The Maternal Face of God: The Feminine and Its Religious Expressions

by Leonardo Boff

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062541595
• ISBN13: 9780062541598
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

KNOW THIS BOOK; KNOW MARY THE MOTHER OF GOD

As our Holy Father preapres to visit Brazil let us prepare by visiting once again this comprehensive, philosophical, psychological, scholarly and theologically solid Marian treatise by the eminent theologian Father Boff. First written in his native Portuguese in Brazil in 1979, and translated in 1987 for publication by Harper and Row, this book foreshadowed much of the Marian studies fostered by Pope John Paul II, and gathers almost all which had preceded in this area so important to Catholics, up to and through the Second Vatican Council and touching even on the teaching of the first Pope John Paul. REading thi book, as ever with Father Boff, may be thick going for those not accustomed to academic theological texts, complete with the relevant terminology, complete with ample footnotes and indications for further reading. We in America are not often armed with adequate tools for such reading, but Father Boff richly rewards every effort as he opens to us the infinite mysteries of Mary, the Mother of God, steering us clear of the idolatrous excesses of which we Catholics are accused by guiding us to a beginning understanding of the fullness of Mary. If you can read Schillebeecx you can read this thick volume in a weekend. If on the other hand you are like me and must sip slowly of these rich waters, you will be rewarded in your meditation of these pages with a growing devotion and informed dedication in commitment to our Church. Read this book as a certain guide to our new millenium of Marian devotion and appreciation, recapitulating what has gone before, showing us the present dogma, and urging us ever onwards in our Faith in the mystery of the Incarnation.

Not your Mother's Mary

Underscoring the advent of a new age at the urging of the feminine, Leonardo Boff says "we are entering the Age of Sophia... the emergence of one of the key archetypes of humanity's collective unconscious: the anima, in all its multiple manifestations." He describes Mary as the "temple of the Spirit: The New Age," and goes on to detail the biblical, psychological and mythological aspects of the doctrine of Mary which "articulates the recollected fullness" of life. "We are assisting at the shaping of a new constellation of the human psyche," Boff asserts in a work which establishes the relevance of Mary for the modern era without sacrificing the devotional aspect of her cult. Those seeking a truly contemporary myth of Mary will do well to read Boff's book.