The Virgin Mary: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #686

by Mary Joan Winn Leith

The Virgin Mary - a Jewish mother - is central to Christianity, a revered woman in Islam, and a person of persistent fascination for centuries. Marian worship and theology has inspired countless appearances in art, as well as religious philosophy and doctrine, while the concept of the Virgin herself has been involved in controversial discussions over the Virginal body, race, anti-Semitism, and globalism.

This Very Short Introduction describes the evolution of Marian thought from early Christianity to the present day. Mary Joan Winn Leith focuses on the centuries between the rise of Christianity and the Counter-Reformation, the eras when most of the doctrinal issues, popular traditions, and associated conventions of Marian iconography developed, and covers Catholic, Orthodox, and other Christian denominations, as well as the Islamic Mary. Taking an interdisciplinary approach that includes art history, archaeology, and gender studies as well as doctrinal history, she considers some of the misunderstandings and unquestioned assumptions about the Virgin Mary that pervade past and present Christian consciousness and today's secular world. Leith also discusses apparitions of Mary and representations of Mary in contemporary popular culture.

Very Short Introductions : Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring

ABOUT THE The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Christian, Audiobook

208 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 2022

Reviews

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the hardest books I have ever read. The 145 pages took me forever. Pages 147-172 are glossary, references, etc.

Having got through it with great difficulty having to re-read passages over and over brought me to the conclusion that it is not meant for a lay person such as myself.

Taking the reader through 0BCE/CE – 1962-5 the evolution of Mary has gone from extreme to extreme, with nothing definitive to share.

I have come away with nothing but my original thoughts which are: “Given the sparse information about Mary in the Gospels, it is hardly surprising that stories began to appear to fill in the Gospels’ gaps.” (Pg.44)

I don’t think this book would be helpful for anyone looking for a spiritual uplift.

N.B: The illustrations were of special interest.

[Kayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely one of the better VSI’s I’ve read. Although written by a Protestant, the author never occurs as biased, and presents a lot of different views of Mary and information about the art and books surrounding her. This VSI provides food for thought for me that I never thought of in my 20 years of being Catholic, from subjects such as her body, and her immaculate conception. I would recommend this to anyone interested in the Virgin Mary as a topic, not just Catholics or Christians.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first try at one of these "Very Short Introduction" books, and it was intense!
I started this during the Christmas season, obviously, and it took quite a while to get through.

It's a very dense and absolutely fascinating examination of the history and meaning of Mary, and I absolutely loved the journey the book led me through.
Not a breezy read, but incredibly informative.

[Adam Shields · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: Mary matters, but the response to her is widely varied.

After finishing Jesus Wars, I wanted to pick up The Virgin Mary: A Very Short Introduction because I was surprised at how large of a role Mary played in trinitarian debates of the early centuries of Christianity (the idea of Mary, not the actual person of Mary). I have always been Protestant, and while I have some understanding of Catholic theology, I often miss the nuances behind the differences. And I have even less understanding of Orthodox theology. This book, in combination with Jesus Wars (and my current reading of Medieval Christianity) have helped to understand some of the nuance I previously missed.

A significant part of the early trinitarian debates were those that wanted to emphasize Jesus' divinity, opposing those that wanted to emphasize his humanity. Almost everyone understood that Jesus was, in some sense, both human and divine. But the problem comes in figuring out how to talk about that. And when you add the culture of the era that was biased against women (some believed that women were malformed men) and that sexuality was inherently sinful (so how could God come from a sinful act, the Immaculate Conception is about Mary, not Jesus; to make Mary able to bear Jesus as a mother she needed to be conceived apart from sin) and that some of the philosophical conventions of the time also impacted these things could be talked about.

This book at least touches on these matters and how Mary's role changed over time with both Western and Eastern early Christianity and later post-reformation changes and her influence in Islam. There is also a necessary chapter on whether Mary is a goddess figure. My summary of that is that theologically, she is not a goddess; although there have been fringe movements that did want to move her into a more salvific or divine role, those have remained fringe. But throughout history, there were practices that kept placing her in a more divine role than what ecclesiological leaders would accept. This tension is, in part what has kept Mary prominent, but also kept Mary isolated out of the Protestant world.

