Posted on 05/17/2008 4:15:27 PM PDT by NYer
ST. LOUIS — When Anglicans and Catholics agreed in May 2005 that Marian dogmas were consonant with Scripture, few guessed the accord would signal a veritable Marian regeneration.
Yet, in the nearly three years that have followed, the increasing acceptance of Mary among Christians has been witnessed in everything from theology to pop culture.
The 2006 sleeper hit The Nativity Story, for instance — widely acclaimed by Catholics and Protestants alike — was written by Mike Rich, a nondenominational Christian.
“From the standpoint of ecumenism, the subject of Mary is one we can speak about with a number of groups we’re in dialogue with,” said Lawrence Welch, associate professor of systematic theology at Kenrick-Glennon seminary in St. Louis. He has served on Vatican committees on ecumenism.
“It’s cautious, and among some it’s still taboo,” Welch added, “but there is openness to speak about Mary’s role in salvation history and in the life of Jesus.”
Mary’s inspiration has been most spectacular, however, in the process of conversion.
>In a move that amazed evangelical Protestants and Catholics alike, and continues to rock Christian blogs, Francis Beckwith resigned his high-profile post as president of the Evangelical Theological Society, revealing that he was returning to full communion with the Catholic Church.
That was in May 2007. Providentially, May has long been held in the Church as a particular month of devotion to the Blessed Mother.
Now associate professor of philosophy and Church studies at Baylor University, Beckwith cited an easing of reactionary tendencies among Christians as a chief pathway to reconciliation.
“Many Protestants are asking: Can we honor Mary in a way that’s not so adoring as Catholics but acknowledges that she was the greatest Christian?” he said. “I would speculate that this movement is responding to the accusations against Christ’s divinity by liberal scholars.”
That quest for the “historical Jesus,” which is associated recently with researchers like dissidents John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg of the Jesus Seminar, does not accept the dogma of Christ’s two natures in one person, which was defined at the council of Chalcedon in 451.
“Interestingly, a huge increase of Marian devotion occurs right after Chalcedon,” Beckwith noted. “Cardinal Newman was right: The necessity of the Immaculate Conception protects the Church from second-guessing Christ’s divinity and humanity; it protects us against Docetism and Arianism. Evangelicals are realizing this and asking: Do we want to pass this uncertainty to the next generation?”
Church Fathers
Clear about the Mariology he wishes to pass to his students, Daniel Akin, president of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, preached at Christmastime on the Magnificat, Mary’s hymn of adoration found in the first chapter of Luke.
“Mary is a great lady, a wonderful wife and mother, and a hero in the faith,” he said. “We as Christians should be grateful and rejoice in her life.”
Akin was wary, though, of what he perceives as excessive devotion to Mary.
“If she were with us today, she’d be scandalized by the way some have elevated her,” he said. “There is no indication in Scripture that she was sinless. She was a sinner, like the rest of us, who needed to be saved by her son.”
That same debate raged back in the fifth century, when St. Leo the Great wrote hundreds of sermons and letters defending Mary Immaculate. In particular, letter No. 28, popularly known as The Tome, led inexorably to that famous declaration at Chalcedon, which included a definition of Mary’s undefiled virginity.
“I’m familiar with Leo’s Tome,” commented Akin. “I think the language there and what the council used is confusing, and I do not agree with Leo’s interpretations.”
Until recently, an open discussion of St. Leo’s work would be a rarity at best. But Kenrick-Glennon’s Welch pointed out that the resurgence of interest in patristics — the theology of the Church Fathers, who wrote in the first six centuries of the Church — has led to greater dialogue among Christians on a range of topics.
“I’ve seen great interest in my book on St. Cyril of Alexandria from evangelicals,” he noted, “maybe even more activity recently than from Catholics.”
And as they turn to the Church Fathers, more Protestants are beginning to work out Marian theology in dialogue with Catholics.
“I recently had a public dialogue with Timothy George, founding dean of Beeson Divinity School, which is Baptist,” Beckwith reported. “We’re both familiar with Scot McKnight’s book (The Real Mary: Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus), and George is at work on his own book on Mary.”
