ftelizabethjohnson

"that intergenerational community
of the living and the dead
stretching across time and space and
comprised of all who are made holy by the Spirit of God (xiii)."

Why now? postindustrial, postmodern world
devotion to Mary on decline
need knew vision of Mary as friend, real

Other Treatments of Mary
Each of four gospels treats her differently
according to the theological perspectives of the evangelists.

Protestants usually emphasize Mark's "rather negative assessment" of Mary

Catholics take from Luke "a positive, personalistic view of her as full of grace and favor from God, a woman who cooperated with the divine adventure of bringing the Redeemer into human flesh (3)"

Orthodox Christians "approach Mary in the iconic, symbolic manner of John (3)."

Koran, Mariyam, "a relatively important position as mother of the prophet Jesus whome she conceived by the Spirit (4)."

Folk traditions, devotions

Parallel figures:
Kwan Yin, Buddhism
Guanyin, Chinese
Sakti, Hinduism

*Functions to promote particular social-political agendas (5)
Mary crushing snake

Chpt. 2 Ice Cracks
Seeing Mary with women's eyes, through feminist lenses

She defines feminism as an "intellectual and practical stance that promotes the well-being of women as genuine human beings, fully gifted while very diverse, and worth of equal dignity, rights and power in every sphere of life (21)."

multi-cultural, pluralistic, avoiding false universalism (Daly?)

Idealization of Mary
what's wrong with idealizing Mary? (22-23)

contrast with Eve (death through Eve, life through Mary)
scapegoating female sexuality as cause of sine and death (29)

She notes that Eve-Mary contrast used to disparage women much more than the Adam-Christ distinction (24)

Rosemary Ruether's "madonna-whore" syndrome

Asserts that in countries with flourishing Marian devotion, women have little involvement in public and political life

Same holds true for churches with strongest official attachment to Mary - they are least likely to be open to full participation of women in ecclesial public life and ministry (25)

Are these assertions true? Think of some examples of countries with strong traditions of Marian devotion. What roles do women play in public life?

If it is true, should Marian devotion be scrapped as anti-woman, anti-feminist?

Which churches have the strongest attachment to Mary? What role do women play in this/these churches?

Mary as role model to women
Handmaid - as god's unquestioning helper

Virgin - as sexless, pure, sinless product of Immaculate Conception
    again, contrasted with normal women's sexual impurity, purience, Eve
    [note: she also suggest virginity as a role of empowering women in early Christian         eras who were universally "conscripted" into marriage and childbearing as their duties     to the family and state (29)]

    Also role model for Catholic Church - Church itself as a virgin (32)

Mother - as selfless, self-sacrificing, the "heart" of the home

Sociological subordination - obedience, subjection
    men take the initiative, women respond, dominance-submission dichotomy

Feminist Interpretations
liberal feminists - Rosemary Radford Ruether's interpretation of the annunciation
that emphasizes Mary's will, agency

radical feminists - Mary Daly - Mary as "duly, dutifully derivative" but Assumption foretelling women's rising

French post-modernists - Julie Kristeva deconstructs trad'l dogma on virgin-mother, reclaims motherhood, erotic pleasure

Socialist feminists (liberation theologists) - God's favor on Mary because she is poor

Romantic feminism (cultural feminists) - feminine other, complementary, Jungian psych, archetypes, etc.