Frederica Mathewes-Green has a new book some of you might be interested in. Here's the text of the e-mail about it:
My new book, "The Lost Gospel of Mary: The Mother of Jesus in Three Ancient Texts," will be coming soon from Paraclete Press -- official release date is March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, but I was told that they'd have it on hand starting today. On my web page you can read an excerpt and description and blurbs, and click through to the Amazon page:
http://www.frederica.com/books/
(The Amazon entry has an earlier version of the subtitle, "The Theotokos in...", and we're trying to get this corrected.)
I know "Lost Gospel" sounds like a surprising title. One of my goals is to recover for Christian use a few of the wide range of documents that Christian believers cherished in the early centuries. These works weren't regarded as Scripture, but they filled a worthy supplemental role. They can be compared to the sort of thing found in a Christian bookstore today: commentaries on Scripture, histories, prayer collections, inspiring letters, hymns, poetry, and life-story narratives (or "gospels") of heroic Christians.
The one I'm calling "The Gospel of Mary" is a narrative about the Virgin Mary that seems to have been passed along orally for some time before taking written form prior to AD 150. So it is surprisingly early, especially if you think that interest in the Virgin Mary began around the year 1200. In fact, this story was *extremely* popular among early Christians in Asia and Africa, and scores of ancient copies have been found, in 8 languages. (Not in Latin, however, till the 16th century; it was rejected by a pope and so got "lost" to Western Christians.) It's a charming tale, simply told, with a "folk" quality. It begins with Mary's elderly parents mourning their childlessness, and concludes soon after Jesus' birth. It's natural that the first followers of Jesus would want to know more about his background and earthly life, and this "Gospel of Mary" provided what we could call a "prequel."
( More about the book, plus an excerpt )
My new book, "The Lost Gospel of Mary: The Mother of Jesus in Three Ancient Texts," will be coming soon from Paraclete Press -- official release date is March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, but I was told that they'd have it on hand starting today. On my web page you can read an excerpt and description and blurbs, and click through to the Amazon page:
http://www.frederica.com/books/
(The Amazon entry has an earlier version of the subtitle, "The Theotokos in...", and we're trying to get this corrected.)
I know "Lost Gospel" sounds like a surprising title. One of my goals is to recover for Christian use a few of the wide range of documents that Christian believers cherished in the early centuries. These works weren't regarded as Scripture, but they filled a worthy supplemental role. They can be compared to the sort of thing found in a Christian bookstore today: commentaries on Scripture, histories, prayer collections, inspiring letters, hymns, poetry, and life-story narratives (or "gospels") of heroic Christians.
The one I'm calling "The Gospel of Mary" is a narrative about the Virgin Mary that seems to have been passed along orally for some time before taking written form prior to AD 150. So it is surprisingly early, especially if you think that interest in the Virgin Mary began around the year 1200. In fact, this story was *extremely* popular among early Christians in Asia and Africa, and scores of ancient copies have been found, in 8 languages. (Not in Latin, however, till the 16th century; it was rejected by a pope and so got "lost" to Western Christians.) It's a charming tale, simply told, with a "folk" quality. It begins with Mary's elderly parents mourning their childlessness, and concludes soon after Jesus' birth. It's natural that the first followers of Jesus would want to know more about his background and earthly life, and this "Gospel of Mary" provided what we could call a "prequel."
( More about the book, plus an excerpt )