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Mary, did you consent?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2021

Blake Hereth Open the ORCID record for Blake Hereth [Opens in a new window]
Blake Hereth*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, 883 Broadway Street, Dugan Hall 200B, Lowell, MA 01852, USA
*
Blake_Hereth@uml.edu
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Abstract

The Christian and Islamic doctrine of the virgin birth claim God asexually impregnated the Virgin Mary with Jesus, Mary's impregnation was fully consensual (virgin consent), and God never acts immorally (divine goodness). First, I show that God's actions and Mary's background beliefs undermine her consent by virtue of coercive incentives, Mary's comparative powerlessness, and the generation of moral conflicts. Second, I show that God's non-disclosure of certain reasonably relevant facts undermines Mary's informed consent. Third, I show that a recent attempt by Jack Mulder to rescue virgin consent fails. As divine goodness and virgin consent are more central to orthodoxy, Christians and Muslims have powerful reason to reject virgin birth.

Keywords

Virgin Birthdivine goodnessconsentcoercionpower differentialdeceptionImmaculate Conception
Type
Original Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 58 , Issue 4 , December 2022 , pp. 677 - 700
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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