Mariology in the documents of ecumenical dialogue and Christian unity (original) (raw)
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Theology, 2016
In the extraordinary historical event of the incarnation of God’s Word, Mary plays a unique role for humanity in its relationship with God and, this role affects every aspect of Christian faith and theology. To fully express this role, a new phase of Marian research that builds upon the Church’s tradition is proposed. The emphasis of this new phase would be to explore the role, meaning and the full implications and potential of Mary within the central tenets of Christian faith and theology with the purpose of deepening the Church’s comprehension of Christianity itself and not simply of Mary.
Mary - Mother of unity. Catholic ecumenical perspective
World Scientific News 196, 46-55, 2024
The article refers to the words of Saint Augustine that Mary is the “Mother of unity in the many”. From a Catholic perspective, it aims to show the role of the Mother of God in the life of faith of non-Catholic Christians. It analyzes the main Marian motifs found in Eastern Christianity and in Protestantism. These considerations can help Catholics to deepen their experience of faith in the light of ecumenical inspirations that do not oppose the Catholic faith.
Woman of Many Names: Mary in Orthodox and Catholic Theology
Theological Studies, 2010
Catholic emphasis on Mary's role in the Christian story of salvation and on the unique privileges given her by God to accomplish that salvation for humanity continues to trouble some Protestants and seems to distract from the Church's central preaching. This article attempts to show the continuity between Catholic and Orthodox liturgical and theological traditions on Mary, despite apparent differences in terminology and image, and draws on the works of Sergei Bulgakov and Karl Rahner to reflect on the fundamental meaning of Mary for both Eastern and Western forms of Christian faith. W HEN I WAS A DOCTORAL STUDENT in England, each year I used to go with a group of students on a Holy Week pilgrimage to the medieval Marian shrine at Walsingham. Our group was composed of about 30 young people, half of them Catholic and half Anglican, with an Anglican priest and myself as chaplains. As we walked on our way, we were put up each night by a local parish; the night before we arrived at Walsingham we were usually guests of an Anglican community in a remote village in rural Norfolk, with a majestic 15th-century church standing alone in the fields. One year, as our straggling, footsore band of pilgrims neared the church, the vicar-a rather eccentric but enthusiastic high-churchman, radiating tousled white hair and expansive gestures-came out in surplice and cope with a delegation of his parishioners led by cross and candles to meet us. When he found out I was the Catholic chaplain, he greeted me with a warm embrace. "I'm so glad you're here," he assured me-expressing the hope (which unfortunately I could not fulfill) that I would, as he said, "confabulate" the Eucharist with him the following day. "Our Churches have grown BRIAN E. DALEY, S.J., received his D.Phil. from Oxford University and is currently the Catherine F. Huisking Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. His areas of special competency include patristic theology and ecumenical theology. Among his recent publications are:
“Devotion versus Theology? Some Mariological Issues of Interest to Patristicians and Ecumenists”
Cristian Badilita, ed., Patristique et oecuménisme: thèmes, contexts, personnages (Paris: Beauchesne), 147-158., 2010
This paper will look at some mariological issues, first from the perspective of late Roman Catholic theologian and cardinal Yves Congar, and then from an Orthodox perspective, trying to make some suggestions for the ongoing ecumenical dialogue among Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants. Throughout his life the late Congar was involved in the ecumenical movement striving for the unity of all Christians. As any serious theologian, he did not seek quick and easy solutions that would relativize the differences among us for the sake of unity, but rather tried to identify and address the real differences with the utmost honesty and with the risk of being silenced by his own Church at times. In recognizing that our differences are due to our ecclesiologies and that ecclesiology is determined by christology, in his book titled Christ, Our Lady and the Church Congar proposed that we take a closer look at our christologies to understand what went wrong there. 1 Congar recognized that, compared to the Churches which emerged from the Reformation, the Orthodox Church has much more in common with the Roman Catholic Church. Consequently, our christologies and the doctrines ensuing thence (ecclesiologies and mariologies) have also a lot more in common. Congar notes that, while most Protestants recognize only the first four ecumenical councils (and some will perhaps accept the decisions of the sixth), Orthodox and Roman Catholics accept seven ecumenical councils. It was precisely at the latter three councils that the consequences of the christological dogma formulated at the councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon were expressed 1 Y. M.-J. CONGAR, Christ, Our Lady and the Church. A Study in Eirenic Theology, tr. H. St. JOHN, Westminster, MD, The Newmann Press, 1957.
