THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Matthew J. Milliner
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| “Mary, Comforter of the Afflicted I,” 2016, by Kehinde Wiley.Credit...Courtesy of Galerie Daniel Templon. |
The European museum director asked me my field of study, and I replied, “icons of the Virgin Mary.” His silver beard unsuccessfully concealed a snicker. “Men don’t typically study Mary,” he told me. I still found my way to Europe for my doctoral studies, visiting countless Byzantine churches, chasing depictions of Mary. That men, too, are called to also be like Mary is less a result of transgressive gender theory than of mainstream Christian theology. Jesus, after all, calls anyone his mother who does the will of God (Mark 3:35). For Paul, not just women, but all Christians groan in labor along with creation itself (Romans 8:22-23). That having been said, “Mary is for both men and women,” as my colleagues Amy Peeler and Jennifer McNutt have asserted, and both sexes can take her as their model.
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| The Holy Family, 1634, by Rembrandt, in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich.Credit...Getty Images |
