Hail, Mary! Mother and Ace Envisioning an Asexual Mary of Nazareth for Today

Continuing the critical and constructive work of feminist Mariology, this article engages contemporary understandings of asexuality to reinterpret the Catholic doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity. The author advances this proposal in view of a brief survey of the doctrine and a look at feminist theological responses to it. Highlighting the strengths and limits of two trends in feminist reinterpretations of the Madonna's perpetual virginity, the author shows how the development of an asexual Mary of Nazareth brings together key insights from this scholarship while improving upon existing feminist Mariologies to further the Virgin's liberatory potential in an often repressive church and in a sexually "liberated" Western society that continues to overdetermine women's sexuality.

Stable URL: muse.jhu.edu/article/867767

Back to: Volume 38 Number 2