to him.”45 Fathers that consecrating themselves as virgins would “enable It is not surprising that women attempted through virginal them to overcome the curse of Eve.”60 For the medieval woman monasticism to rid themselves of the contamination of their fe- who was already married and for the “fallen” woman, the only male sex. They were following the teachings of the Church Fa- way to salvation was penitence.61 thers, such as Ambrose, who said, “She who does not have faith The role of women in this medieval world of asceticism was is a woman and should be called by the name of her sex, but she not shaped by the real Mary as much as the image of Mary was who believes progresses to perfect manhood . . . she then does shaped by the patriarchal culture. The superiority of virginity led away with the name of her sex.”46 Liberation for medieval women to the elevation of Mary as the prototypical Blessed Virgin, whom meant no longer being a woman. In Jerome’s opinion, a woman women were to emulate, if not in complete celibate devotion, at who wanted to serve Christ “will cease to be a woman and will least as submissive, humble, and penitent and wives. If be called a man.”47 Interestingly, once women assumed this shed- married women took vows of celibacy, it was all the better for ding of their female sexuality, Jerome himself was surprised at their spiritual advancement.62 The practice of taking vows of celi- their achievements. Two women whom he admired in particular bacy was written into the biography of Mary in one of the most were co-editors with him of the Latin Vulgate.48 However, lat- influential apocryphal gospels, the Protoevangelium of James, er Church Fathers erased these women’s names and referred to written in the late second century by an author claiming to be them as “venerable brothers.”49 one of the twelve apostles, James the Less, the Son of Alphaeus. This defeminization in the medieval church had pagan roots. However, the author has been found by scholars to be ignorant of Christian theologians agreed with pagan beliefs that courage was Jewish customs and the geography of Palestine.63 equated with manhood and that “a woman who had triumphed The Protoevangelium of James and other documents, such as over female weakness was praised—as Olympias was and many Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, History of Joseph the Carpenter, and others—not for being a brave woman, but for being a man.”50 The Gospel of the Birth of Mary (third to fourth century a.d.), assert Greek Athena was not born of a woman, but out of the that Mary’s mother, Anna, conceived Mary by divine interven- head of a male god—Zeus—and was delivered brandishing an tion and vowed to take Mary to the temple at the age of three, array of weaponry. Athena, the patron goddess of the capital of where she would live and remain a virgin, receiving food from Greece, is the “archetype of the masculine woman”51 who denied the hand of an angel and weaving purple and scarlet veils for the her femininity to find a divine place in a man’s world. temple.64 The Protoevangelium of James asserts that Mary was In addition to defeminization, virginity is also prevalent given in marriage to Joseph (a ) at the request of his fellow among Greek goddesses. was a virgin, as was Athena; who claimed that Mary would defile the temple because nevertheless, she was associated with childbirth and the female she had just turned twelve years old.65 cycle and “probably evolved from the concept of a primitive And the priest said to Joseph, “You have been chosen by lot to .”52 Not only was femininity deprecated by the receive the virgin of the Lord as your Ward.” But Joseph an- female goddesses themselves, but they devalued marriage as swered him, “I have sons and am old; she is but a girl. I object well. “ defied her husband and ignored hers . . . lest I should become the laughing-stock to the sons of Israel.”66 other major goddesses chose not to marry at all.”53 For mortal Greek women, their lives were “circumscribed by domesticity . . . Joseph is then described as having been previously married. He is [g]oddesses, on the other hand, even if married, were not con- described as a widower with four sons and two daughters. strained by familial obligations.”54 The parallels between Greek and medieval church There was a man whose name was Joseph, descended from a practice and monasticism are striking. However, it was “extraor- family of Bethlehem, a town of Judah, and the city of King Da- dinary . . . in Greco-Roman terms, for a woman to opt not to vid. This same man, being well instructed with wisdom and marry.”55 Greco-Roman goddesses had this option, but not ordi- learning, was made priest in the temple of the Lord. He was, nary women. However, for the medieval woman, renouncing the also, skilful in his trade which was that of a carpenter and like female sex along with marriage became more than an option, but all men