Born of a Woman: A Bishop Rethinks the Virgin Birth and the Treatment of Women by a Male-Dominated Church

Integrating his love and respect for scripture with his keen understanding of current biblical scholarship and the needs of modern peoples, Bishop John Shelby Spong explores the virgin Mary tradition and its contemporary repercussions. Born of a Woman traces the fascinating evolution of the doctrine in the early Christian church and the Christmas narratives that Jesus' mother was a virgin. Illuminating the implications of these writings, Spong persuasively and provocatively shows the Bible's depiction of a virginal, revered yet subservient, Mary to be a "subtle, unconscious source for the continued oppression of women" and a God-given legitimization of the second-class status of women in Western history. The legacy of the Mary myths, suggests Spong, is pervasive and can be seen in our attitudes toward women and female sexuality, sexual harassment in the workplace, the notion of a celibate priesthood, and the exclusion of women from positions of ecclesiastical power. Applauding the fact that "the feminine aspect of God so long oppressed by the masculine patriarchy is roaring back into our awareness, sweeping away our male prejudices and even our male definitions of the ideal woman, " Spong shows that by reclaiming the humanity of Christianity's central female figure, we reshape and liberate our own humanity. "Literalized symbols, " writes Spong, "are doomed symbols, " and the profound meaning behind the symbolism of Christmas - that God can be experienced fully in human history; that by faith we perceive in the life, love, and being of Jesus the life, love, and being of God; that human life alone could not have created the power that Jesus possessed - becomes available to many only whenliteralism is swept aside.