medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Monday, August 4, 2008, at 2:23 pm, George R. Hoelzeman wrote:
> Not knowing John, I'd say he was using the term in the sense that the
> stories of Joachim and Anne - from a historical standpoint - originate
> with the
> embellished literature of the second century and are not reliably
> based on historical fact.
Not just the stories but the very existence of persons named Joachim and Anne who were the parents of Mary the mother of Jesus. Obviously, Mary had human parents. But that those parents were named Joachim and Anne (or their Hebrew equivalents) is itself not reliably based on historical fact. And is thus anterior to whatever they are said to have done, felt, etc. in stories told about them.
> One could make the same arguement
> concerning many if not the
> majority of stories enshrined in religious history, whether sacred or
> profane.
Indeed. But in specifically Christian history, at least, the number of persons whom one could reasonably hold to be fictional in the sense of "not reliably based on historic fact" is considerably smaller than the number of stories that are fictional in this sense. Many, including St. George of Lydda, have cults clearly or arguably antedating the legendary stories that adorn their hagiographic dossiers. Though those stories are fictional, the persons so named arguably are not. In a banal sense, of course, _all_ characters in a fiction are fictional. But clearly there's a difference between fictionalizing an historically attested personage (as the _Protevangelium Jacobi_ memorably does with Mary***) and creating a character not previously known to have existed. It's only the latter who in ordinary language would be called fictional _tout court_.
Best again,
John Dillon
*** Mary's spinning thread at the moment of the Annunciation became a fixture in her iconography. Sed non ignota cano.
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