The Virgin Mary: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

This Very Short Introduction describes the evolution of Marian thought from early Christianity to the present day. Mary Joan Winn Leith specializes in the centuries between the upward push of Christianity and the Counter-Reformation, the eras when many of the doctrinal issues, popular traditions, and associated conventions of Marian iconography developed, and covers Catholic, Orthodox, and other Christian denominations, in addition to the Islamic Mary. Taking an interdisciplinary approach that
includes art history, archaeology, and gender studies in addition to doctrinal history, she considers one of the crucial misunderstandings and unquestioned assumptions about the Virgin Mary that pervade past and present Christian consciousness and today’s secular world. Leith also discusses apparitions of Mary and
representations of Mary in latest popular culture.