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aemy's review
4.0
I really, really enjoyed reading this book. It is an investigation into the origins of the cult of the Virgin Mary in Catholicism. It pays special attention to the scriptural justification (or lack thereof), the emergence of the cult in the first centuries of the Church, and what psychological and spiritual motivations are at play in both the emergence of the cult of the Virgin Mary and it’s later adopted and incorporation into the orthodoxy of the Catholic Church. Ultimately, Ashe seems to argue that the cult is both #valid and necessary to the health and survival of Christianity, but that the attempts to incorporate it into and justify it using a fundamentally patriarchal epistemology and structure limits it unnecessarily. So, pretty much, reform Catholicism to validate and recognize alternative sources of tradition and belief and allow for the full presence of women in the Church (both the “Eternal-Womanly”/“feminine numinoisity” we seem to be fundamentally oriented towards and the ordination of priestesses) or Perish.
Definitely the coolest thing I learned from this book is that the cult of the Virgin Mary can be traced back to a group of female worshipers in the early churh (disparaging lacked “Collyridians” which is basically an ancient pun for Holy (bread) Rollers) who saw in the Virgin Mary an equal to the Trinity, who kept an empty throne for the Virgin Mary at services (like for Elijah! At Passover!) that was draped in cloth and bread and wine, and was exclusively women led.
Definitely the coolest thing I learned from this book is that the cult of the Virgin Mary can be traced back to a group of female worshipers in the early churh (disparaging lacked “Collyridians” which is basically an ancient pun for Holy (bread) Rollers) who saw in the Virgin Mary an equal to the Trinity, who kept an empty throne for the Virgin Mary at services (like for Elijah! At Passover!) that was draped in cloth and bread and wine, and was exclusively women led.
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