Daughter Zion: Meditations on the Church’s Marian Belief
Overview
Daughter Zion explores the biblical witness to the Church’s Marian dogmas—Mary’s role as Mother of God, her virginity, the Immaculate Conception, and her Assumption into heaven. Cardinal Ratzinger examines how these beliefs are linked to the Church’s faith in Jesus Christ. Far from competing with the truth about Christ, the Church’s Marian beliefs uphold and underscore that truth.
Mary’s role in salvation, according to Cardinal Ratzinger, was anticipated in the Old Testament. She was prefigured in Eve, the Mother of the Living; in the holy women of the Old Testament, such as Sarah, Hannah, Deborah, Esther, and Judith; and in the prophetic image of the daughter Zion. Cardinal Ratzinger also considers Mary’s place as the embodiment of created wisdom, who faithfully received the Uncreated Wisdom of the Word of God in the Incarnation.
Daughter Zion avoids the extremes of ignoring the biblical foundation for Marian doctrine on the one hand and fundamentalistic proof-texting on the other. Instead, the author beautifully and lucidly develops key biblical themes to help readers understand and appreciate the Mother of God.
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Key Features
- Explores the biblical witness to the Church’s Marian dogmas
- Examines how the theology of Mary is linked to the Church’s faith in Jesus Christ
- Unpacks Mary’s role in salvation
Contents
- The Place of Mario logy in the Bible
- The Marian Belief of the Church
Top Highlights
“Israel herself, the chosen people, is interpreted simultaneously as woman, virgin, beloved, wife and mother” (Page 21)
“ it becomes obvious that the image of Mary in the New Testament is woven entirely of Old Testament threads” (Page 12)
“In my opinion it is significant that her name is bestowed in Genesis 3:20 after the fall, after God’s words of judgment. In this way the undestroyed dignity and majesty of woman are expressed. She preserves the mystery of life, the power opposed to death; for death is like the power of nothingness, the antithesis of Yahweh, who is the creator of life and the God of the living. She, who offers the fruit which leads to death, whose task manifests a mysterious kinship with death, is nonetheless from now on the keeper of the seal of life and the antithesis of death.” (Page 17)
“Mary, through her silence and faith, incarnates the continuity realized in the poor of Israel, in those to whom is addressed the beatitude: Blessed are the poor ‘in pneuma’.” (Page 32)
“Mother of God, this title primarily expresses the unity of divinity and humanity in Christ” (Page 34)
Product Details
- Title: Daughter Zion: Meditations on the Church’s Marian Belief
- Author: Joseph Ratzinger
- Translator: John M. McDermott, S.J.
- Publisher: Ignatius Press
- Publication Date: 2005
- Pages: 90
- Christian Group: Catholic
- Resource Type: Monographs
- Topic: Mariology
About Joseph Ratzinger
Joseph Ratzinger is one of the most revered Catholic prelates, scholars, theologians, teachers, and authors of our time. He has spoken on many crucial subjects, including sexual consumerism, roles of men and women today, marriage, the priesthood, and the future of the world. On June 29, 1951, Joseph Ratzinger was ordained to the priesthood in the Cathedral of Freising on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. He also received his doctorate in theology in 1953 from the University of Munich. Starting in 1959, Ratzinger taught theology at the University of Bonn.
After many years of teaching at several German universities, Ratzinger was appointed by Pope Paul VI as Archbishop of Munich and Freising in March 1977, and was elevated to cardinal in June 1977. In November 1981, Ratzinger was summoned by Pope John Paul II to Rome, where he was named Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, and President of the International Theological Commission.
On April 19, 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected to be the 265th pope. He took the name Benedict XVI, after St. Benedict of Nursia. As pope, he received worldwide respect and was a spiritual influence to Christians and non-Christians alike. In 2013, he resigned the papacy, becoming the first pope to do so in since the fifteenth century. He retired to a monastery in the Vatican Gardens, where he continues to study and write.