The new British Museum exhibition on Feminine Power – representations over time of the feminine in religion and iconography and myth – gets round to the Virgin Mary in the section devoted to “Compassion and Salvation”, which begins with Isis, the Egyptian goddess. Comparative religion has its pitfalls, and one of them is the reduction of religious belief to something approaching anthropology; another is the frankly alienating way in which little or no previous knowledge is assumed on the part of the viewer – though, I suppose, nowadays that ignorance on the part of many visitors is a reality.
Mary, we are told in the exhibition catalogue, “is honoured as the Virgin Mother of Jesus, who is accepted in Christianity as the Messiah and Son of God and in Islam as an important prophet … She is commonly perceived as ‘blessed’ by God and is sometimes viewed as the foremost of the saints – mortals whose exemplary actions and piety are believed to make them worthy of particular honour after death and who are approached by others for inspiration and guidance.” How many people even in a post-Christian culture need to have the meaning of “saint” spelled out? This is not the language of familiarity, let alone belief. It’s a bit like a gourmet encountering a description of Tournedos Rossini which describes it in terms of proteins and lipids.
19 May 2022, The Tablet
How many in a post-Christian culture need to have the meaning of ‘saint’ spelled out?
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