Coredemptrix

[Hugh McLean]

Bravo! Beautifully argued.
> Dear colleagues,
>
> regarding the ongoing fascinating discussion on the Coredemptrix term
> I wonder if there is a room to respond to the following issues that
> relate both to the style and to the essential subject-matter of the
> discussed:
>
> 1) When Professor Olga Meerson informs the list that: "what I, OLGA,
> believe and confess, say, in the Nicene Creed and in my prayers, I
> probably know more than you do, no..." --> does she claims the "her"
> (i.e. "Olga's") personal views and beliefs are to be observed as *the
> standard* and the most representative ones for the entire Orthodox
> Christianity? And it is up to "I Olga" to decide upon what is right
> and what is wrong? I do not see an easy way to understand why Olga
> Meerson seems to position herself as "the" Source on what Orthodox
> Christians think and feel? Don't we need to consult let's say, some
> Levada Centr anymore? Let us, then blindly subscribe to Olga's words
> and this will be the right to do.
> 1-a) Can we relate the somewhat surprising pathos of Olga Meerson's
> emotional address to Rolf Fieguth with the latter's finest explanation
> of "coredemptrix" as "soiskupitel'nica", a Russian equivalent term
> that was omitted in the previous answers?
>
> 2) Agreeing that the Dogma of Modern Christianity does not relate Mary
> to "deity" we, as scholars (and not only as "believers", --> remember,
> that the believer = believes and the scholar researches) may not
> forget the broader historical context of this subject. Let me just
> remind the well known facts that relate the Mother of Christ to
> Sophia, to the Great Mother-Goddess traditions, and so forth. They all
> correspond to the image of Mary. Shall we be interested in the History
> of Religions in the sense of Max Mueller and Mircea Eliade, or we'd
> rather stick to the Moskovskaia -Patrirchija, or the like dogmatic
> "prescriptions"? Shall we remember the term "archetype" in the History
> of Religions and what it stands for, or shall we rather not? What
> archetype does the Virgin Mary represents? No Mother-Goddess archetype
> at all?
> Our beloved and omnipotent Wikipedia rightly mentions that: "there are
> mystic undercurrents which emphasize the feminine aspects of the
> Godhead, e.g. the Collyridians in the time of early Christianity, who
> viewed Mary as a goddess, the medieval visionary Julian of Norwich,
> the Judaic Shekinah and the Gnostic Sophia traditions.".
>                In the same vein we must not forget the versatile work
> of Joseph Campbell who also argues that the image of the Virgin Mary
> was derived from the image of Isis and her child Horus: "The antique
> model for the Madonna, actually, is Isis with Horus at her breast".
> Totally subscribing to R. M. Cleminson's wise citation on Es tut mir
> Leid, aber ein Tisch ist ein Tisch, I'd rather suggest we would deal
> with Christianity in a broader religious paradigmatic perspective,
> remembering where the religion was born, etc. The Gnostic and other
> Sophianic ideas here should be extremely relevant. And above all not
> to forget the apt expression by Max Mueller "The on who knows only one
> religion knows none". Thus, if dealing with the Virgin Mary as a
> deity, we may relate it to the broader archetype (of Isis, etc),
> rather than just sticking it up to what one particular believer, be it
> Olga Meerson or any other. The luxury of being a scholar, rather than
> a believer, is the ability to transcend the traditional dogmatic
> boundaries the regular adept of this Patriarchate or another can
> hardly afford.
>
> With regards to the list,
> Vitalii.
>
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