Typologies of Marian Maternity

Abstract

Chapter 5 focuses on female readings of the fleshly connection between Christ and his mother, Mary. For Aemilia Lanyer and Dorothy Leigh, Mary’s material labour had spiritual consequences because, in delivering Christ, she delivered God’s plan for salvation and inaugurated the new covenant which atones for Eve’s sin. Yet a typological reading of the scriptures also allows these writers to suggest that the new covenant initiates a form of maternity that has, within the Christological dispensation, profound spiritual resonance. For if, as Salve Deus and The Mothers Blessing advocate, the Bible is read typologically, Mary’s maternity becomes a mechanism of deliverance for all women, and inaugurates a form of maternity rich in spiritual issue and consequence.