Mary in early christian faith and devotion / Stephen J. Shoemaker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shoemaker, Stephen J., 1968- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint--Devotion to.

Mary.

Church history--Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600.

Church history.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

New Haven, Connecticut : Yale University Press, [2016]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Here, a historian of Christianity explores the full story of the emergence and development of the Marian cult in the early Christian centuries. The means by which Mary, mother of Jesus, came to prominence have long remained strangely overlooked despite, or perhaps because of, her centrality in Christian devotion. Gathering together fresh information from often neglected sources, including early liturgical texts and Dormition and Assumption apocrypha, Stephen Shoemaker reveals that Marian devotion played a far more vital role in the development of early Christian belief and practice than has been previously recognized, finding evidence that dates back to the latter half of the second century.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Preface and Acknowledgments

Introduction. Mapping a New Approach to Early Marian Piety

Chapter One. A Virgin Unspotted: Devotion to Mary in the First Two Centuries

Chapter Two. Mother of God and Mother of Mysteries: The Third Century

Chapter Three. Mother of the Great Cherub of Light: The Book of Mary’s Repose

Chapter Four. A Cult Following: The Six Books Dormition Apocryphon

Chapter Five. The Memory of Mary: The Fourth and Early Fifth Centuries

Chapter Six. The Scepter of Orthodoxy: The Cult of the Virgin and the Council of Ephesus

Conclusions

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-300-21953-9

OCLC:

948286650