Comments on: Sermon: A Mary to Believe in http://carlton-uca.org/news/2008/12/23/sermon-a-mary-to-believe-in/ A Uniting Church in Carlton Mon, 03 May 2010 10:16:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: olivia http://carlton-uca.org/news/2008/12/23/sermon-a-mary-to-believe-in/#comment-2 olivia Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:14:32 +0000 http://carlton-uca.org/news/?p=462#comment-2 We moderns know that women contribute half the genetic material to their offspring, which weakens the idea that Mary's virginal status allowed God to make life out of 'nothing.' A something-out-of-nothing hypothesis that relies, as the sermon suggests, on Mary's virginity, also relies on the pre-modern assumption that it's the man who puts the baby in the empty vessel. If this theological interpretation is valid, we may conclude either the virgin-birth narrative was created to fit first-century notions of biology, or else it's an add-on interpretation unintended by the author. We moderns know that women contribute half the genetic material to their offspring, which weakens the idea that Mary’s virginal status allowed God to make life out of ‘nothing.’ A something-out-of-nothing hypothesis that relies, as the sermon suggests, on Mary’s virginity, also relies on the pre-modern assumption that it’s the man who puts the baby in the empty vessel.

If this theological interpretation is valid, we may conclude either the virgin-birth narrative was created to fit first-century notions of biology, or else it’s an add-on interpretation unintended by the author.

]]>