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The Virgin Mary
- A Very Short Introduction
- Narrated by: Alison Ewing
- Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins
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Publisher's summary
The Virgin Mary - a Jewish mother - is central to Christianity, a revered woman in Islam, and a person of persistent fascination for centuries. Marian worship and theology has inspired countless appearances in art, as well as religious philosophy and doctrine, while the concept of the Virgin herself has been involved in controversial discussions over the Virginal body, race, anti-Semitism, and globalism.
This Very Short Introduction describes the evolution of Marian thought from early Christianity to the present day. Mary Joan Winn Leith focuses on the centuries between the rise of Christianity and the Counter-Reformation, the eras when most of the doctrinal issues, popular traditions, and associated conventions of Marian iconography developed, and covers Catholic, Orthodox, and other Christian denominations, as well as the Islamic Mary. Taking an interdisciplinary approach that includes art history, archaeology, and gender studies as well as doctrinal history, she considers some of the misunderstandings and unquestioned assumptions about the Virgin Mary that pervade past and present Christian consciousness and today's secular world. Leith also discusses apparitions of Mary and representations of Mary in contemporary popular culture.
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Marcellino D'Ambrosio dusts off what might have been just dry theology to bring you the exciting stories of great heroes such as Ambrose, Augustine, Basil, Athanasius, John Chrysostom, and Jerome. These brilliant, embattled, and sometimes eccentric men defined the biblical canon, hammered out the Creed, and gave us our understanding of sacraments and salvation. It is they who preserved the rich legacy of the early Church for us.
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Masterful summary of the early Church Fathers
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The Alphabet Versus the Goddess
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Who changed the sex of God? This groundbreaking book proposes that the rise of alphabetic literacy reconfigured the human brain and brought about profound changes in history, religion, and gender relations. Making remarkable connections across brain function, myth, and anthropology, Dr. Shlain shows why pre-literate cultures were principally informed by holistic, right-brain modes that venerated the Goddess, images, and feminine values.
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Can't Even Get Started
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The First Thousand Years
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Beginning with the life of Jesus, Robert Louis Wilken narrates the dramatic spread and development of Christianity over the first thousand years of its history. Moving through the formation of early institutions, practices, and beliefs to the transformations of the Roman world after the conversion of Constantine, he sheds new light on the subsequent stories of Christianity in the Latin West, the Byzantine and Slavic East, the Middle East, and Central Asia.
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Excellent Summary!
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Historians know virtually nothing about the two decades following the crucifixion of Jesus, when his followers regrouped and began to spread his message. During this time the man we know as the apostle Paul joined the movement and began to preach to the gentiles. Using the oldest Christian documents that we have - the letters of Paul - as well as other early Christian sources, historian and scholar James Tabor reconstructs the origins of Christianity.
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Paul or Jesus?
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The Apocryphal Gospels
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Between 50 and 90 CE, the various writings that comprise the New Testament were written, including the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles of Paul, and other letters to more general communities of the early Church. But what is recognized as the 26 books of the New Testament today, in literally hundreds of English translations, actually took several more centuries to be determined as "canonical" by the Church.
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Very Interesting information.
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By: Charles River Editors, and others
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Letter and Spirit
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Scott Hahn has inspired millions of readers with his perceptive and unique view of Catholic theology and worship, becoming one of the most looked-to contemporary authorities in these areas. In Letter and Spirit, Hahn extends the message he began in The Lamb's Supper, offering far-reaching and profound insights into what the Bible teaches us about living the spiritual life.
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This could easily be a 5 star download
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Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code
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Dan Brown's immensely popular New York Times best-selling The Da Vinci Code is one of the most successful books of recent history. It has captivated millions the world over with its enthralling suspense and its provocative questions about the true nature of Jesus' life.
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A historian's approach to the Da Vinci code
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Our Lady of Guadalupe
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Nearly a decade after Spain's conquest of Mexico, the future of Christianity on the American continent was very much in doubt. Confronted with a hostile colonial government and Native Americans wary of conversion, the newly-appointed bishop-elect of Mexico wrote to tell the King of Spain that, unless there was a miracle, the continent would be lost.
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Good book but difficult to get through
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12 Major World Religions
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For billions of people, having a religious belief system provides purpose in life. For some, religion serves as a guide for moral behavior. After many years exploring the foundations of various world religions, Jason Boyett has written this comprehensive, easy-to-understand exploration of the 12 major world religions through a meticulous, yet unbiased lens. 12 Major World Religions offers an impartial look at where each of these belief systems intersects, how they differ, and why some have been - or are currently - misunderstood.
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It’s a must
- By Bogdan on 11-22-20
By: Jason Boyett
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What listeners say about The Virgin Mary
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- Tom
- 04-25-22
For ALL Christians
Required reading for all serious Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthdox Christians interested in history and truth.
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- Adam Shields
- 08-29-23
Mary is important
After finishing Jesus Wars, I wanted to pick up The Virgin Mary: A Very Short Introduction because I was surprised at how large of a role Mary played in trinitarian debates of the early centuries of Christianity (the idea of Mary, not the actual person of Mary). I have always been Protestant, and while I have some understanding of Catholic theology, I often miss the nuances behind the differences. And I have even less understanding of Orthodox theology. This book, in combination with Jesus Wars (and my current reading of Medieval Christianity) have helped to understand some of the nuance I previously missed.
A significant part of the early trinitarian debates were those that wanted to emphasize Jesus’ divinity, opposing those that wanted to emphasize his humanity. Almost everyone understood that Jesus was, in some sense, both human and divine. But the problem comes in figuring out how to talk about that. And when you add the culture of the era that was biased against women (some believed that women were malformed men) and that sexuality was inherently sinful (so how could God come from a sinful act, the Immaculate Conception is about Mary, not Jesus; to make Mary able to bear Jesus as a mother she needed to be conceived apart from sin) and that some of the philosophical conventions of the time also impacted these things could be talked about.
This book at least touches on these matters and how Mary’s role changed over time with both Western and Eastern early Christianity and later post-reformation changes and her influence in Islam. There is also a necessary chapter on whether Mary is a goddess figure. My summary of that is that theologically, she is not a goddess; although there have been fringe movements that did want to move her into a more salvific or divine role, those have remained fringe. But throughout history, there were practices that kept placing her in a more divine role than what ecclesiological leaders would accept. This tension is, in part what has kept Mary prominent, but also kept Mary isolated out of the Protestant world.
Mary Joan Winn Leith is not Catholic, nor is she the first Protestant that makes the case that Protestants should have a higher view of Mary. Matthew Milliner’s Mother of the Lamb more explicitly makes this case (according to interviews I have heard about it, it is still on my to-read list.) But there have been abuses of thinking and practice around Mary, and like in many other things, Mary has suffered an overcorrection. Amy Peeler, in Women and the Gender of God, speaks about the importance to our theology and anthropology in recovering a better understanding of Mary.
It is always hard in short books on big topics to cover it all. But The Virgin Mary touched on a wide range of topics, from theology and implications to trinitarian thought, to the role of Mary in art and church development and missionary work, and more. The Marian practices of the rosary make sense in light of congregational worship of the Middle Ages being largely clergy-focused and in a language that most did not even understand. And Mary, partly because of the Magnificant, is understood as being interested in the poor and dispossessed.
I was not completely new to the topic, but this was still helpful.
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