Systematic Mariology

This second volume of Collected Essays, Systematic Mariology, contains Peter Damian Fehlner’s essays on several central Marian topics and disputes. Written over the span of more than twenty years, these essays represent Fehlner’s most complete studies on the question of Mary’s participation with Christ in the redemption, her role with the Holy Spirit in the mediation of grace, and her place in the sacramental economy, flowing from the Eucharist. Fehlner provides theological resolutions to these inquiries by establishing Mary’s predestination as the Immaculate Mother of God and Spouse of the Holy Spirit in the eternal plan of the Father. This flowers into a theological vision of the divine missions that is Trinitarian, christological, and pneumatological. This triple viewpoint opens upon a theological account of divine action and perfect creaturely re-action because it is framed within an ecclesiology that decodes Mary’s virginal and divine maternity as the “Great Sign” of the perfection and promise of the church through Christ her spouse in the love of the Holy Spirit.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, is known in the Catholic Church as Our Lady of Grace, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of the Rosary, Our Mother of Perpetual Help, and more. Her various titles describe her various functions within the Church. Many books on Mariology, the study or doctrine relating to the Virgin Mary, either treat the liturgical aspects or the devotional aspects of the topic. Here, they are brought together in one seamless presentation. A good Mariology begins with a good Christology. Out of Mariology, firmly grounded in and flowing from Christology, there arise the liturgical and devotional aspects of the life of the Church. The Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Litany of Loreto) summarizes the attributes of Mary of Nazareth from both liturgy and devotion. This book looks at those attributes individually and collectively, and demonstrates how they are contained in the solemnities, feasts, memorials, and optional memorials of the Blessed Virgin Mary throughout the liturgical year in the Scripture texts. Where applicable, devotionals seeking Mary's intercession are included.

This second volume of Collected Essays, Systematic Mariology, contains Peter Damian Fehlner’s essays on several central Marian topics and disputes. Written over the span of more than twenty years, these essays represent Fehlner’s most complete studies on the question of Mary’s participation with Christ in the redemption, her role with the Holy Spirit in the mediation of grace, and her place in the sacramental economy, flowing from the Eucharist. Fehlner provides theological resolutions to these inquiries by establishing Mary’s predestination as the Immaculate Mother of God and Spouse of the Holy Spirit in the eternal plan of the Father. This flowers into a theological vision of the divine missions that is Trinitarian, christological, and pneumatological. This triple viewpoint opens upon a theological account of divine action and perfect creaturely re-action because it is framed within an ecclesiology that decodes Mary’s virginal and divine maternity as the “Great Sign” of the perfection and promise of the church through Christ her spouse in the love of the Holy Spirit.

In Introduction to Mariology, Fr. Manfred Hauke provides a synthesis of Mariology and the biblical fundaments and development of Marian doctrine. While it works as a comprehensive introduction suitable for courses on the subject, it is in reality a panoramic view on the entire Marian doctrine, and as such will be essential for the theological formation of seminarians, priests, theologians, and all kinds of educated Catholics. With an unparalleled bibliographic citation of Marian literature across a dozen languages, it is also a perfect gateway to further research on the subject. It begins with Biblical doctrine, which is important especially for the dialogue with Protestant denominations: Catholic Mariology can be traced in its “embryonic” state already in Holy Scripture. From there Hauke presents a historical overview of the whole development of Marian doctrine, before developing further historical details in the subsequent chapters dedicated to systematic issues. The first systematic step approaches the figure of Mary through her role in the mystery of the Covenant between God and redeemed humanity; her being “Mother of God” and companion of the Redeemer is the “fundamental principle.” Then the four established Marian dogmas are presented: divine maternity, virginity, Immaculate Conception (in a chapter on Mary’s holiness more broadly), and bodily Assumption. A close look is given to maternal mediation which includes a part dedicated to the “Mater Unitatis”. A stand alone chapter is dedicated to Marian apparitions; authentic apparitions are presented as a part of prophetic charisma. The last chapter presents the basics on Marian devotion which culminates in the consecration to Mary (as a response to her maternal mediation). Already available in Spanish, Italian, Portugese, and Korean, this landmark work is published here for the first time in English.

