Bettany Hughes Again

[poliphilo]

Looking for further evidence to off-set Bettany Hughes' case for priestesses in the early Church, I came across this article in the magazine Touchstone. It says what I was hoping to say- only with the benefit of first hand knowledge and research (it's also very well written).  Some of the points it covers are ones I looked at yesterday, others are new. By the time Fr (?) Reardon is finished the so-called evidence has crumbled into dust and been dumped in the bin. That Hughes is still relying on it a decade later says little for her scholarship. 

Let me be clear; I'm all for priestesses. I think the feminization of the church is- and would be- a thoroughly good thing. But let it be done as a new thing. Let's not claim we're harking back to primitive practice, because that claim has no merit and to go on making it is disingenuous. 

Comments

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I think you should write to naughty Bettany. And not necessarily in Green Ink.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Somebody does.

Actually I'm sure she'll be getting grief from her esteemed colleagues.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

But let it be done as a new thing. Let's not claim we're harking back to primitive practice, because that claim has no merit and to go on making it is disingenuous.

This is becoming one of my hobbyhorses. I think the truth is that women today have more real power and real freedom than at any time in the history of our species. I sort-of understand the psychology but there really is no need to look back to an imagined history in order to justify our achievement. That is exactly what humans do, though, and Ms Hughes seems to be sinning in that vein.

I doubt her colleagues will get much traction against her claims. She's there to entertain and that's what she's doing, telling people what they want to hear.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

When I was a witch I liked to make a big deal out of it being a new religion. I reckoned that was one of its glories- that is was a new religion for a new age- answering to contemporary needs and unfettered by scriptures and traditions. Of course a lot of my colleagues thought otherwise.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Yes, as the cartoon characters say, "Them's fightin' words!"

I'm starting to see Murray, Graves, Gardner, et al, as having articulated a myth that needed to be heard at that particular time. It provided a spiritual basis for emergent feminism in much the same way that the equally specious interpretation of The Corpus Hermeticum supplied a spiritual basis for the Renaissance.