he married a wife. Moreover he begot for himself sons a holy endeavor. A woman could enter the spiritual realm, cast off and daughters, in fact four sons and two daughters—Judas, her femininity, free herself from the constraints of marriage, and Justus, James, and Simeon—Assia and Lydia . . . at length the create a legitimate place for herself as a saint. Moreover, “the re- wife of righteous Joseph, a woman intent on the divine glory nunciation and denial of sexuality could in themselves be a path in all her works, died.67 to God.”56 Like martyrdom, which was a way to sainthood, celi- The fact that the Protoevangelium of James became a part of bacy became the new “way to perfection” for men and women.57 church tradition and was seen as an authoritative supplement However, for women in particular, celibacy provided a way to to the Scriptures is due in large part to Jerome, the formidable reverse the curse of original sin and the subsequent subjection to translator of the Vulgate. In addition to “promot[ing] the practice

14 • Priscilla Papers ◆ Vol. 22, No. 1 ◆ Winter 2008 —and the ideal—of celibacy,”68 Jerome endorsed the Proto- ings of the medieval church, one does not have to be of a particu- evangelium of James and copied the earliest surviving version of lar gender or be an asexual celibate to enter into God’s presence the Gospel of the Birth of Mary.69 The Protoevangelium of James and favor. The greatness of Mary was her faith in God’s greatness, claimed that Mary’s virginity remained intact after the birth of nothing more. It is the “nothing more” that was antithetical to the Jesus, and, because Jerome insisted on this fact in Anti Helvidius, medieval church and it remains antithetical to human nature. We it remained undisputed in the church.70 want more—more credit. For the medieval church to have given The negative view of women as the “Devil’s gateway”71 led to Mary credit that belongs to God alone was idolatrous. the belief that women are inferior to men and are subject to men. In turn, not giving enough credit to individuals willing to be This then led to the notion that a woman could transcend this used by God to accomplish his purposes is also shortsighted. state of blame and subjection by eschewing her sexuality and liv- While the medieval church gave too much credit to the male cler- ing a celibate life. This desired attainment led devout girls and gy, it neglected women and the laity. When the male clergy failed women to aspire to a state of perpetual virginity to the point that to accept Mary as revealed in Scripture, did not appreciate what a woman could “fall from the highest rank of immaculate virgin- God did through a woman who faithfully put her life and reputa- ity to a lower one by marrying.”72 Thus, the negative view of femi- tion in God’s hands, and did not take the time to ponder the enor- ninity and the subsequent idolatry of celibacy created the cult of mity of God’s entrusting to her his only Son, they neglected—and Mary and propagated the distorted notion that women and men still neglect—women whom God chooses to use. alike must attain their salvation by their own spiritual perfection The teaching of the medieval church and the cult of Mary in- rather than Christ’s perfection. advertently taught people that they must become perfect in or- der to be used by God, that they must suppress their God-given Why does Mary matter? sexual desires in marriage, and that they can never be certain of Does it matter whether the contemporary church believes in their relationship with God and a future in heaven. This distorted Mary as the Blessed Virgin and ascended Co-Redemptrix or in the image of God and either brought people to the church out of Mary as revealed in Scripture? Can both descriptions of Mary fear or drove them away because they refused to the God be true? Can apostolic Scripture and church tradition be equally that had been made in the church’s image. valid? The answer to these questions lies in the realm of faith, yet The medieval church failed to teach that Mary’s conception faith needs to be based on reality—on something that is true—or of Jesus was less profound than the conception of the Holy Spirit why bother having faith at all? in Mary’s heart.75 It failed to unveil the Mary from the Scriptures The picture of the biblical Mary that we receive from the apos- and, instead, adorned her in its medieval prejudices and misper- tolic authors is of a woman who was human, fallible, and faithful. ceptions. The scriptural view of Mary, to which only male clergy What happened to Mary in her pregnancy and motherhood was had access, should have been taught faithfully and truthfully to extraordinary. God took the “cursed” sex and took up residence the laity whom they were entrusted to shepherd. If they had done in the “contumacious presence of the body”73—in particular, a so, the church would have provided great hope to its congrega- woman’s