medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
In response to the part of this thread that has tipped over towards the BVM, here's an interesting page that may, or may not, start a fresh thread, http://www.sol.com.au/kor/21_01.htm. I came across it in relation to this topic. It's from a back issue of the Knowledge of Reality magazine (now defunct?), on the (apocryphal) early life of Mary as a temple virgin, as reared in the future knowledge of her part in the redemption prophesy. The question raised in the article is, could Mary be the feminine aspect of God's power, with all the attendant qualities associated with 'feminine', and should she be regarded as the third person of God in the Holy Trinity? Hmm. Interesting.
As a Goddess-worshipper, in my community, naturally there has been rather logical speculation as to the 'borrowing' of the feminine aspect of of the Divine (reincarnated eventually as Marian culture) by the early Church who, to some degree, had to capitulate in order to "...fill a goddess-shaped hole" (Robert Graves, The White Goddess [pure poetical conjecture, but rather sweet in its intent]).
It is no surprise that religious ideas migrate and transform and get translated to other cultures/belief systems, but I wonder what really happened with regard to Mary, the teenage girl, the maybe a sash-wearing, charitable temple virgin, and how her presence in history--NT Gospels aside--filtered through to accommodate needs of native heathens (non-derogatory!) in worship, what we refer to nowadays as the polarity of male-female duality.
What is the treatment of Mary? And is it completely correct never, ever, ever to separate her identity from the Church? A bit like regarding the figure of Jesus as an historical player, and a human being in his own right, it would be nice to see the girl with a bit of independent flesh on her!
Could I ask the group to forgive my naivete on the matter of "...apocryphal writings...", as I don't know how far and how much they're taken into consideration for medieval histories. Probably not terribly far, I should think, as they aren't acceptable/-ed texts?? I don't know...if I hadn't done a degree in Music, I probably would have read History, and then I shouldn't be saying silly things now!!
By the way, despite being a Pagan, I'm a church chorister (Anglican with a dose of High), with good friends in the Clergy, and my in-laws are both retired Anglican ministers...in Northern Ireland!!!!! I believe the modern lingo would recommend that the reader "Go figure". ;-)
All the best,
Sarina.
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