Mediatrix

Abstract: Introduction: Marian Devotion, Popular Preaching, and the Power of Speech in Late Medieval Religious Life 1. "From the Very Pure Blood": Mary's Motherhood and Late Medieval Christianity 2. The Sword of Compassion: Mary and the Passion in the Middle Ages 3. "Hevenly Conversacion": Mary as Supreme Intercessor and Mediatrix 4. Spiritual Mothers: Mary's Motherhood and Post-Tridentine Catholicism 5. Wounds of Love: Mary and the Passion in the Late Sixteenth Century 6. Ubl Maria, ibi ecclesia: Marian Prayers and Devotional Societies after Trent

Abstract: Hail Mary? examines the sexist and misogynist themes that underlie the socially constructed religious imagery of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Maurice Hamington explores the sources for three prominent Marian images: Mary as the "the blessed Virgin," Mary, the "Mediatrix"; and Mary, "the second Eve." Hamington critiques these images for the valorization of sexist forces with the Catholic Church that serve to maintain systems of oppression against women. In challenging dominant, religious representations of Mary, Hamington surveys a variety of emerging reinterpretations of Mary. He then provides a framework for further study of "non-alienating" images of Mary.

Abstract: The Marian miracle tale of thirteenth-century Spain and France is an unusual thematic genre comprising tales, songs, poems, plays, and sermons dedicated to miraculous occurrences attributed to the Virgin Mary. While there are scholarly articles on particular aspects of this large and important body of literature, there has been no attempt to bring its principal authors together into a single scholarly study. Bringing five well-known thirteenth-century authors together -- Gonzalo de Berceo, Gautier de Coinci, Cardinal Jacques de Vitry, Rutebeuf, and King Alfonso X of Spain -- the book shows how each used the Marian collections for individual purposes.Mary is portrayed in a variety of manifestations, as Mediatrix, Monitrix, Maler Dei, National Patroness, and even as something close to the troubadour's desired or unattainable Lady. Berceo was a secular priest who found an older collection of tales useful as an instructive tool. Gautier, an aristocratic monk of intellectual refinement, had a nearly exclusively artistic interest in his Marian materials, while Cardinal Jacques de Vitry -- an eminent churchman and eloquent reformer -- sought with his carefully chosen tales to bring Marianism into the fold of doctrinal orthodoxy. Rutebeuf, a minstrel, accepted the tales as popular piety and returned them to his audience in a spirit of reproach to the sometimes heavy-handed didactic use made of the material by churchmen with vested interests. Finally, the personal voice and directing presence of Spain's King Alfonso X makes of his famous Marian collection, the Cantigas de Santa Maria, a part of his social and religious program for Spain.Additionally, a reflection upon the formalistcriticism of Bakhtin and Todorov suggests new possibilities for seeing within some Marian tales of the period a subtle tool for the subverting of perceived Church excesses.

Abstract: The figure of Woman Wisdom appears in several key poems in Sirach, namely Sir 1:1-10,1:11-30,4:11-19,6:18-37,14:20-15:10,24:1-34 and 51:13-30. Woman Wisdom is a metaphor that employs feminine imagery to speak of the tradition as taught by the sages and contained within the sacred writings of Judaism. Ben Sira uses it to show that the Jewish tradition is the pathway to genuine piety. The metaphor functions to reinforce the implicit claim of conservative scribal circles to be the legitimate interpreters of the tradition. The personification of wisdom is the basic . trope underlying the presentations of Wisdom. This feminine personification is then filled out with a number of metaphors, rendering Woman Wisdom an easily recognisable entity in the text despite the wide range of imagery applied to her. The wisdom personified includes both the content of the Jewish tradition and the disposition to live in conformity with that tradition, summed up in the fear of the Lord. This tradition is seen as the distillation of universal wisdom. The gender of Woman Wisdom is rhetorically important in those poems where wisdoql is presented as a desirable goal to be passionately and zealously sought. But Ben Sira does not exploit the metaphor 'wisdom as woman' as a conceptual tool for reflection on wisdom in and of itself or in its relationship to God. In Sir 24 the feminine dimension of the Wisdom figure recedes; Wisdom is personified as an angelic figure and her gender becomes simply a fact of grammar. The metaphor 'wisdom as angel' may be an attempt to picture wisdom in the closest possible association with the Lord and in the most exalted position possible without compromising monotheism. Angels are also portrayed as mediators in Second Temple writings. The movement and action of Wisdom, God and human beings relative to each other in the Wisdom poems provides hints that the Jewish tradition plays a vital role in the relationship between God and humanity. God relates to human beings by revealing to them wisdom, which finds its most perfect expression in the Jewish written tradition. How a person relates to this tradition will determine how God relates to that person. Conversely, it is impossible to find wisdom if one does not have the correct attitude toward God and if one does not live according to the tradition. Since all wisdom is from God, there is no wisdom outside of what God gives, and the wisdom God has given is embodied in the traditions of Israel. Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za