Posted on 04/06/2007 4:42:52 AM PDT by IrishMike
Frederica Mathewes-Green: I feel ambivalent about the title kind of lurid, isnt it! But my point was that there are many, many ancient Christian texts that are fully orthodox; its not only a matter of New Testament versus gnostics. Earlier generations of Christians read the same kind of supplemental and devotional works we do today: biographies, commentaries, letters, sermons, debates with non-believers...pretty much anything you would find in a Christian bookstore today. Except mens dress socks with little fish and crosses on em.
These works got lost mostly because we forgot them our family memory fades after a few decades or centuries. Contemporary Western Christians have a bad case of spiritual amnesia. So Im hoping to put a few of the more appealing and worthy works back on the shelf. In this book I present three ancient texts concerning the Virgin Mary, with new translations and verse-by-verse commentary. The first is a gospel, or narrative biography, of the Virgin Marys birth, and early life.
Marys suffering faith during our Lords last days is a model and inspiration for all believers. But what I found in these three documents was that the greatest interest for early Christians was in her pregnancy. The fact of the Incarnation was something early Christians continually marveled over; also, it was the grounds on which they had to fight most often, defending the real divinity and real humanity of Jesus. And it was Mary whom God called on to provide the physical matrix for Christs appearance in the flesh; she was a regular human being, one of us. That means that on one side, Jesus grandmother was named Anna, while on the other side...you see how mind-blowing it is.
(Excerpt) Read more at article.nationalreview.com ...
It’s not about Mary; it’s about Jesus.
Good observation.
Easter is about Jesus, the post is about a book.
One of the things that has surprised me, as I explore early Christian spirituality and the Eastern Church, is that there is so little interest in gender division. There arent separate types of prayer or spiritual disciplines for men as opposed to women, or for Greek rather than Arab or Egyptian Christians, or for rich versus poor Christians none of that seems to matter.So playing up gender is progress? Reminds me of Chesterton's swipe at modern thought: "chronological snobbery."
When you talk about the king of the Davidic line whose kingdom never ends and yet people get hysterical when the queen mother is even mentioned. I guess you simply cant discuss the family without someone getting all pissy. It appears that even 2000 years later on Mothers day you can discuss anyone else in the bible but oh no not her, for heavens sakes.
“Hail Mary, full of Grace. The Lord is with Thee.” - Gabriel
“Blessed is the fruit of thy womb” - Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptist)
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