Why Maternal Matters among Gods? Four Case Studies from Western Religious Traditions

BRICHOVÁ, Lenka, František NOVOTNÝ, Olga ČEJKOVÁ a Vojtěch KAŠE. Why Maternal Matters among Gods? Four Case Studies from Western Religious Traditions. In Religions: fields of research, method and perspectives, 27-29 October. 2014.

Základní údaje

• Originální název: Why Maternal Matters among Gods? Four Case Studies from Western Religious Traditions
• Autoři: BRICHOVÁ, Lenka, František NOVOTNÝ, Olga ČEJKOVÁ a Vojtěch KAŠE.
• Vydání: Religions: fields of research, method and perspectives, 27-29 October, 2014.

Další údaje

• Typ výsledku: Prezentace na konferencích
• Utajení: není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství
• Organizační jednotka: Filozofická fakulta

Anotace

In the recent scholarship on representational characteristics of supernatural religious agents, the aspect of their gender was predominantly out of attention. It has been demonstrated, that such aspects as minimal-contraintuitivity etc. can be used to describe actual beliefs in big moral Gods of western religious traditions. But even in those religious traditions, the female supernatural agents often have relatively central role in religious practice, despite of their official marginalization. We argue that popularity of those female agents and their representational characteristics are affected by activation of gender related mechanisms of representing agency and biased by maternal characteristics linked with these mechanisms. To test this hypothesis we present a set of case studies: (1) In the context of early Christianity the strength of the cult of Mary was often explained by her substitutional role for the ancient Mother-deities. Although this meets some evidence, it does not explain the broad range of reported mythic experimentation on this issue. (2) From the medieval era, the Dialogus Miraculorum by Caesarius of Heisterbach serves us as an example of perseverance of Mary’s maternity although it didn’t constitute so strong moral appeal comparable to the aspects of her virginity. (3) The iconographical typus of Mary as nurturing woman was very popular especially in the Baroque period. Paradoxically, while the depicturing naked breast was subject of highly elaborated painter's skills, its erotic appeal was underestimated, again, compared to the maternal one. (4) Finally, our own latest research among the Czech Neo-Pagan followers suggests, that even in this contraculture, where the traditional values honouring woman as mother only are often subject of criticism, the maternal deities are prefered among others in personal contact. Inspired by the second wave of consilience in the evolutionary cognitive approaches in the study of religious thought and behavior, we believe that our hypothesis should also be tested in other religious traditions.