Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Author of Book on Mary Does Not Know what the Immaculate Conception Is


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.