This eighth and final volume of the Collected Essays of Peter Damian Fehlner entitled, in the spirit of Fehlner’s hero John Henry Newman, Studies Systematic and Critical, includes published and previously unpublished studies, spanning a wide range of years and topics. In his critical studies, Fehlner with his Scotistic subtlety wrestles with Karl Rahner over Trinitarian theology and the Kantian inflections within transcendental Thomism. Fehlner unmasks Hegelian undercurrents of Neopatripassianism. And he unravels sophistries in situational and sentimental ethics. Fehlner’s systematic essays unpack Scotus’s teaching on the person, grace, and justification. Seeing created personal perfection in the Immaculate Mother of God, Fehlner explores how Mary can be exemplar, mother, and teacher of Christians precisely as the most perfectly redeemed beneficiary of her Son’s redemptive and salvific work. In a monumental and original study, Fehlner demonstrates the deep contours of thought between the two greatest Oxford theologians: John Duns Scotus and John Henry Newman. The essays in this volume give clear witness to the range and depth of Fehlner’s theological and philosophical contributions as a critic and, more importantly, as the greatest Franciscan voice in constructive theology since the seventeenth-century “Golden Age” of Scotism.

In this fourth volume of Collected Essays, Bonaventure, John Duns Scotus, and the Franciscan Tradition, Peter Damian Fehlner traces the development of the Franciscan theologies of redemption, co-redemption, and the Immaculate Conception as they both flow from and return to a very concrete spirituality rooted in devotion to the persons of Jesus and Mary. The main protagonists in these studies are the towering figures of Bonaventure and John Duns Scotus. Framed within an ecclesiological and sacramental worldview, shaped by the correlative and markedly Franciscan doctrines of the Absolute Primacy of Jesus and the Immaculate Conception, Fehlner outlines the theological background and rationale for affirming Mary's co-redemptive role in creation and salvation history. In articulating this great vision of the church, Fehlner discloses the Catholic and Franciscan understanding of Tradition and its progressive penetration and integration of doctrinal and devotional development into the life of the church. For Fehlner, Mary's co-redemptive association with her Son and her union in charity with the Holy Spirit provides both the primary instance of and the hermeneutical key for prayerfully receiving and living the mysteries of our salvation.

The Oxford Handbook of Mary offers an interdisciplinary guide to Marian Studies, including chapters on textual, literary, and media analysis; theology; Church history; art history; studies on devotion in a variety of forms; cultural history; folk tradition; gender analysis; apparitions and apocalypticism. Featuring contributions from a distinguished group of international scholars, the Handbook looks at both Eastern and Western perspectives and attempts to correct imbalance in previous books on Mary towards the West. The volume also considers Mary in Islam and pilgrimages shared by Christian, Muslim, and Jewish adherents. While Mary can be a source of theological disagreement, this authoritative collection shows Mary's rich potential for inter-faith and inter-denominational dialogue and shared experience. It covers a diverse number of topics that show how Mary and Mariology are articulated within ecclesiastical contexts but also on their margins in popular devotion. Newly-commissioned essays describe some of the central ideas of Christian Marian thought, while also challenging popularly-held notions. This invaluable reference for students and scholars illustrates the current state of play in Marian Studies as it is done across the world.

In My Life of Ministry, Writing, Teaching, and Traveling: The Autobiography of an Old Mines Missionary, I present my life as a child growing up in a French village about sixty miles south of St. Louis in the middle of the twentieth century. After eighteen years of life in Old Mines, the oldest settlement in the state of Missouri, I moved to St. Louis for four years and then to St. Meinrad, Indiana, for four years where education opened my eyes to a world very much larger than my village of origin. Life continued for me after ordination as a priest in the Roman Catholic Church in Springfield and Joplin, Missouri. Because my life is the thread stitching together this book, I have made it manageable by dividing it into four categories: ministry, writing, teaching, and travel. These categories contain the stories of others whose life threads of seventy years are woven into my lifetime tapestry. This is my autobiography—one of a missionary from Old Mines to the thirty-nine counties forming the southern third of the state of Missouri—composed during my seventieth year of life.