Marian Images and Religious Identities in the Middle East

Abstract

Images of the Holy Mary can move the hearts of people from different religious backgrounds, but in a dialectical move, people can also bring about shifts in the images of Mary in order to position themselves in a multi-religious context. In the Middle East, the very place where the Virgin lived, her icon is a powerful symbol, and individuals and groups use specific representations of the Holy Mary to position themselves in the complex religious field. This chapter will look at the subtle processes of creation and selection of specific images of Mary in terms of identification and empowerment strategies by the various groups involved. The main question is: Who has the power to imagine new representations or replace images, and which social, interreligious, and political processes influence their form, acceptance, multiplication, and sacrality? An answer to such a question is necessarily culture-specific. I will analyze two examples from Jordan to show the interaction between identification, power, and images. In these cases, localized and humanized depictions of Mary were overshadowed over time by mass-produced global representations of Mary. The changes in iconography are indicative processes of social positioning in a multi-religious and globalizing context. It puts into question relations between Catholics and other Christians, between the Christian minority and the Muslim majority, and between Middle Eastern and Western countries. I will analyze the meanings given to these changing images in the context of changes in the modern world. I argue that changes in devotional objects and the meanings they have for believers are not accidental, but closely related to economic, social, religious, and political power processes.

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