body. Not only this, but the Lord went directly to the tions. The truth of the biblical Mary is that God comes directly woman. God did not go to her husband until later, and then only to individuals regardless of gender, moral perfection, and hierar- to confirm what he had already told her and what she had accept- chical position in the church and offers salvation with no strings ed by faith. God put himself, literally, into the hands of a faithful attached so that God can work his wonders through ordinary teenage girl, trusting her to participate in the fulfillment of his people whom God loves. Just as Mary accepted the Lord’s pro- greatest mission on earth. Mary was not the first woman God posal, so can any human being. The faith that was conceived in used to participate in the fulfillment of his purpose and plan, nor Mary can be conceived in every human heart. was she the last. Notes According to Scripture, Mary and Joseph became the parents of four biological sons and an unspecified number of daughters 1. Catechism of the Catholic Church (New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, (Matt. 13:55–56). There was no reason that Mary should have had to 1994), 143 (510); Marina Warner, Alone of Her Sex: The Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary (New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, 1983), xxii; Georges remain a virgin in order to prove her spiritual status unless she had Duby and Michelle Perrot, A History of Women: Silences of the Middle been living under the teachings of the medieval church. It would Ages (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992), 26. have been implausible for a Jewish girl to aspire to remain a virgin 2. Scripture quotations are from the New International Version. in a Jewish culture when the “injunction to marry was central” and 3. Warner, Alone of Her Sex, xxii; Catechism of the Catholic Church, Jewish men and women were commanded to procreate.74 139 (495), 275 (969–71). Theologically, the correct historical rendition of Mary has 4. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 142 (508). profound implications for humanity. If Mary was, as the Bible 5. Michael Jordan, The Historical Mary: Revealing the Pagan Identity of the Virgin Mother (Berkeley, Calif.: Ulysses Press, 2003). Jordan’s conclu- describes her, a normal woman who put her faith in God’s word, sions about the identity of Mary are as speculative as those he criticizes. to whom God came, and through whom God accomplished his 6. The Book of Confessions: The Constitution of the Presbyterian great purpose, then God can come to any fallible person and ac- Church (U.S.A.) (Louisville, Ky.: The Office of the General Assembly, complish his purposes through him or her. Contrary to the teach- 2002), 7 (2.1–3).

Priscilla Papers ◆ Vol. 22, No. 1 ◆ Winter 2008 • 15 7. Henry Bettenson and Chris Maunder, Documents of the Christian 40. Clement of Alexandria, Christ the Educator (94) in The Fathers Church (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 32–42. of the Church, 214. 8. Duby and Perrot, A History of Women, 25; Dwight Longenecker 41. St. Ambrose, Hexamenon, Paradise, Cain and Abel, in The Fa- and David Gustafson, Mary: A Catholic-Evangelical Debate (Grand Rap- thers of the Church, vol. 42, trans. John J. Savage, (New York, N.Y.: The ids, Mich.: Brazos Press, 2003), 111–12; Warner, Alone of Her Sex, 65. Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1961), 301. 9. “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9), “I and the 42. St. Ambrose, Hexamenon, Paradise, Cain and Abel, in The Fa- Father are one” (John 10:30), and “All authority on heaven and earth has thers of the Church, 301. been given to me” (Matt. 28:18). 43. St. Ambrose, Paradise, chs. 4 and 6, in Schmidt, Veiled and Si- 10. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 275 (969). lenced, 43. 11. Longenecker and Gustafson, Mary, 192–98. 44. St. Augustine, The , in The Fathers of the Church, trans. 12. Elizabeth A. Clark, Women in the Early Church: Message of the Stephen McKenna (Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Fathers of the Church, vol. 13 (Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, Press, 1963), 352. 1983), 16. 45. Chrysostom, qtd. in Susan H. Hyatt, In the Spirit We’re Equal 13. St. Jerome, Commentarius in Epistolam and Ephesios 3, in Alvin (Dallas, Tex.: Hyatt International Ministries, 1998), 54. John Schmidt, Under the Influence: How Transformed Civili- 46. St. Ambrose, Evangelius Secundum Lucum 10.161, in Schmidt, zation (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan , 2001), 201. Veiled and Silenced, 201. 14. B. A. Windeatt, trans., The Book of Margery Kempe (London: 47. St. Jerome, Commentarius in Epistolam and Ephesios 3, in Penguin Books, 1985), 56. Schmidt, Veiled and Silenced, 201. 15. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 141 (499). 48. Schmidt, Veiled and Silenced, 153. 