God’s Mother, Eve’s Advocate

Contents......Page 8
List of Abbreviations......Page 10
Preface......Page 12
Introduction......Page 14
Narrative and identity......Page 33
Narrative and gender......Page 34
Lrigaray and psychoanalysis......Page 36
Irigaray's psycholinguistic critique of Western culture......Page 41
Irigaray and the reclamation of women's religious traditions......Page 46
Going beyond Irigaray - the potential of the Catholic story......Page 50
Fallen knowledge and the enigma of sexual origins......Page 58
Christian refigurations of Genesis 1-3......Page 59
Sexual difference and the body in early Christian writings......Page 63
The influence of Augustine on Western Christianity......Page 66
Women's holiness and the mimesis of masculinity......Page 69
Mary and the redemption of women......Page 71
Early Christianity, paganism and Eve......Page 73
Essentializing masculinity - the sacramental priesthood and the maleness of Christ......Page 84
Symbolic femininity and the female body......Page 87
The phallus, the priesthood and the symbolic transformation of the Mass......Page 92
Marian theology and the rehabilitation of the female body......Page 95
The doctrinal significance of Mary's virginal motherhood in the early Church......Page 100
Transcending the maternal body - Irigaray's critique of Plato......Page 102
The maternal body as source of life - theological perspectives......Page 105
Reconciling opposites - motherhood and the incarnation......Page 109
Childbirth, suffering and the redemption of women......Page 112
'Mother of the living' - Eve and the symbolization of death......Page 116
The incarnation as a symbolic return to origins......Page 128
Genesis and the fall into dualism......Page 129
Aural intercourse - sexuality, the fall and the annunciation......Page 136
Virginity and the renewal of creation......Page 140
Purity and impurity as metaphors of life and death......Page 142
Sexuality, violence and the virgin birth according to René Girard......Page 146
Separation and identity in the mother-daughter relationship......Page 154
Mothers, daughters and the symbolic dereliction of women......Page 156
The motherhood of Mary from the perspectives of contemporary Catholic women......Page 157
'Daughter of Eve Unfallen' - Mary as the daughter of Eve......Page 160
The motherhood of Mary, Eve and the Church......Page 163
The maternal gaze - the mother's body as visual space......Page 168
'Can a male saviour save women?' - a perennial question......Page 177
The Magnificat of the redeemed woman......Page 180
Redeeming Eve - a gynocentric reclamation......Page 185
Rethinking the hymen - refïguring virginity......Page 188
Prometheus or Pandora? - Eve, Mary and human freedom......Page 194
A feminine divine? - language, subjectivity and divinity......Page 197
Redeeming sexual difference......Page 199
Priesthood, sacrifice and fecundity - perpetuating religious genealogies......Page 207
Women's ordination - 'a sort of diktat which does not give its reasons'......Page 211
Christianity, paganism and the female flesh......Page 215
The incarnation and the maternal priest......Page 217
Conclusion......Page 222
Bibliography......Page 227
D......Page 250
J......Page 251
P......Page 252
T......Page 253
Y......Page 254