Body-Poetics of the Virgin Mary

Book excerpt: The Judeo-Christian scriptures understand humans as being made in the image of God. What exactly does this mean? Basic agreement is that it means humans can only know and understand themselves in relation to God. If, however, this God is pure uncreated spirit, where does human embodiment fit in? Is it an obstacle to understanding? Or is it in some way instructive? John Paul II comes down decisively in favor of the body’s value and importance. In his catechetical series, widely known as the Theology of the Body, John Paul II analyzes what is distinctive about human beings. He undertakes a “reading” of the body. This book reflects on John Paul II’s interpretation, extending his findings to the Virgin Mary. Her specifically female, maternal body is seen to offer insights into how the body images God—in how it “speaks.” The transformations of the female body parallel the transformations of language in poetry. The reconfigurations and accommodations of the gestational body are, this book suggests, poetic incarnations of God-likeness. Body-Poetics of the Virgin Mary offers a Mariological slant on theological anthropology and a new way to think of how humans poetically image God.