MARIOLOGY: PAST AND FUTURE A SUMMARY
In this study we have traced the roots of Mariology back into classical Mediterranean devotion to the goddesses of fertility and motherhood. Hopefully our thesis, that there exists a direct line between the pagan goddesses and Mary and that Mariology is a continuation of the veneration accorded to fertility goddesses, is now substantiated.
We have seen that pagan fertility goddesses were conceived of as fulfilling the feminine role in the divine act of creation, and that therefore they represented the female principle in the divine as well as everything that femininity means on a human level. As such, goddesses filled a cosmic role, participating in the creation, maintenance, and nurture of the universe and every living thing in it. Because the central concept in their veneration was motherhood, they were commonly called mother goddesses; one of their honorary titles was “Mother of the gods.”
The veneration of Mary strictly adheres to these principles, from which it is derived. She is the female agent in the “new creation.” Her participation in the divine act of redemption is of a cosmic character, for as the mother of the new generation she stands with the father. In the figure of Mary femininity is divinized and motherhood is raised to the same level as the fatherhood of God.
Classical Mediterranean spirituality conceived of the present condition of the universe, in which divisions exist that did not exist “in the beginning,” as “unnatural.” These divisions and separations will disappear when the original conditions return. One aspect of this separation is the forceful disjunction of heaven and earth, which is similar to the division of male and female. The separation, however, is not absolute; heaven and earth still intermingle and earth is fertilized by the moisture of the sky. Male and female similarly unite, albeit temporarily, in sexual intercourse, which is an anticipation of the final consummation.
In acknowledgement of this, the hieros gamos was practiced in many ancient cults.
Christianity adopted, purified, and crystallized these ideas by developing the theology of the recapitulation (or, as Irenaeus said avaK£(paXaia)ou;) of all things in Christ. In this theology, sexual imagery was widely used and the union of all things was demonstrated by reference to marriage. In this hieros gamos Mary received the role of the bride, as the “virgin earth” who was impregnated by the word of God, as the symbol of the church, the bride of Christ, and as Queen of Heaven.
Thus in a theological perspective, Mary is the direct continuation of the pagan goddesses and unites in herself the basic principles that in Mediterranean piety underlay and determined the worship of mother goddesses.
Historically the divinity of Mary is first indicated in the book of Revelation and later in the piety of Asia Minor where Christians were more sensitive toward the female aspect of God due to the influence of Cybele and the age old religious history of Asia Minor in which the union of the divine and human was prominent. In this general geographic area the first Mariological impulses appeared in popular piety, leading the way to later theological speculation. The motherhood of Mary, which is the basic principle of Mariology, came from the pagan “Magna Mater” and “Mother of the Gods” designations of certain goddesses. Here, too, the influence of Cybele was crucial, because of all Greek and Roman goddesses she alone could be called a “virgin mother”; thus she offered the only possible connection with the Christian image of the virgin mother of God.[839]
This does not mean that other goddesses had no impact on the Christian cult. We have seen that popular piety easily identified local goddesses with Mary. The rapid spread of the cult of Mary is due in no small measure to the fact that people could so easily transfer to it the worship they had offered to their pagan goddess.
This development continued even in the New World, one example of which is the cult of the Virgin of Guadelupe. However, the influence of these goddesses, including Isis, was secondary: for the origin of the cult, all evidence points to Asia Minor and to Greco-Roman pagan piety. Other aspects of Mariology, such as Gnosticism and the “Wisdom” (Sophia) concept, also enriched Mariology but did not originate it. Mariology is firmly rooted in a cosmic view of redemption and only in this context can it be understood.The veneration of Mary cannot be viewed in isolation and it is wrong to see it as a uniquely Christian phenomenon which grew out of Christianity without any outside influence, as it is sometimes claimed by Mariologists. But it would be equally wrong to claim that the introduction of Mary into Christian thinking was a relatively late phenomenon and therefore does not belong to the original stratum of Christian theology. This position has often been taken by opponents of Marian piety who also point out that the cult of Mary began to flourish only after the Council of Ephesus in 431. While it is certainly true that after 431 Mariolatry spread rapidly, it is equally true that in an implicit way the cosmic role of Mary in salvation can already be detected in the nativity stories of Matthew and Luke, in Revelation 12, and then, from the middle of the second century on, in numerous investigations of the Eve-Mary parallel.
What is the future of Mariology? This depends on the work of Christian scholars and theologians. This study suggests that Mariology offers a way to deal with a major deficiency of Christian theology in which the feminine image of God has all but disappeared.