Christian History Magazine—Issue 83: Mary in the Imagination of the Church
Overview
“Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” In that moment of humble obedience, an obscure Jewish girl became the instrument of divine grace triggering two millennia of reverence. Meet the flesh-and-blood woman God chose as the vessel of the Incarnation. Meet the scholars, priests, and poets who for centuries have fulfilled the prophecy of our Lord’s mother that “all generations will call me blessed.”
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Top Highlights
“Aside from the divine conception, he came the same way we all do: through pregnancy, labor, birth, infancy.… And that fact elevates not only all humanity, but especially all womankind. In the Incarnation, as in all human births, nothing happened without the loving, sacrificial participation of a woman. ‘Be it unto me according to thy word,’ said Mary.” (source)
“Many of these come from a single source: the ‘Protevangelium’ or ‘Gospel of James,’” (source)
“Thomas F. Madden, is that ‘the Inquisition was not born out of desire to crush diversity or oppress people; it was rather an attempt to stop unjust executions. It was the secular authorities that held heresy to be a capital offense, not the Church.’ The Inquisition ‘saved uncounted thousands of innocent (and not-so-innocent) people who would otherwise have been roasted by secular lords or mob rule.’ As the Inquisition ‘slipped out of papal hands and into those of kings,’ practices varied by region. This, coupled with attempts to stifle Protestantism, gave rise to the more popular view of the Inquisition.” (source)
“While Scripture reveals nothing about Mary’s death, tradition soon filled in the blank. Most influentially, John Damascene (d. 749) reported a story reportedly told at the Council of Chalcedon (451) that Mary had died in the presence of the Apostles, but when they opened her tomb they found it empty, ‘wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven.’ From this root developed a widespread belief that Mary was assumed bodily and now tastes the Resurrection for which Christians hope.” (source)
- Title: Christian History Magazine—Issue 83: Mary in the Imagination of the Church
- Author: Christian History Institute
- Series: Christian History Magazine
- Publisher: Christianity Today
- Print Publication Date: 2004
- Logos Release Date: 2009
- Era: era:Contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Church history › General; Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint
- Resource ID: LLS:CH83
- Resource Type: Magazine
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-10-05T16:40:56Z