Naturally, then, Protestants have returned to the Church Fathers with renewed vigor to understand the devotion proper to Mary.
Jim Anderson, assistant director of the Coming Home Network International, encountered in his studies a class dedicated to the subject team-taught by a Presbyterian and an Eastern Orthodox. “I was Methodist, and then a Lutheran, but that course on the early Church removed a lot of hurdles for me.”
Now a Catholic working with Marcus Grodi, the former Presbyterian pastor who hosts EWTN’s “The Journey Home,” Anderson points to Mary as pivotal in the conversions he witnesses.
“To understand Christology you have to understand Mary,” he said. “Faith brought understanding for me, just as it has for a lot of our [formerly Protestant] clergy. True, the Holy Spirit works differently in different people’s hearts. But the numbers of people wanting to know more about the early Church and Mary is like a drumbeat that keeps getting louder and louder.”
Then why not just ask 'her boy' in the first place as the Bible gives us the authority to?
And the elevated role is post Biblical.
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>>Another part of me says, “How embarrassing! They’re becoming more Catholic than Catholics: voting pro-life, socially conservative, generous to the poor...and now they pray to the Blessed Virgin?!?!?! Quick! Burn some incense, wrap a Rosary around my rear view mirror, wear a T-Shirt of Pope B16 drinking bear on the front and Pope JP2 with sunglasses on the back, staple a Mass Card to my forehead...I was Catholic FIRST!!!!!” <<
I don’t have the t-shirt but I do have a Papal Beer Stein.
Unless Akin has become senile, he is still a firm, Biblical Christian who would not embrace extra-Biblical doctrines such as 98% of what passes for “devotion to Mary”.That is the beauty of the protestant heresy, you each come to your own conclusion. He can be right, you can be, anyone except the 1.2 BILLION members of the Mystical Body of Christ in joint agreement with Rome.
“That is the beauty of the protestant heresy, you each come to your own conclusion.”
As opposed to the cult-like marching orders issued by the RCC under the assumed authority of a man who sits in a particular chair? Marching orders on what to believe issued by a league of religious men who have their “interpretation by committee”?
When people stand before Almighty God and give an account, there will be no “Magisterium” for any RC to hide behind. Each person will give his own account to the Lord. If one has the faith given him by a religious organization, he will be without hope on judgment day.
Blessed Virgin Mary's loving graces have plenty of room for every single human being now and in the future if they'd just accept her prayers for them.
Mary is only mentioned in Protestant church services during the four weeks of Advent and Christmas season, at Easter - because she stood at the cross, and at Pentecost, in the reading where it states she was in the Upper Room. And once a year when the passage is read aloud of Jesus at the wedding at Cana.
You seem to think that Roman Catholics’ faith is bogus because it is “handed down” from the Church. Do you want your children to come to conclusions independently, or do you teach them your faith?
Catholics believe what they do because it is handed down from the Apostles, who certainly didn’t want people to let each person flounder around with his own interpretation of the Gospels. There are letters from Paul, Peter, and others in the New Testament which teach us and elaborate on the Gospel. Would you deny their testimony and say that each person should decide for himself about the Gospels only?
The Magesterium is charged with making sure all of us are on the same page with Scriptural interpretation. Protestants don’t have this, which is why when I was a Protestant I had a minister who said that Jesus had girlfriends, a Sunday school teacher who taught that salvation didn’t require good works, and another Sunday school teacher who thought that we all had to decide for ourselves about abortion and gay marriage.
There is a reason I became a Catholic. The Church is consistent, scriptural, and has the Apostolic succession through the Seat of Peter. It is the Church Christ founded. All Christians have a portion of the Truth, but the Catholic Church is the closest to what Jesus intended.
I wonder how many of that 1.2 Billion even attend Mass regularly, let alone know and subscribe to all the dogma in the RC Catechism...
(I’m guessing less than 1 in 10...)
