Alone of All Her Sex

Devoting various sections of the book to each of the various roles Mary has assumed--Virgin, Queen, Bride, Mother, Intercessor--and drawing on official dogma, folk legend, art, history, literature, and psychology, Warner shows how the figure of Mary has shaped and been shaped by changing social and historical circumstances from the first century to the present day, and why, for all their beauty and power (and indeed because of them), the legends of the Virgin Mary have condemned real women to perpetual inferiority.

Contents

Prologue

Part One: Virgin
1. Mary in the Gospels
2. Mary in the Apocrypha
3. Virgin Birth
4. Second Eve
5. Virgins and Martyrs

Part Two: Queen
6. The Assumption
7. Maria Regina

Part Three: Bride
8. The Song of Songs
9. Troubadours
10. Madonna
11. Dante, Beatrice, and the Virgin Mary

Part Four: Mother
12. Let It Be
13. The Milk of Paradise
14. Mater Dolorosa
15. The Penitent Whore
16. The Immaculate Conception
17. The Moon and the Stars

Part Five: Intercessor
18. Growth in Every Thing
19. Icons and Relics
20. Visions, the Rosary, and War
21. The Hour of Our Death

Epilogue

Appendix A: St. Luke's Magnificat
Appendix B: A Muddle of Marys

Chronology