Mary: The Church at the Source Book

This series of lectures and essays on Mariology, along with a class on the subject I took at Mundelein, have totally revolutionized the place Marian doctrine and devotion has in my life. Formerly, I regarded the discipline of Mariology as an obscure, restricted study of 18th- and 19th-century works on Marian devotion, devoid of much systemazation or relevance to Church teaching on Mary, let alone the life of the Church as a whole. With then Cardinal Ratzinger's and von Balthasar's exposition of the subject, I was disabused of my disregard of Mariology in general. In fact, in the Church's teaching on the person of Mary, the subjects of human freedom and divine grace, biblical theology, theological anthropology, Church history, ecclesiastical office, and the form of discipleship--just to name a few--converge. In this way, Mary provides an entry point into all these various dimensions of theology and serves to unite them. I would highly recommend this book to all interested in discovering the foundations of the Church's teaching on Mary, especially those who are puzzled by the apparently undue emphasis Catholic teaching places upon her.