Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary
by Marina Warner
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Book Summary Information
Author: Marina WarnerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1983-03-12
ISBN: 0394711556
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary
Book Review: Centuries of artful dueling over Mother Mary's message
Summary: 5 Stars
Like an appealing art gallery guide, Warner conducts a grand tour of the legends, literature, and imagery concerning Mother Mary. Along the way she exposes vast differences in the messages these artists make Mary convey. On one hand, Warner shows the church moving to emphasize a host of pre-Christian rules about the ranking of males over females, and enforcement of taboos concerning sexual pollution -- to a point where all contact between men and women was a sin to be forgiven, and all love for women was a form of idolatry. As Matfr? Ermengaud put it in the 1200s, "Satan, in order to make men suffer bitterly, makes them adore women; for instead of loving as they should, the creator with fervent love, with all their heart, with all their mind, ... they sinfully love women". (p. 153.) Only males who had no part in such sin could mediate forgiveness for it.
On the other hand, Warner shows the rising popular devotion to women and mothers, taking form as troubadour art and as the great cult of Mother Mary. What did it mean to love her? Countering a rise of romantic ideals, the monastic artists promoted Mary as an expression of devotion for chastity. While formally shunning all earthly females, they pointed the parishioners toward a more worthy object for their devotion -- the chaste and non-physical woman of their spiritual dreams in heaven. In the "counter-romance" of clerical poetry about Mary, chastity was actually marriage to the Virgin in heaven. The Virgin called all men to love her, and was offended if they spurned her for mortal females. In a French clerical story of the 1300's, the "Miracles de Notre Dame par Personnages", a young man considers monastic vows, but then falls in love with a woman. The Virgin Mary appears and rebukes him in his bedroom:
"How can this be, since I am who I am, that you are leaving me for another woman? It seems you're badly underrating my worth and my beauty. ... You must be drunk to give your whole heart and all your love to a woman of this earth? And to leave me, the lady of heaven?" (p. 156.)
Warner's juxaposition of troubadour and clerical lore shows a marvelous, artfully conducted arguement over what is good, what is beautiful, and what we can aspire to.
--author of "Different Visions of Love"
Summary of Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary
Shows how the figure of Mary has shaped and been shaped by changing social and historical circumstances and why for all their beauty and power,the legends of Mary have condemned real women to perpetual inferiority.Religious Books
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