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This unique study of the cult of the Virgin Mary offers a way of thinking about the interrelations of Catholicism and ideas of ideal femininity over the longue duree. An ambitious history of the changing symbolism of the Mother of God, Alone of All Her Sex holds up to the light different emphases occurring at different times, and highlights that the apparent archetype of a magna mater is constantly in play with social and historical conditions and values. Marina Warner's interesting perspective was forged in the aftermath of significant postwar developments in history, anthropology, and feminism and the book inspired fierce debates when it was first published in 1976. Alone of All Her Sex is also an emotive, personal statement, arising from Warner's own upbringing as a Catholic. It picks up on classic accounts such as Mary MacCarthy's Memoirs of a Catholic Girlhood and Antonia White's Frost in May, as well as the author's own experiences at a Catholic boarding school. Highly controversial in conservative quarters, the book's arguments were welcomed and recognised by many readers who shared Warner's experiences. In this new edition, Marina Warner has written a new preface which reviews the book in the light of the current debate about secularism, faith, nations, and social identities. She takes issue with her original mistaken conclusion that the modern age would see the cult of Mary fade away and revises it in the light of recent popes' enthusiasm for the Mother of God, a fresh wave of visions and revelations, a new generation of female saints, and the reorientation of theological approaches to the woman question.… (more)
User reviews
The book is sympathetic but uncompromising, critical in the best sense of the word, and Warner presents her case cogently and without becoming strident. Given the gushing adoration and anti-Catholic invective I've encountered while reading about the topic, the tone of this book was very welcome.
Recommended for those with a particular interest in the topic - although the very fervent supporter of Mary and the very fervent opponent of Catholicism might both feel that it's too sympathetic to the other side of the debate.
Don't tell the people who make all the money writing all those books based on
Her 4 dogmas:
the paradox of divine motherhood and virginity;
the Immaculate Conception (HER conception -- uncorrupted by sin);
the assumption of her body and soul into heaven (her body -- uncorrupted by death);
and her position as mediator between heaven & earth, being
"A myth of such dimension is not simply a story, or a collection of stories, but a magic mirror like the Lady of Shalott's, reflecting a people and the beliefs they produce, recount, and hold." (xxiii)
"the Platonic yearning towards the ideal ... is the core of the cult of the Virgin Mary.... Of course the belief that man should constantly aspire to higher things has been fundamental to western moral philosophy since Plato.... Metaphysical mysteries must defy reason, for if the human mind could compass them, they would lose their sacred character. So Christ the God-Man and Mary the Virgin-Mother blot out antinomy, absolve contradiction, and manifest that the impossible is possible with God." (Epilogue)