“Illius sponsi thalamus fuit uterus virginis”

Abstract

This article examines the image of Mary’s womb as the bridal chamber in which the Word and the flesh, the divine and the human natures of Christ, are united. The image presents the reader with a paradox – the Word and the flesh engage in a divine unification and comingling in the womb of the virgin. The study traces the development of the image in the earlier works of Augustine, and contextualises it within Augustine’s later thought, in which the body and sexuality are considered in a more positive light. The study aims to demonstrate that Augustine’s structuring of incarnational theology served as a framework for his views on sexuality – prelapsarian, postlapsarian, and eschatological sexuality – and the discourse of the incarnation, especially in his later thought, should be seen primarily as a discourse of sexuality.