C. Summary
The cult of the Great Mother, Cybele, left many distinguishing marks on the early church in Asia Minor. Very probably this influence is found in the book of Revelation, in which case the “woman clothed with the sun” is even more likely to be the vision of a goddess.
The influence can also be seen in the Montanist movement, which eventually spread into the Western Mediterranean, notably Gaul and North Africa. The Christian perception of the divine never completely lacked a feminine aspect. It seems that the basic principle of Mariology, the motherhood of Mary, owes much to the figure of the Great Mother in Asia Minor.It is wrong to say that “the Mary cult was absent in the first few centuries of the Christian era, only to appear relatively suddenly in the fifth.”[517] The contrary is true: Mary was in the mind, soul and spirit of Christianity from the beginning and to this we find literary proof beginning with the gospel narratives.[518] The Montanist form of Christian piety, under the powerful inspiration of the cult of Cybele and the book of Revelation (which was already influenced by Cybele), absorbed an even deeper appreciation of the divine feminine and spread this sensitivity to other parts of the Christian world. When the pagan population came into the church in great numbers, they already found in it the image of the divine mother to whom they could easily transfer the devotion which they formerly offered to the Great Mother, Isis, Bona Dea or some other goddess.
It is not without significance that the earliest Christian theological speculations about the motherhood of Mary, in the form of the biblical parallelism “Eva-Maria” came from two theologians whose roots were in the Eastern Mediterranean and were exposed to Montanism. Justin Martyr (died 165), the son of Greek-pagan parents, was born in Flavia Neapolis (Nablus) in Palestine.
His theology shows strong eschatological motifs[519] which at that time were emphasized primarily by the Montanists. Eventually, he willingly suffered martyrdom for his faith. Irenaeus (c. 130-c. 202) was directly exposed to Montanism and shows certain sympathies with some Montanist principles. He came from Asia Minor and was a disciple of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. He became bishop of Lyon in Gaul, where Montanism was already known and became a cause of dissension. On this matter “the brethren in Gaul” sent a letter to bishop Eleutherus in Rome and the ambassador was Irenaeus.[520] These two men are our first literary witnesses to the conjunction of Eve and Mary. Was it Montanist devotion to Eve[521] that guided their attention toward this parallelism? That is certainly possible and thus Montanism may have been been the spark that triggered Orthodox Christian Mario- logy, culminating eventually in the declaration of the Council of Ephesus (431) that Mary is the “Mother of God.”Before we discuss this subject, however, we will investigate an extreme form of Marian peity, which may have been similarly fostered, perhaps even engendered, by the Montanist movement: The Kollyridians.