2023-05-12 08:00:25
“Mary was often presented to women as an unattainable example, humility personified, intercessor with God,” New Testament scholar Eva Puschautz from the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Vienna told religion.ORF.at.
Countless depictions of Mary in churches and museums around the world unite the view of this woman, who can justifiably be described as the female central star of Catholicism. Once she is young, rarely a matron, once her heart is pierced by knives, mostly she holds the baby Jesus on her lap. But the saint has also taken on very different roles over the centuries.
In protective cloak and armor
In her role as a strong protector, Mary has been invoked in emergencies for centuries. This is evidenced by the numerous depictions of Mary as a “madonna of protective cloak” as well as a breastfeeding “Maria lactans” – but she was also depicted in full armor and called for help, especially in times of war.
Mary, in her capacity as a nurturing and inspiring mother figure, was often depicted with a bare breast from the Middle Ages to modern times. Examples of this can be found in antiquity, for example in Hera, from whose breasts the Milky Way emerges, and in the Egyptian mother goddess Isis. It did not stop with breastfeeding the baby Jesus: among other things, the mystic Bernhard von Clairvaux claims to have drunk milk from Mary in a vision, which gave him eloquence.
Milk relics and a crescent moon
The late Middle Ages saw a boom in milk relics. Since then, statues of the Virgin Mary have filled fountains with water spraying from their breasts, for example at the baroque Marienbrunnen in Großgmain in Salzburg. Women struggling with breastfeeding called on Mary for help.
Much less maternal is the honorary title “Maria vom Siege”, which goes back to a victory of Pope Pius V (1566-1572) and the Holy League in the naval battle of Lepanto once morest the Turks. Depictions of Mary as a shield maiden wearing armor are known from earlier (war) times, for example from the Albrecht altar in the Lower Austrian monastery of Klosterneuburg, which was created under the impression of the Hussite wars (1419-1434).
A role model to fail at
The 19th century brought particular emphasis to Mary’s “perpetual virginity” and her freedom from “original sin”. “The Catholic Church built up Mary as a role model for women, to which they can only fail,” says the expert. “If Jesus was human, then Mary was even more so, and we should also allow her to be human,” said Puschautz. The question of Maria’s other children is also difficult in this context.
“That doesn’t fit with the dogma of perpetual virginity.” Nevertheless, Jesus’ brothers and sisters are mentioned several times in the gospels. “Church history dealt with these texts ‘creatively’ and reinterpreted the brothers and sisters as cousins or children from Joseph’s first marriage.” The question must be asked whether the authors of the Gospels already saw it that way or whether they did is an interpretation from the later development of the image of Mary.
“He’s out of his mind”
Recent feminist theology subjects all biblical texts in which Mary appears to a fresh examination and states that the relationship between the Blessed Mother and her Son was not easy. According to Puschautz, one passage in particular shows the considerable potential for conflict that the Messiah role of the eldest son in a family entailed.
The Gospel of Mark relates: “Jesus went into a house and once more so many people gathered that they might not even eat. When his relatives heard regarding this, they set out to take him back by force; for they said, He is out of his mind.” (Mark 3:20-21) “And his mother and his brothers came; they stood outside and had him called out.” (Mark 3:31)
“Intervention” by the family?
“The word translated ‘retrieve by force’ in the 2016 Standard Translation is the same as ‘take into their power’ or ‘arrest’ in the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane in chapter 14 of Mark,” says Puschautz: a rough approach that makes one think of an “intervention”.
book reference
Mirja Kutzer, Peter Walter: Maria in history and presence. Liberating Perspectives on the Mother of Jesus. Herder, 296 pages, 29.50 euros.
“We don’t see Mary here who says yes and amen to everything, but to Jesus, who founded a new family with the disciples, saying: ‘Your task is different.'” She wanted to bring him home, The theologian reads from the text so that he can fulfill his duties towards his (original) family.
“It is also interesting here that Mary, the mother, is named first.” This part of the oldest gospel was ignored for a long time, until the Second Vatican Council – “probably because it did not correspond to the image of Mary”.
A text that is important for feminist theology is the “Magnificat”, which has been handed down in the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke. During her visit to Elisabeth, the pregnant Mary praises God in a seemingly revolutionary eulogy: “…he overthrows the mighty from the throne/and exalts the lowly. He bestows his gifts on the hungry/and lets the rich go away empty-handed.” (Luke 1:53-54) The passage, which is unusual in every respect (two women conversing alone), was written by the German theologian Dorothee Sölle (1929–1929), among others. 2003) interpreted as a vision of the liberation of women.
Puschautz emphasizes that the evangelist Luke depicts “his” Mary in this text entirely as an Old Testament prophetess, thereby making her a very powerful woman who stands in a long tradition of strong women chosen by God.
“You can only be silent”
The German Catholic movement “Maria 2.0”, which campaigns for equal rights, took the saint as a model – and her name already points to the dichotomy inherent in Marian devotion.
In an open letter to Pope Francis it says: “Churchmen like to sing the praises of women, but they alone determine where women can contribute their talents in the church. In their midst they tolerate only one woman: Maria. On her pedestal. There she is. And can only be silent. Let’s get her off the pedestal! In our midst. As a sister looking in the same direction as we are.”
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