Download Free Mary The Feminine Face Of The Church Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Mary The Feminine Face Of The Church and write the review.

Mary Radford Ruether's book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of Mary's role in the vital doctrine of the contemporary church. In this unique study, she brings together much hard-to-find material. Her careful biblical scholarship enables us to reclaim a long-ignored part of our religious tradition. Useful for women's and other adult study groups, this book includes help for study leaders.
Even though feminine values have always been at the core of Christianity, its long history has often ignored or marginalized women’s key role in it. Margaret Starbird’s unique view from the feminine perspective serves the need many are feeling to search their traditional faith for fresh meaning and inspiration in these difficult times. Could Mary Magdalene have been Jesus’ wife? Starbird explores this possibility and the “sister-brides” who accompanied male disciples to forge a new understanding of gender-based faith and of sacred marriage with the Divine. She also gives us the rich heritage of stories about women’s generous service and encouragement for the inner journey, ranging all the way from little-known early saints to Mother Theresa. She points out that fundamental Christian values such as compassion, reconciliation, and the healing of crippled bodies and broken hearts are all strongly feminine in nature. Her view, though, is cooperative rather than contentious: She aims, not to discredit the masculine, but to right the missing gender balance she finds inherent in the faith. Distribution is limited to North America.
Mary According to Women presents a contemporary study of the woman of Nazareth who changes the course of human history. The seven chapters develop familiar titles of Mary in the context of the Vatican II Church, particularly its emphasis of justice and peace. Following the lead of the second Vatican Council in its historic document, Lumen Gentium, the book develops implications of the Council's treatment of Mary "in the mystery of Christ and the Church", of one who is truly involved in the lives and struggles of Christians today. Significantly, the book is written by women whose experience and insight give new perspective to a revitalized appreciation and love of Mary.
Mary--relic of the religious past or beacon of the future? Mary is more alive today than she was in the early Christian church, surfacing in art and worship in almost every culture on earth. Her appeal bridges the gap between the devotional and the secular, the uneducated and the sophisticated. But who is Mary and what exactly does she symbolize? How did a humble Jewish girl become the most honored woman in human history? Why is there so little about Mary in the Bible and so much about her in the art and history of Christianity, East and West? And why, in an age dominated by science and technology, does devotion to Mary persist? In Search of Mary is Sally Cunneen's provocative response to these questions. As Cunneen eloquently points out, in order to see Mary whole, it is important to look at all the different visions and versions of her, revisiting history through the eyes of a present day searcher. Including the latest findings by historians, anthropologists, and psychologists, as well as art historians and religious scholars, In Search of Mary reveals what we know about the life of Mary, follows the history and development of her image over the last two thousand years, and explores the different ways that Mary has transformed the lives of people today. As we struggle for greater unity in a divided world, In Search of Mary shows us a woman who can touch all people, regardless of their backgrounds. She is a profound reminder of the presence of the holy in ordinary life.
Cutting-edge contributions on early Christian Marys offer a variety of perspectives by leading scholars, and probe the earliest traditions on the Marys, both canonical and non-canonical, as preserved in Western and Oriental languages. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org).
“Of all the women in the Bible,” writes Nicola Slee, “Mary has been for me the most ambivalent, the most alien and yet, at some level, the most alluring. I’ve taken a long time to come to her—or for her to come to me. I grew up in a religious tradition—low church Methodism—in which Mary hardly featured, other than in the nativity story. Yet it is hardly possible to exist as an inhabitant of the western world, with even half an eye open to the visual and cultural heritage of Christendom, and not to have been in some way affected by this woman, the woman of the Christian tradition.” With a collection of prayers and liturgical material focused around the figure of Mary, and the themes of motherhood, sisterhood, and female faith, this book projects a strong, contemporary attitude. It is clearly feminist, affirming the significance of Mary in the faith journey of contemporary Christian (and other) women, plus it challenges and critiques traditional stereotypes of Mary. The author explores the sorrows of Mary, her defiance and resistance, sexuality, sensuality, aloneness, independence and freedom, companionship, sisterhood, friendship, ministry, priesthood, contemplation, prayer and silence, wisdom, authority, faith, risk, and daring.
Once, the Virgin Mary was a pivotal element of Christianity, a holy figure at the heart of most Christians' spiritual lives. She was invoked at all major life passages--baptisms, weddings, childbirths, and funerals--and images of the Virgin Mary could be found virtually anywhere, from pub signs to sacred texts. Medieval women especially looked to Mary to answer their prayers, be their role model, and serve as their advocate in heaven. They prayed to her several times a day and sometimes devoted their entire lives to her service. This book investigates perceptions of the Virgin Mary through several centuries of literature. Focusing especially on the depictions of the Virgin Mary in medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, the author rediscovers a time when the Divine Female was very much in evidence, and good Christian women were taught to pray to a Holy Mother. Topics include the cyclical popularity of Virgin Mary; devotional objects such as Books of Hours, rosaries, and Marian gardens; the mystical qualities attributed to the Virgin Mary through centuries of reported divine visions; the historical relationships between the Virgin Mary and other religious figures, including the Devil; and Mary Magdalene as an alternative to the Virgin Mary as a feminine model.
For women of the Italian Renaissance, the Virgin Mary was one of the most important role models. Who Is Mary? presents devotional works written by three women better known for their secular writings: Vittoria Colonna, famed for her Petrarchan lyric verse; Chiara Matraini, one of the most original poets of her generation; and the wide-ranging, intellectually ambitious polemicist Lucrezia Marinella. At a time when the cult of the Virgin was undergoing a substantial process of redefinition, these texts cast fascinating light on the beliefs of Catholic women in the Renaissance, and also, in the cases of Matraini and Marinella, on contemporaneous women’s social behavior, prescribed for them by male writers in books on female decorum. Who Is Mary? testifies to the emotional and spiritual relationships that women had with the figure of Mary, whom they were required to emulate as the epitome of femininity. Now available for the first time in English-language translation, these writings suggest new possibilities for women in both religious and civil culture and provide a window to women’s spirituality, concerning the most important icon set before them, as wives, mothers, and Christians.
Offers new perceptions, new insights, a new structuring of experiences of the Virgin symbolism.