So the Mary myth brilliantly manages two magnetically opposed forces: the new religion of Christianity offers a tale of god-into-man divine birth. Mary is special and singled out – like in the hero stories. Her pregnancy is no ordinary domestic arrangement; she has been visited by a god. At the same time, her purity and submission allow the new religion to break away from the riotous pagan sex cults and fertility rites that the Jews hated. Right from the start, Christianity had the knack of fusing together core elements from other religions and cults – ejecting any problematic elements, and
...more
