Product Description
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…. More >>
Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Notice that if you have an encounter with the Virgin Mary. . . and write about it you are biased. If you have a feminist axe to grind and write from the point of view of philosophic naturalism, you are scholarly.
This is political correctness applied to Mary.
Yawn.
JMNR
Rating: 1 / 5
This book is very interesting and well worth reading if you have an academic interest in the Virgin Mary. It contains beautiful pictures, good poetry, and interesting stories. I thought it was magnificent, in many ways. However, the author does not write from a Catholic, or even Christian, point of view. I would never,consequently, endorse it as the best source of information about the mother of Jesus. But if you think you can read this and learn from it without being swayed by the author’s bias, go for it.
Rating: 3 / 5
This was a fabulous resource for understanding the evolution of the Marian cult. The one weakness of this book is that it did not deal with the pre-Christian origins of the Marian cult. Other resources, however, cover the evolution of the Anatolian fertility cult of Cybele into the Roman Magna Mater and later into the so-called “BVM”. The author does a good job of showing the origins of various aspects of Mariology and contrasting these developments with Christianity in the West. The author has done a great service to those who wish to more fully understand the syncretic process which blended Christianity with various pagan religions and medeival political structures to create the Roman Catholic Church.
Rating: 5 / 5
Warner’s book is far more than a mere history of the Virgin Mary. It is not intended for devout Catholics who only wish to hear praise heaped on the mother of God. What Warner does is chronicle the journey that Mary has taken throughout history, highlighting her many cultural guises and pointing out how they have historically been used to reflect the political motivations of the church. For anyone who is looking to read something beyond the sterile propoganda of a religion that has too long controlled the way in which people perceive and treat women, this is a book that will answer many questions. A beautiful read, written sensitively by a woman who knows Catholicism intimately, but who has been disillusioned by the deeply misogynistic foundations of the Catholic faith.
Rating: 5 / 5
I found the author’s non-Catholic bias wonderfully refreshing…here is someone who isn’t interested in trying to convert the masses or paint the Catholic church in a wonderful light _ she’s simply providing information about the Virgin for the reader to do with it what she will. As a non-Catholic who has had an academic interest in the Virgin Cult for the past four years, I found reading Warner’s book a relief, for here wasn’t an author who felt the need to convert me. Kudos to Warner.
Rating: 5 / 5