Mary and Ecumenism Hopeless Conflict or False Dilemma
Landas: Journal of Loyola School of Theology, 2019
M ary's role vis-à-vis the tenuous relationship between Roman Catholics and other Christians may be likened to the proverbial image of a double-edged sword-the figure of the Mother of Jesus can serve as a common reference or rallying point among believers of various denominations, on the one hand, yet also act as an added obstacle to understanding and harmony between them, on the other. This paper explores the evolution of Marian doctrine and devotion in relation to the pursuit of ecumenical agreement and fellowship among the followers of Christ. Before anything else, however, it must be reiterated that we are not dealing with monolithic realities when it comes to engaging with Christian churches today. Such is the basic problem in this field as articulated by Weeden, for whom "it is impossible to write about Mary from the Protestant point of view because there is no one Protestant viewpoint." 1 There is no uniform Orthodox, Evangelical, or Lutheran stance on Mary even when we speak of Orthodox Christians, Evangelicals, or Lutherans in particular. Except for the Roman Catholic Church which enjoys a relative degree of uniformity, at least when it comes to official doctrine and practice, Christian churches often 1
Mother of Hope. Mary of Nazareth in Anglican – Roman-Catholic Dialogue
Studia Oecumenica
Our Hope is Christ but His Mother is also ours. A difficult topic in the dialogue with Anglicans is the issue of Mariology. Mary and the various forms of liturgical and non-liturgical Marian devotion were inherited by Anglicans from the Catholic tradition. However, the influence of the Reformation has also had an impact on this topic. Hence, paradoxically, Mariology links and -at the same time- constitutes an element of polemics between Anglicans and Catholics. The Anglican doctrine about Mary of Nazareth mentions the term “complexion oppositorum”. The ecumenical Dialogue has shown us its present situation, as we can read in these pages. The authors, after presenting a historical introduction, made a presentation of all existing ecumenical documents being the fruit of Catholic-Anglican dialogue, in which there was any mention of the Mother of God. Documents at international level as well as documents from national dialogues, in particular from the USA and Canada, have been analysed.
Theological Icons of the Virgin Mary in the Teachings of Pope Francis
Roczniki Teologiczne, 2021
At the center of the world’s attention is man as a being who is called to complete his life in communion with God. To fulfill this purpose, after the fall of the first people, God sends his Son, who received human nature from his mother—the Virgin Mary. The motherhood of Jesus‘ mother is the reason for taking the right attitude toward the woman through whom we received the Creator of life. It is rightly spoken of the Marian veneration, which is shown by the cult of hyperdulia. The doctrine of the Catholic Church takes a position on all the important aspects of this reverence as well as the correct attitude of the believer to mariological topics that resonate in theological circles. An important and irreplaceable role is also played by the teachings of the popes, which are presented in different ways and on different occasions. Pope Francis takes a stand on the issues arising from the participation of the Virgin Mary in the history of salvation. In the study we will point out the the...
The Virgin Mary and the Church: The Marian Exemplarity of Ecclesial Faith
2013
In this essay I would like to consider in three stages the topic of the Virgin Mary as a model of ecclesial faith. I will do so by recourse to themes found in the doctrine of grace of Thomas Aquinas, especially as it relates to the unfolding of the divine economy. In the first part of the essay I will consider Aquinas’s doctrine of faith in three respects: in terms of the teleology of faith, its ontological degrees of perfection, and its communal character. In the second part of the essay I will consider more briefly the anthropological process of development in faith as it is related to love, particularly with regard to the question: how can faith grow through the occasions of joy and suffering? In the third part of the essay I will consider three mysteries of the life of the Virgin Mary, with respect to her faith: her divine maternity at the Annunciation, her meritorious compassion at the Cross, and her divine queenship in the Assumption, at the term of her earthly sojourn in faith. The goal is to show in these three mysteries how the characteristics of faith elaborated in part one of the essay (which are common to all the faithful) are exemplified in the life of the Virgin Mary, who, like all other Christians, grew in faith both through joy and through suffering. However, these same mysteries of grace are also expressed or realized in her in an absolutely unique mode, one that is not partaken of by another person in the divine economy. As I will argue in conclusion, however, the uniqueness of the Virgin Mary is not something purely extrinsic to the ecclesial life of believers. On the contrary, her prerogatives are intrinsically related to the ecclesial communion of the Church. They are various ways that she affects the lives of all believers, shining forth simultaneously as the Mother of the Redeemer and the Mother of all the faithful.