Colloquia Maruliana, Vol. 14 , 2005.
Izvorni znanstveni članak
The Figure of Woman in the Thinking of Marko Marulić
Mladen Parlov
Sažetak
The author investigates Marulić’s discourse about woman from the point of view of theological anthropology and spiritual theology. In his discourse about woman, Marulić shows himself an inheritor of the old as well as a promoter of the new. On the one hand, along the lines of the theology and spirituality of the Middle Ages, he presents woman in her role as mother, wife and housewife, who is subordinate to her husband, and whose greatest concern is to raise her children and look after her household. On the other hand, following the new conceptions of the Renaissance, he presents woman as a subject in the family, in society and even in the history of redemption.
If in the Renaissance an essential characteristic of woman was her emancipation, her becoming a subject of society, Marulić in his most celebrated work, the De Institutione, shows himself extremely Renaissance-inclined. For in the De Institutione, which is sometimes held to be the work of his most tinged with the Middle Ages, Marulić presents woman as Subject through the whole history of the Church. His woman speaks, reads, writes, evangelises; in short, she does everything that her contemporary male does. Woman becomes model to other women and indeed to men. But it should not be forgotten that Marulić lives at the beginning of the age and then at the edge of European civilisation, to which new stimuli in thinking, culture and the spiritual life came slowly if at all. And so his emancipated woman is not the one we would wish and expect today. He is partially also the captive of his time. We might well say that he is being medieval when he presents woman as a source of temptation and danger for a man, particularly the man committed by his vows to God. But although in places he speaks of woman as the weaker sex, we never find any contempt for woman in him. The Holy Scriptures and the positive Church heritage helped him partially to surmount the frame-work of his time, to set out into the world and spirit of the Renaissance, at least when the approach to woman is concerned. For example, he appears as a Renaissance poet when he sings of the beauty and the feats of the widow Judith, making use of Petrarchism in his poetic expression.
When he speaks of woman, as indeed when he speaks of human beings in general, Marulić always bears in mind man’s and woman’s position eternal destination. The life eternal is the ultimate aim of human life, which should guide and give values to choices and wishes of this world. Since the blessedness of life eternal is measured with the extent to which the given person has modelled his life in the world on Christ’s, Marulić prioritises a life of chastity, then widowhood, and finally life in marriage. The figure of woman in Marulić’s thinking in this paper is analysed through four paradigmatic figures: woman as maiden, woman as widow, woman as wife, woman as penitent; at the same time through these figures, the backbone of Marulić’s theological anthropology and theological spirituality of woman is brought out.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
8937
URI
Datum izdavanja:
22.4.2005.
Posjeta: 2.611 *