Given the history of the Roman Church—and human nature in general, the only doctrines anyone can be certain came from the Apostles are those, logically, they actually wrote down.
That is called the Bible, period.
IN all seriousness, it would be good to come up with a useful definition of “Protestant”.
I really think this is an unrealistic view of what the Catholic Church is or operates like.
Have you read, say, Fides et Ratio or Veritatis Splendor? That's some cult. Those are not easy works.
“(I’m guessing less than 1 in 10...)”
Good for you. You can guess. I’m glad. You can also be your own Pope. Choose what to believe and how. Or you can follow Our Lord. You choses. Or you guess. What is the risk?
I already have a Lord and Savior and Intercessor, thank you. No second-rate second-hand impostors need apply.
Oh yes, the omnipresence of Mary. Is that part of the RC doctrine?
Also, any idea when the Canon of the Bible was closed?
I am not so sure I want to share the Blessed Mother with anymore people. Just saying. :)
“Don’t think the Reformers had the same view of Mary as does the RCC. I certainly do not.”
You may want to at least research the actual beliefs by the protestant reformers. See below. Just how did protestansim vere so far from it’s original beliefs?
Martin Luther:
Mary the Mother of God
Throughout his life Luther maintained without change the historic Christian affirmation that Mary was the Mother of God:
“She is rightly called not only the mother of the man, but also the Mother of God ... It is certain that Mary is the Mother of the real and true God.”1
Perpetual Virginity
Again throughout his life Luther held that Mary’s perpetual virginity was an article of faith for all Christians - and interpreted Galatians 4:4 to mean that Christ was “born of a woman” alone.
“It is an article of faith that Mary is Mother of the Lord and still a Virgin.”2
The Immaculate Conception
Yet again the Immaculate Conception was a doctrine Luther defended to his death (as confirmed by Lutheran scholars like Arthur Piepkorn). Like Augustine, Luther saw an unbreakable link between Mary’s divine maternity, perpetual virginity and Immaculate Conception. Although his formulation of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was not clear-cut, he held that her soul was devoid of sin from the beginning:
“But the other conception, namely the infusion of the soul, it is piously and suitably believed, was without any sin, so that while the soul was being infused, she would at the same time be cleansed from original sin and adorned with the gifts of God to receive the holy soul thus infused. And thus, in the very moment in which she began to live, she was without all sin...”3
Assumption
Although he did not make it an article of faith, Luther said of the doctrine of the Assumption:
“There can be no doubt that the Virgin Mary is in heaven. How it happened we do not know.”4
Honor to Mary
Despite his unremitting criticism of the traditional doctrines of Marian mediation and intercession, to the end Luther continued to proclaim that Mary should be honored. He made it a point to preach on her feast days.
“The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart.”5
“Is Christ only to be adored? Or is the holy Mother of God rather not to be honoured? This is the woman who crushed the Serpent’s head. Hear us. For your Son denies you nothing.”6 Luther made this statement in his last sermon at Wittenberg in January 1546.
John Calvin: It has been said that John Calvin belonged to the second generation of the Reformers and certainly his theology of double predestination governed his views on Marian and all other Christian doctrine . Although Calvin was not as profuse in his praise of Mary as Martin Luther he did not deny her perpetual virginity. The term he used most commonly in referring to Mary was “Holy Virgin”.
“Elizabeth called Mary Mother of the Lord, because the unity of the person in the two natures of Christ was such that she could have said that the mortal man engendered in the womb of Mary was at the same time the eternal God.”7
“Helvidius has shown himself too ignorant, in saying that Mary had several sons, because mention is made in some passages of the brothers of Christ.”8 Calvin translated “brothers” in this context to mean cousins or relatives.
