A seminarian I know is currently taking a class on the theology of Mary. She’s reading lots of stuff, both ancient and modern; as we were talking, I remembered an obscure pamphlet I bought years ago, called Mary, Mother of Socialism: A Jubilee Group Anthology edited by Andy Delmege. It was published back in the mid-1990s by the Jubilee Group, a collective of leftist Anglo-Catholic theologians and writers; I originally picked this up because two of the contributors were writers I admired: Kenneth Leech and Sara Maitland.
My friend had not heard of this particular booklet, and when I looked for it online, it was nowhere to be seen. To the best of my knowledge the Jubilee Group itself is defunct, and Ken Leech passed away in 2015. So it seemed to me that the only way she would be able to see it would be if I sent her a PDF of the booklet. So I created it, and figured it might be of interest to others who might be curious about how Mary, the mother of Jesus is written about from the perspective of Christian socialists. If it’s not your thing, pass it by; but if you’re interested, I’m offering the PDF here as a freely shareable download. Click here to download it: Mary, Mother of Socialism
The table of contents is itself most illuminating:
- “How is it that the Mother of My Lord Should Come to Me?” by Sue Dowell
- “Motherly Love” by Caroline Bailey
- “The Politics of the Magnificat” by Kenneth Leech
- “Poem of the Struggle of Peace” by Anonymous
- “Hands of Mary” by Vandana Mataji
- “The Magnificat — A Christian Manifesto?” by Graham Dowell
- “Annunciation — for Huw” by Sara Maitland
- “Dancing the Magnificat” by John R. Orens
Clearly, the Song or Canticle of Mary (the Magnificat) with its themes of “filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away empty” would appeal to socialists, so it’s not surprising that several of these essays focus on that ancient hymn, which is found at Luke 1:46-55.
I don’t own the copyright of this document, and of course if the copyright holder contacts me and asks me to remove this from my website, I will. If that’s you, please reach out to me using my contact page. Meanwhile, I’m offering it here for free for anyone who wants it for research or personal use.
