The Lost Gospel of Mary: The Mother of Jesus in Three Ancient Texts

by Frederica Mathewes-Green

Overview

Some Christians have piled the status of the mother of Jesus so high that it rivals that of her Son. Others ignore the Virgin Mary entirely. Behind all of the images is a girl who grew up to be the mother of Christ. How did the first Christians view her? What were the commonly understood facts about the Blessed Mother's early life --- before the Annunciation? How did Mary, the mother of Jesus, become the Theotokos? Frederica Mathewes-Green opens up the Virgin Mary's early life, offering a window into her centrality to the Christian Faith in new and sometimes startling ways. “Do you want to get to know Mary a bit better? Are you interested in entering a faithful Marian spirituality? Let Frederica Mathewes-Green facilitate a rich, traditional, authentic meeting of Mary. When it comes to spending time with the mother of our Lord, this book is second only to Scripture.” Lauren F. Winner, author of Girl Meets God, Mudhouse Sabbath, and Real Sex “The Mary that Frederica Mathewes-Green gives us in these winsome texts–a palpably real woman, at once humble and exalted--transcends the differences that persist even today among the main streams of the Christian tradition, not least because this Mary points beyond herself to the ultimate source of our hope and our joy. -John Wilson, editor, Books&Culture "Frederica Mathewes-Green is a sparkling writer. In The Lost Gospel of Mary, not only is her material fascinating, but so is her perspective as a thoughtful and irenic Orthodox Christian. There is much here to warm the heart as it engages the mind from here to warm the heart as it engages the mind from early in our comon Christian tradition." - Brian McLaren, author of A Generous Orthodoxy and www.brianmclaren.net.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612612294
Publisher:	Paraclete Press
Publication date:	04/01/2007
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	159
Sales rank:	403,802
File size:	200 KB

About the Author

Raised in Charleston, South Carolina, Frederica Mathewes-Green received her B.A. in English from the University of South Carolina and her M.A. in Theological Studies from Virginia Episcopal Theological Seminary. Considering herself a Hindu, in 1974 Frederica married Gary Mathewes-Green and set off for a back-packing honeymoon in Europe. There she experienced a "totally undeserved miraculous conversion" that changed the course of her life. Returning to the U.S., she and Gary both attended seminary, and Gary became an Episcopal priest. After spending fifteen years in the Episcopal Church, Gary fell in love with Orthodoxy and became a priest of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In 1993 the couple founded the Holy Cross Orthodox Church in Baltimore, Maryland. Frederica's initial struggle with and eventual reception into the Orthodox Church became the catalyst for her widely acclaimed book, Facing East: A Pilgrim's Journey into the Mystery of Orthodoxy. Two years later, she published At the Corner of East and Now: A Modern Life in Ancient Christian Orthodoxy. Frederica is a regular columnist for Beliefnet.com and a book reviewer for the Los Angeles Times. She has written hundreds of articles in secular and religious periodicals and has been interviewed extensively in national newspapers, magazines, and television programs, including the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, Time magazine, CNN, MSNBC, and C-SPAN. A sought-after speaker, editor, and commentator, Frederica has worked with The Odyssey Television Network, National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," World magazine, Religion News Service, and Christianity Today, among others.