Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary by Brant Pitre

I asked questions, read articles, listened to lectures – but as interested as I was, I struggled with the lack of biblical support for so many traditional Marian doctrines. Once I started attending an Anglican church, I found that some of my church fellows, too, venerated Mary in the old catholic way. These images (or perhaps, icons) were weighty, powerful, and living. I was intrigued by the ancient beliefs I read about: Mary as the Theotokos, the Ever Virgin, the Queen of Heaven. It was not until I took a few seminary classes and learned more about Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy that I began to question the common, low-church Protestant position on Mary, wavering as it did between ambivalence and suspicion. About Mary herself, I learned nothing aside from what is written plainly in the New Testament. I learned about the importance and implications of the Virgin Birth.

Growing up in a devout Evangelical household, these mental images matured only a little during my adolescence. The image that would come to dominate all the rest was that of Olivia Hussey, who portrayed Mary in the 1977 mini-series, “Jesus of Nazareth.” There was the pink-robed Mary in the tiny children’s nativity my mom ordered from Avon. There was the illustrated Mary in my Golden Book. Mary – pictures picked up in the childish ways we begin to learn anything. $24.00 (cloth).Ī collage of images from pop culture made up my earliest understanding of St. Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary: Unveiling the Mother of the Messiah. By Brant Pitre.

Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary by Brant Pitre