The Madonna cult and witch persecutions are paired expressions of Christian contempt for woman
Evidence
The emotion which corresponds to the practice of oppression is contempt, not reverence, and in the centuries of Christianity love for one’s neighbor has always concealed a lurking, forbidden though now compulsive, hatred for woman—the object which served repeatedly to recall the fact of futile exertion. This hatred made up for the cult of the Madonna with the persecution of witches—a form of vengeance on the memory of those pre-Christian prophetesses, the lasting afterimage which implicitly called in question the sacralized patriarchal order of domination. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 89
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: The claim that reverence and persecution are two faces of the same contempt, with witch-burning as vengeance on the memory of matriarchal prophetesses, is a dense, paradigm-shifting inversion of how we read Christian attitudes toward women.
- ADDENDUM: Relates to the ‘On Sacrifice’ article: the witch persecution as vengeance on a remembered archaic cult parallels how sacrificial structures memorialize and then punish what they displace.
- XREF: connects to: Christianity fused fear of the flesh with fear of woman as Other. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 364; Exalting woman spiritually sanctions her earthly subordination rather than liberating her — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 591; Patriarchal religions purify woman of her stained nature through male-defined submission — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 170 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Christianity fused fear of the flesh with fear of woman as Other.
#corroborates(0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 364 - Patriarchal religions purify woman of her stained nature through male-defined submission
#corroborates(0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 170 - Exalting woman spiritually sanctions her earthly subordination rather than liberating her
#corroborates(0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 591