It was a good time to read this intriguing novel, a re-imagining of Christian history and doctrine in which women are different but equal, rather than suppressed and denigrated.
The Jesus in Roberts' novel also warns his followers never to let anyone persuade them "that bloodshed or martyrdom open a sure route to heaven."
Mary says that her gospel, in which "the pattern seemed to arrange itself"..."has been her "chief work as a disciple." Roberts's book includes poetic and moving descriptions of the feminine principle and catalogues her epithets: "The Queen of Heaven...She who has many names...Ishtar and Astarte, Athar and Artemis and Aphrodite."
Says the Ancient One, "I am Isis, re-membering my husband, and Inanna...the witch Hecate... Persephone who is carried off into the Underworld by Pluto...She who is ignored...exiled." Though men have tried to forget her, and fear her memory, she warns, "I shall rise. I shall not let myself be divided and reviled. For I am she who is three in one...Martha the housewife...Mary the mother of the Lord, and Mary the prostitute." The female trinity.
First published in 1984, and re-issued in 2007, this gripping story of the life of Mary and the hidden gospel she wrote and then left buried under a stone long predates Dan Brown's interest in the idea that Jesus may have had a wife and descendants. The novel is short, gripping and completely believable.
The theme is timely. As the Vatican goes through the machinations of finding a new Pope, with Canadian cardinal Marc Ouellet being touted as a front runner, Douglas Todd writes in the Saturday Sun of how disconnected the still very male-dominated church has become from its followers. We learn from Todd's research that the church hierarchy remains hidebound.
After the years of sexual scandal about abuse of children and homosexuality among priests, celibacy seems to be a questionable doctrine. Why should priests not be allowed to marry, or to be open about their homosexuality?
Many Catholics now believe these positions to be reasonable. Also, could abortion not be permissible in cases where a woman's health would be threatened by giving birth? Surely the world has enough motherless infants already. And as the population reaches numbers that the planet will be hard put to support, why is birth control so wrong?
Surprisingly, reports Todd, the high-ranking officials in the old bastion of Catholicism, including Ouellet, do not even rate these burning questions as high-priority. While the rarefied world of the male-dominated and hierarchical church works toward installing a new pope, Todd also finds that many Catholics rely on their own consciences to guide them. And that's probably a good thing. But these are matters for Catholics, and I have no connection to the Catholic church.
I sought out this book for a different reason. For some years now, I have periodically entered my work in the Bridport short story contest. Learning that this year Michele Roberts is to be the judge, I read her work to see how compatible it might be with my current effort. Though I feel far from certain of an answer to this question, I enjoyed reading this powerful and thought-provoking book.
The edition shown in the picture was published in 2011 by Random House.
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