From the editor: Spretnak, a liberal Catholic, explores what is lost when the influences of modernity steer an entire religion toward a text-based, literal historicism -- turning away from their traditional sacramental approach to spirituality (aesthetic, symbolic, and mystical). One result was a reductionist reading of a complex spiritual symbol as a mere "sign," or cipher, in a text. At the great modernizing conference of the Roman Catholic Church, Vatican II (1962-65), the winning side in a tense debate and a close vote about the Virgin Mary successfully argued that modern methods of biblical exegesis require that she henceforth be considered nothing more than a "sign" in Scripture that stands for the Church.

In the modernized Catholic Church, Mary was never again to be considered the Queen of Heaven, merely a Nazarene housewife who was the first Christian. Following Vatican II (whose effects in countless other areas were salutary), Marian statues and devotional practices were "disappeared" from parish churches everywhere. Most "progressive" theologians now strongly deemphasize, or dismiss altogether, the mystical, symbolic, and cosmological dimensions of Mary, allowing solely a historical, literal focus.

Spretnak sheds new light on the dynamics of modernity that led to the dethroning of the Queen of Heaven at Vatican II. Moreover, she both interprets and advances the case for the current resurgence of Marian spirituality, which she calls "the Quiet Rebellion." She offers fresh reflections on the meaning of Mary, situating the Marian renewal in the larger context of contemporary efforts to correct the barrenness and sterility of modernity. Spretnak also notes that much of the cosmological symbolism traditionally associated with Mary as the Queen of Heaven and the maternal matrix is simpatico with recent discoveries in scientific cosmology about the profoundly relational nature of the Creation.

Moreover, Spretnak asserts that a deep loss ensues for women in particular when Mary's female embodiment of grace and mystical presence is denied and replaced with a strictly text-bound version of her as a Nazarene housewife. Complete with a striking insert of contemporary Marian art, Missing Mary is a deeply insightful reflection on Mary in the modern age.

Pages: 280, Hardcover
Special Interest: Virgin Mary, Catholicism, Religion, Secret Orders & Societies, Evolution of The Church.