Overall, Dylan Schrader, Mary, Mother of God’s Word Made Flesh (2026) is a good book for those curious about Roman Catholic Mariology. There is even a good discussion of the Debitum Peccati, which is often overlooked in Mariological treatises today. However, as with many Roman Catholics, his defense of Marian dogmas as being apostolic in origin is a stretch. Consider the following (and note, according to Rome, the substance of these dogmas were part of the deposit of faith that stopped being added to at the end of the first century, and if you knowingly reject any, you are guilty of mortal sin):
On the Immaculate Conception:
The development of the dogma of
the immaculate conception owes a great deal to the Church’s piety, particularly
the liturgical feast of Mary’s conception, as Pius IX makes clear in Ineffabilis
Deus. But the Church’s acceptance of such piety is itself an argument for
the apostolic character of the doctrine. If the Church had recognized the
veneration of Mary immaculate as foreign to her faith, the widespread embrace
of such piety would have been impossible. (Dylan Schrader, Mary, Mother
of God’s Word Made Flesh [Sacra Doctrina; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic
University of America Press, 2026], 71-72)
On the Bodily Assumption:
The apostolic Church’s silence—at
least in terms of what has survived to the present day—on the matter also does
not count against the assumption. In fact, this silence is really an
attestation to the assumption. No one boasted of having the relics of Mary’s
body, a fact that points to their unavailability. Nor does the early Church
lament a lack of relics as if Mary’s bones had been lost, destroyed, or stolen.
(Dylan Schrader, Mary, Mother of God’s Word Made Flesh [Sacra Doctrina;
Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2026], 219)
