Winter Reading for January 2016

Introducing the Old Testament: An Overview of Its Content and Its Message. John F. Fink. (Staten Island, NY: St. Paul’s Publishing, 2015) 136 pages; $12.95. (Reviewed by Kenneth Colston) The Marian Mystery: Outline of a Mariology. Denis F … [Read more...]

Mother of Mercy

On March 13, 2015, His Holiness Pope Francis announced that on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary—December 8, 2015—the Universal Church would enter an Extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy. Why did his Holiness cho … [Read more...]

Peter, Mary, and the Cross

An Examination of the Ecclesiology of Von Balthasar’s Dialectic

Hans Urs von Balthasar has proposed that a dialectic, or “reciprocal relationship,” exists between the objective and subjective holiness of the Church—represented by the persons of Peter and Mary—which he associates with its institutional an … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Pope Francis seems to be placing a renewed emphasis on the teachings of the Church regarding the ethical pursuit of wealth and business. Are there practical norms for the correct use of economic power in a firm? Lumen Gentium was very … [Read more...]

Mary, Daughter of Zion

In the ancient Near East, a woman, often evoked as a virgin, was frequently used to symbolize a city or a country. For example, at Isaiah 47:1, the city of Babylon is called a “virgin daughter”: “Step down! Sit in the dust, virgin daughter o … [Read more...]

Winter Reading for December 2014

31 Days to Becoming a Better Religious Educator. Jared Dees (Notre Dame, Indiana: Ave Maria Press: 2013) 164 pages; $9.95. (Reviewed by Brandon Harvey) The Power of Four: Keys to the Hidden Treasures of the Gospels. Eduardo P. … [Read more...]

Guadalupe and God’s Word

A Biblical-Theological Interpretation of Her Apparition

When Miguel Sánchez published Imagen de la Virgen María in 1648, he did more than document the first apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the New World. Scholars agree that his account became a lens through which clergy and faithful i … [Read more...]

A Silence about Mary

Mary is very central to the Gospel’s infancy narratives, but after Cana she almost disappears: we see her in the “Who are my mother and my brothers and my sisters?” passage, at the foot of the cross, and as being present at the Pentecost eve … [Read more...]

True, Virginal Wife of Joseph

Recently, a holy, married couple made the following claim regarding the central place of sexual intercourse in sacramental marriage, expressed as a personal insight, gained over the course of more than 50 years of sacramental … [Read more...]

Decoding Vatican II’s Marian Paradigm Shift

This Vatican II Mariological paradigmatic shift reverberated into all areas of ecclesial theology and liturgy, through a new hermeneutic or interpretation that went beyond the council’s purview and became what is described as a new ethos, t … [Read more...]