The Darkest Icon

"The Darkest Icon: the Virgin Mary in her own time" is a unique and exhaustive anthropological treatment of the cultural predicament of the mother of Jesus in her own lifetime and in the earliest and most formative years of Christianity. The author places Mary in the context of the honor and shame patriarchies from the ancient Near East to the modern Mediterranean world, and explores the profound social consequences of her untimely conception of a mamzer child who would become a prolific public figure. Old testament and Talmudic sources are compared to New Testament, patristic and pagan texts with an eye more toward the effects of historical and religious memory on community formation than on theological development or textual hermeneutics. The book considers how the Marian "scandal" played a critical role in Jesus' mission, the Church's formation, the division of Church and Synagogue, the trial of Jesus, and the development of the gospels.