The twelve essays in this volume explore, through various approaches, not only the biblical portraits of Mary but also both "the quest for the historical Mary" and the understandings of those portraits through the centuries. Valerie Abrahamsen, Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, John Dominic Crossan, Mary F. Foskett, Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Deirdre Good, Jorunn Økland, Jane Schaberg, George H. Tavard, John van den Hengel, Pieter W. van der Horst, and George T. Zervos offer contributions that address such topics as the understandings of sexuality, the divine feminine, soteriology, first-century social history, christology, Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox hermeneutics, ecumenical and interfaith relations, and the meaning of "virginity." Volume 10 of the Feminist Companions to the Bible Series>

"The twelve essays in this volume explore, through various approaches, not only the biblical portraits of Mary but also both "the quest for the historical Mary" and the understandings of those portraits through the centuries."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This book attempts to read the character of Mary in the infancy narratives of Luke and Matthew alongside the lives of experiences of the Indian surrogate mother living a postcolonial India. Reading Mary through these lenses helps us see this mother and her actions in a more ambivalent light, as a mother whose love is both violent and altruistic.

The Virgin Mary is a ubiquitous but enigmatic presence in Christian history and culture. The tradition about Mary forms a vast and multi-layered aspect of Western history, culture and spirituality. It is not just in the Catholic tradition that Mary has become a particular focus of study and interest. Mary has also become a crucial interest for Christians outside this tradition (Protestant, Anglican) as a path to ecumenical understanding. This Handbook is intended as a reference for the student or scholar seeking knowledge of the history and contemporary practice of the cult of the Virgin Mary. It provides new essays that give overviews of particular areas of study - both historical and thematic - together with texts from primary sources and important scholarly articles, some of which appear in English for the first time. The book is divided into five Parts. Part One looks at the Virgin Mary in Earliest Christianity, Part Two focuses on the Middle Ages - the period in which the Virgin's cult developed to its greatest extent. Part Three deals with Mariology, or theological doctrines surrounding the Virgin, such as the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception. Part Four considers traditions of devotion to Mary, including the development of the rosary and Marian apparitions. Part Five examines the image of Mary in Art, Literature, and Film.

This book offers new insight and understanding of the cult of Mary from its earliest incarnations in Christianity.

In its twelth volume this text examines a number of Patristic texts and early Christian documents from a feminist perspective.