Ardelle’s Reviews > Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages > Status Update

"(...) cut from my womb." okay so every 12th century saint has womb envy

"Breasts, to Bernard, are a symbol of the pouring out toward others of affectivity or of instruction (...) of prelates or abbots." SURE! WHY NOT?

"Paul, mother... lay then your dead son at the feet of Christ, your mother, for he is her son." 'your dead son' being a reference to the soul of a sinner and jesus, who was said to have died on the cross for humanity's sins the same way a mother might die in childbirth for her baby ANSELM OF CANTERBURY FIRST FEMINIST MISOGYNIST

ofc the absolutely enraging way medieval men talk abt women is still present esp when anselm objects to the so-called "mother" in god bcos men are 'superior' BUT THEN goes on to recite prayer and speak on the mother within jesus and paul... "mothers to the soul"

i always found 'god the father' to be an interesting theological/historical/psychological phenomena considering so many other non-abrahamic religions tend to create a divine father-mother pair, vs the singular abrahamic god; and now how this 12th century devotion seems to ignore mary as a divine mother figure in favor of jesus. MUCH TO THINK ABOUT...