Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 22:1 (Winter 2008)
Article: Morphing Mary: The Medieval Transformation of the Mother of Jesus Christ
Author: Kristin Johnson

PP 22:1 (Winter 2008) p. 11

Morphing Mary: The Medieval
Transformation of the Mother of Jesus Christ

Kristin Johnson

KRISTIN JOHNSON is a Lydia Scholar for the Network of Presbyterian Women in Leadership and the Executive Director for OneByOne, a Presbyterian renewal ministry that educates and equips the church to minister Christ’s truth and grace to those who struggle with unwanted same-sex attraction, sexual addiction, and the effects of sexual abuse. She has also served as the President of Christians for Biblical Equality, Boston chapter.

What happened to Mary?

In the time of Herod, king of Judea, a young Jewish girl gave birth to a child who would change the course of history. What is mentioned of her in Scripture is significant, yet, throughout the centuries, the identity and person of Mary has been elaborated upon by Catholics and often overlooked by Protestants. The biblical Mary was a woman who is to be revered not only for her faith in God, but also for what God accomplished through her. However, the metamorphosis of Mary’s identity from humble Jewish girl to semi-divine Mother of God was born out of the tradition of the medieval church, not the Scriptures.

Mary has come a long way in the history of the church. Her depiction in the Scriptures as a humble young woman with enormous faith and courage who, as a virgin, gave birth to Jesus, the Son of God, and raised him (as well as more than seven or eight other children) has been overshadowed by church tradition that depicts Mary as a devoutly religious celibate (conceived immaculately) who never consummated her marriage and gave birth to Jesus without disrupting her hymen so as to insure her perpetual virginity.1 The Mary of the gospels who proclaimed, “I am the Lord’s
servant. . . . May it be to me as you have said,” (Luke 1:38)2 is a far cry from the Mary enshrined in gold leaf who, as Theo-tokos, or Mother of God, and intercessor, “occupies the principal mediating position, as a creature belonging to both earth and heaven.3 The biblical Mary, who, in her humanity, misunderstood Jesus’ mission at one point and came to “take charge of him” because Jesus’ family thought that he was “out of his mind” (Mark 3:21), stands in opposition to the Mary of the medieval tradition, who, “from the first instance of her conception, [is] totally preserved from the stain of original sin throughout her life.”4

What happened to the faithful young virgin who bore Jesus Christ and, with Joseph, became a m...