Mary Joan Winn Leith is not Catholic, nor is she the first Protestant that makes the case that Protestants should have a higher view of Mary. Matthew Milliner's Mother of the Lamb more explicitly makes this case (according to interviews I have heard about it, it is still on my to-read list.) But there have been abuses of thinking and practice around Mary, and like in many other things, Mary has suffered an overcorrection. Amy Peeler, in Women and the Gender of God, speaks about the importance to our theology and anthropology in recovering a better understanding of Mary.

It is always hard in short books on big topics to cover it all. But The Virgin Mary touched on a wide range of topics, from theology and implications to trinitarian thought, to the role of Mary in art and church development and missionary work, and more. The Marian practices of the rosary make sense in light of congregational worship of the Middle Ages being largely clergy-focused and in a language that most did not even understand. And Mary, partly because of the Magnificant, is understood as being interested in the poor and dispossessed.

I was not completely new to the topic, but this was still helpful.

This is my full review, but it was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/virgin-mary/

[Darmok · Rating 3 out of 5]

This readable and engaging Very Short Introduction delivers on its 'interdisciplinary approach,' using indicative poems, paintings, and sculptures to delve into Mary's many roles throughout history.

However, I found the five-page 'Mary in Islam' section -- the only material I had any prior knowledge of -- to be overstated in the abstract and scattered with errors.

For example, Leith misleadingly writes that the Prophet Muhammad “stated that Maryam was one of the four spiritually perfect women in Paradise” without attribution to hadith tradition. A similar error is her later generalization of hadiths as "authoritative account[s] of Muhammad's words and deeds." In earlier chapters, Leith does well to define the specific biblical and apocryphal origins of various Marian beliefs, making this a disappointing breakdown in rigour.

Most glaringly, Leith writes that both Muslims and Christians believe that Jesus "rose from the dead." How could Muslims believe that Jesus "rose from the dead" when most hold that he did not even die (instead ascending to heaven)?

I did enjoy the book overall, though, and will likely read more from the Very Short Introduction series in future!

[Josiah Richardson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one borderlines on interesting, simply because of the amount of sources concerning Mary and how the world saw her throughout the ages. While Leith shows her cards from the beginning, telling us what presuppositions she was bringing to this book, the problem was that she didn't have enough. This read like someone telling you how the world has viewed the Easter Bunny throughout time. In other words, you get a lot of myth, stories, interesting tidbits, and so on - a bunch of puzzle pieces. But the major downside of this book (and it is one that is insurmountable), is that nobody is putting the pieces together. Nobody is telling you what the end result should look like or even which pieces go where. Mary is relegated to some ethereal idea of the mother of Christ but one almost comes away thinking that if Leith were to preface very sentence with "Mary, if she truly existed..." Or "Despite any evidence for the Biblical text..." And so on, that it wouldn't change the overall thrust of this book in any meaningful way because although those things are not directly said, they are indirectly implied.

[Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leith aims to introduce the reader to the Virgin Mary through multiple historical and theological viewpoints. She shows the differences between the strictly biblical Mary, her history in the Catholic tradition, the viewpoint from the Muslim and protestant theologies, and even the disparity between official dogma and de facto popular veneration. The work is quit succinct and introduces complexity without getting tangled up in the debates themselves. Definitely worth the quick read.

[Meg W · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is very little that can be definitely said about the Virgin Mary.

Although this book could be challenging and dense I enjoyed the use of art to aid in understanding Marian beliefs through time.

[Fr. Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really nicely done. It covers lots of ground, from which you can branch off into areas of specific interest. I needed a survey of all things Mary, and this fit the bill. Highly recommended.

[Crystal M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and digestible

[Taylor Swift Scholar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent very short introduction. I thought I knew a lot about Mary but I learned a lot of cool Mary facts.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and insightful survey of the Virgin Mary had her reception in church and Islamic history, as well as the phenomenon of apparitions of Mary.

[Hannah Bristow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Would like to read further more deeply