16. Schmidt, Under the Influence, 109. 49. Schmidt, Veiled and Silenced, 153. 17. Duby and Perrot, A History of Women, 24. 50. Gillian Clark, Women in Late Antiquity: Pagan and Christian 18. Max Weber, Sociology of Religion (Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press, Lifestyles (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 129. 1957), 104, in Schmidt, Under the Influence, 109. 51. Sarah M. Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves (New 19. Alcuin Blamires, Women Defamed and Women Defended: An An- York, N.Y.: Dorset Press, 1975), 4. thology of Medieval Texts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 64. 52. Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, 6. 20. C. W. Marx, trans., The Decretum, in Blamires, Women Defamed 53. Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, 9. and Women Defended, 83–87. 54. Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, 9. 21. John Temple Bristow, What Paul Really Said About Women (San 55. Gillian Clark, Women in Late Antiquity, 51. Francisco, Calif.: Harper Collins Publishers, 1991), 29. 56. Gillian Clark, Women in Late Antiquity, 131. 22. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica 1a. 92, article I, in Blamires, 57. Elizabeth A. Clark, Women in the Early Church, 115. Women Defamed and Women Defended, 92. 58. Elizabeth A. Clark, Women in the Early Church, 115. 23. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica 2a–2ae, 177, 2, in Blamires, 59. Irenaeus, Against Heresies (a.d. 185) 22, 4, qtd. in Elizabeth A. Women Defamed and Women Defended, 93. Clark, Women in the Early Church, 38. 24. Margaret A. Farley, “Sexual Ethics,” in James B. Nelson and San- 60. Duby and Perrot, A History of Women, 30. dra P. Longfellow, Sexuality and the Sacred: Sources for Theological Re- 61. Duby and Perrot, A History of Women, 30. flection (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994), 61. 62. Windeatt, The Book of Margery Kempe, 56. 25. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I–II, 34 1 ad 1, in Nelson 63. Jordan, The Historical Mary,89. and Longfellow, Sexuality and the Sacred, 61. 64. Protoevangelium of James 4.1, 7.2, 8.1, 10.1, qtd. in Jordan, The 26. R. Howard Bloch, Medieval Misogyny and the Invention of West- Historical Mary, 89–90. ern Romantic Love (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 30. 65. Protoevangelium of James 8.2, 9.2, qtd. in Jordan, The Historical 27. Origen, Genesis Homily I (15), in The Fathers of the Church: Ori- Mary, 93, 95. gen Homilies on Genesis and Exodus, vol. 71, trans. Ronald E. Heine 66. Protoevangelium of James 9.1ff, qtd. in Jordan, The Historical (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University Press, 1982), 68. Mary, 93. 28. Bloch, Medieval Misogyny, 30. 67. Protoevangelium of James 114, qtd. in Jordan, The Historical 29. Bloch, Medieval Misogyny, 30. Mary, 94. 30. Alvin John Schmidt, Veiled and Silenced: How Culture Shaped 68. Ruth A. Tucker, “The Changing Roles of Women in Ministry: Sexist Theology (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1989), 152. The Early Church Through the 18th Century,” in Discovering Biblical 31. Blamires, Women Defamed and Women Defended, 64. Equality: Complementarity Without Hierarchy, ed. Ronald W. Pierce, 32. Blamires, Women Defamed and Women Defended, 64. Rebecca Merrill Groothuis, and Gordon D. Fee (Downers Grove, Ill.: 33. Blamires, Women Defamed and Women Defended, 64. InterVarsity Press, 2004), 27. 34. Jerome, Against Jovinian (Adversus Jovinianum, c. 393) 12 (1.47), 69. Jordan, The Historical Mary,91, 94. in Blamires, Women Defamed and Women Defended, 70. 70. Duby and Perrot, A History of Women, 26. 35. Blamires, Women Defamed and Women Defended, 74. 71. Tertullian, On the Dress of Women I, 1.1, qtd. in Elizabeth A. 36. Jerome, Letter 22, to Eustochium (384), in Blamires, Women De- Clark, Women in the Early Church, 39. famed and Women Defended, 74. 72. Tertullian, Exhortion to Chastity IX, qtd. in Elizabeth A. Clark, 37. Blamires, Women Defamed and Women Defended, 76. Women in the Early Church, 147. 38. Augustine, The City of God, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 73. Bloch, Medieval Misogyny, 30. 2.281–2, in Bristow, What Paul Really Said About Women, 114. 74. Farley, “Sexual Ethics,” 55. 39. Clement of Alexandria, Christ the Educator (94), in The Fathers 75. Luke 1:38: “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be of the Church, vol. 23, trans. Simon P. Wood, C.P (New York, N.Y., The to me as you have said.” Acts 1:14: “They all joined together constantly in Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1954), 172. prayer, along with the women and Mary the other of Jesus, and with his brothers.” Mary and her family were present at Pentecost and were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in other tongues.

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