There are
certain topics I like to consider myself well-versed on. Mariology is one of
them. I am the author of a book-length text on the topic, Behold the Mother of My Lord: Towards a Mormon Mariology, so I was
intrigued to find out that there was another Latter-day Saint, Catherine
Taylor, who has written a book on Mary, Late Antique Images of the Virgin Annunciate Spinning: Allotting the Scarlet and the Purple. She was interviewed by Blair Hodges as part of the Maxwell Institute Podcast. I gave up after 6 minutes. The reason? Taylor (and Hodges),
while discussing Mary, are clueless about Mariology. Take the following
exchange:
Taylor: [The Protoevangelium of James, was
written, in part] to point out that she was ever-virgin and was conceived even,
as a virginal birth. Her mother, Anna, also delivered Mary as part of the
virginal birth.
Hodges: That's what's known as the Immaculate Conception, right?
Taylor: Yes
Blair: She was conceived outside of normal
sexual reproduction
Taylor: Yes
This is
embarrassing from someone with a book on Mary on the market. In reality, the
Immaculate Conception states that Mary was conceived without the stain of
original sin and preserved from personal sin, based on the then-foreseen merits
of Christ. It has nothing to do with her mother being a virgin or Mary being a
virgin. You can read the papal bull from Pius IX that defined this as a dogma, Ineffabilis Deus, here.