Unmaking Mary - Shattering the myth of perfect motherhood

About the event

‘Motherhood has given me the highest of highs and the lowest of lows… [it] has been my most profound altering.’ Chine McDonald Blending memoir with cultural and social history, Chine McDonald explores the unrealistic pressures on mothers today, and how art, literature, culture and society (including the depiction of the Virgin Mary) have perpetuated ‘the myth of perfect motherhood’ – and what we can do to free ourselves from it.

Wycliffe Hall has set itself the modest task of fostering a New Renaissance of Christian scholarship, leadership and culture. As a key component of this vision, an innovative new project starting in autumn 2025 will help us to equip the Church to engage intelligently, creatively, winsomely, humbly with our society again, and to offer it a better song to sing. We will provide a unique formation experience to cultivate theological depth, artistic excellence, and multi-dimensional diversity in congregational music- and worship-leaders.

Event details

Date and Time TBC

Venue: Wycliffe Hall, 52-54 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 6PW

Getting here: Wycliffe Hall is on major bus routes. Limited parking may be available on site (please contact us by email if you have any special access requirements) and pay-and-display on-street parking is available close by in Norham Gardens. 

Photography and filming: This event will include photography and filming: please contact us directly if you have any questions about this: conferences@wycliffe.ox.ac.uk. 

All are welcome: the event is open to the public and free to attend.

About Chine McDonald

A regular contributor to BBC Religion & Ethics programmes, including Thought for the Day on Radio 4’s Today programme, the Daily Service, and Prayer for the Day, Chine's first book ‘Am I Beautiful?’ – explored body image among women of faith. Currently, she is director of Theos, the religion and society think tank.

Born in Nigeria, Chine moved to the UK at the age of four. She read theology & religious studies at Cambridge University before training as a newspaper journalist and over the years have written for several regional and national publications.

Her second book God Is Not a White Man? was published by Hodder & Stoughton in May 2021. Unmaking Mary: The Myth of Divine Motherhood, is now available.

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