The story of Mary a rejection of the roman patriarchal family system?

[Viggen]

The Huffington Post on The Importance of Mary's Virginity...

 

The ancient Greeks thought a virgin conception signaled the arrival of a deity, and human beings who possessed divinity were a common occurrence in Jesus' time -- even a garden variety emperor was called a son of god. Emperor Diocletian expected supplicants to refer to him as "Lord and God" and appear before him prostrate. While we think of religion and politics as separate, the opposite was true under Roman rule. Loyalty to the empire included worship of the emperors as divinities. Christians took on the religious hegemony of Rome and challenged its power to intimidate subject populations....

 

...read all at Huffington Post

 

have your say...

[caldrail]

Religion is never seperated from politics. Regardless of anything said about spiritual and social welfare, the reality is that if religion is organised, it exists to organise people who worship that faith. It provides a means of assuring conformity and obedience on whatever scale the religion is capable of. That said, some religions are worse than others, and it's no coincidence that christianity is so authoritarian in structure - because the relatively rambuctuous judaeans needed stern handling and the Roman empire that adopted and defined christianity cast it's methodology upon it.

 

The greek angle on the story of Mary is interesting as I've not come across that before, but if nothing else, it points to the Roman interpretation of judaean faith via the acceptance of greek culture into their own. Fascinating stuff.