“It cannot be denied that God in choosing and destining Mary to be the Mother of his Son, granted her the highest honor.”9
“To this day we cannot enjoy the blessing brought to us in Christ without thinking at the same time of that which God gave as adornment and honour to Mary, in willing her to be the mother of his only-begotten Son.”10
Ulrich Zwingli:
“It was given to her what belongs to no creature, that in the flesh she should bring forth the Son of God.”11
“I firmly believe that Mary, according to the words of the gospel as a pure Virgin brought forth for us the Son of God and in childbirth and after childbirth forever remained a pure, intact Virgin.”12 Zwingli used Exodus 4:22 to defend the doctrine of Mary’s perpetual virginity.
“I esteem immensely the Mother of God, the ever chaste, immaculate Virgin Mary.”13
“Christ ... was born of a most undefiled Virgin.”14
“It was fitting that such a holy Son should have a holy Mother.”15
“The more the honor and love of Christ increases among men, so much the esteem and honor given to Mary should grow.”16
We might wonder why the Marian affirmations of the Reformers did not survive in the teaching of their heirs - particularly the Fundamentalists. This break with the past did not come through any new discovery or revelation. The Reformers themselves (see above) took a benign even positive view of Marian doctrine - although they did reject Marian mediation because of their rejection of all human mediation. Moreover, while there were some excesses in popular Marian piety, Marian doctrine as taught in the pre-Reformation era drew its inspiration from the witness of Scripture and was rooted in Christology. The real reason for the break with the past must be attributed to the iconoclastic passion of the followers of the Reformation and the consequences of some Reformation principles. Even more influential in the break with Mary was the influence of the Enlightenment Era which essentially questioned or denied the mysteries of faith.
Unfortunately the Marian teachings and preachings of the Reformers have been “covered up” by their most zealous followers - with damaging theological and practical consequences. This “cover-up” can be detected even in Chosen by God: Mary in Evangelical Perspective, an Evangelical critique of Mariology. One of the contributors admits that “Most remarkable to modern Protestants is the Reformers’ almost universal acceptance of Mary’s continuing virginity, and their widespread reluctance to declare Mary a sinner”. He then asks if it is “a favourable providence” that kept these Marian teachings of the Reformers from being “transmitted to the Protestant churches”!17
What is interpreted as “Providence” by a Marian critic may legitimately be interpreted as a force of a very different kind by a Christian who has recognized the role of Mary in God’s plan.
NOTES
1 Martin Luther, Weimar edition of Martin Luther’s Works, English translation edited by J. Pelikan [Concordia: St. Louis], volume 24, 107.
2 Martin Luther, op. cit., Volume 11, 319-320.
3 Martin Luther, Weimar edition of Martin Luther’s Works,
English translation edited by J. Pelikan [Concordia: St.
Louis], Volume 4, 694.
4 [Martin Luther, Weimar edition of Martin Luther’s Works (Translation by William J. Cole) 10, p. 268.
5 [Martin Luther, Weimar edition of Martin Luther’s Works
(Translation by William J. Cole) 10, III, p.313.
6 Martin Luther, Weimar edition of Martin Luther’s Works, English translation edited by J. Pelikan [Concordia: St. Louis], Volume 51, 128-129.
7 John Calvin, Calvini Opera [Braunshweig-Berlin, 1863-1900], Volume 45, 35.
8 Bernard Leeming, “Protestants and Our Lady”, Marian Library Studies, January 1967, p.9.
9 John Calvin, Calvini Opera [Braunshweig-Berlin, 1863-1900], Volume 45, 348.
10 John Calvin, A Harmony of Matthew, Mark and Luke (St. Andrew’s Press, Edinburgh, 1972), p.32.
11 Ulrich Zwingli, In Evang. Luc., Opera Completa [Zurich, 1828-42], Volume 6, I, 639
12 Ulrich Zwingli, Zwingli Opera, Corpus Reformatorum, Volume 1, 424.
13 E. Stakemeier, De Mariologia et Oecumenismo, K. Balic, ed., (Rome, 1962), 456.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
16 Ulrich Zwingli, Zwingli Opera, Corpus Reformatorum, Volume 1, 427-428.
17 David F. Wright, ed., Chosen by God: Mary in Evangelical Perspective (London: Marshall Pickering, 1989), 180.
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