Description
SJ MARY ARCHETYPE OF THE CHURCH by Otto Semmelroth / Introduction by Jaroslav Pelikan / THE BASIC MARIAN IDEA / THE ARCHETYPE OF THE CHURCH / Originally published in German under the title Archetype of the Church by Echter-Verlag, Würzburg
- Publisher : Gill & Macmillan (January 1, 1964)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 196 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0717101134
- ISBN-13 : 978-0717101139 / 9780717101139
- Item Weight : 1.74 pounds
!!! Condition of this book is USED VERY GOOD !!!
The ecumenical spirit which has begun to quicken the entire Christian community has had the effect, not only of our discovering areas of agreement, but also of making our divisions yet more painfully clear. Perhaps no issue more sharply divides Catholic and Protestant than does that of Mary's place in Christian theology. Protestants generally feel that the Catholic gives Mary too great a role; Catholics that the Protestant gives her too little. What is needed from both sides is a basic re-examination of Mary, not as a figure venerated in devotions, but as an object of theological speculation. Mary, Archetype of the Church is an attempt to answer that need. The work of one of Germany's most original theologians, it attempts to locate Mary within the mystery of salvation. Other theologians have sought the basic principle of Marian theology in her divine motherhood, or even in the bridal aspect of that motherhood. For Father Semmelroth, the basic Marian principle is to be sought in the fact that Mary is the Archetype of the Church.
From this flows her unique place in the economy of salvation; on this fact, too, should rest the veneration and devotion of the Christian toward Mary. Father Semmelroth is sharply critical of, and justifiably impatient with, the type of non-theological Marian devotion which has become so marked an element in the Church from the Middle Ages to the present. His book, then, has important consequences for Marian piety as well as for Marian theology. Mary, Archetype of the Church is calculated to arouse considerable discussion within both Catholic and Protestant circles.
Catholics will see in it a pointed challenge to the customary presentation of Marian theology. Protestants will see in it a theological point de départ which serves to render more comprehensible the role of Mary in Christian life in her relation both to the sacred community which is the Church, and to the individual Christian.
