Mary, Mother of the Son is back!

Excellent news!  Mary, Mother of the Son is at the printers and will be available very soon.  If you want a signed dead tree version, you can click on this really-quite-beautiful-if-I-do-say-so-myself cover and pre-order now…

or you can click here as well, or wait a while till it becomes available for various forms of e-book technology.

Here is the publisher’s description of the book:

Mark P. Shea’s groundbreaking trilogy Mary, Mother of the Son introduces a modern audience to the Blessed Virgin Mary in a new, exciting, compulsively readable, and comprehensive way.  Shea takes the reader on a tour de force of the Marian dimension of Catholic thought, life, prayer, and practice.  Along the way, you will discover how various misunderstandings of Mary have arisen and how to cure these misunderstandings.  You will gain a clear understanding of the ancient biblical and apostolic fountains from which authentic Marian teaching and devotion springs and grows.  You will learn the origin and meaning of the four great Marian teachings of the Church, as well as encounter Mary in the mystical and prayer life of the Church.

In Part I: Modern Myths and Ancient Truth, you discover the fascinating way in which Mary emerges with profundity, beauty, and love from the pages of Scripture in the light of apostolic teaching. You probe how the gospel of Christ crowns and perfects, not only the Old Testament, but the deepest insights of the great non- Christian philosophies, religions, and myths. You learn how to read the Bible as the earliest Christians did and find out how Mary safeguards the deepest truths about Christ and his Church.

In Part II: First Guardian of the Faith, you will learn about the biblical and apostolic roots of Mary’s title as Theotokos; as well as her Perpetual Virginity, Immaculate Conception, and Assumption into heaven. In addition, you will discover the astonishing relevance each of these teachings has, not only for the Christian believer, but for the twenty-first century as it comes to grips with such questions as the dignity, origin, and destiny of the human person.

In Part III: Miracles, Devotion, and Motherhood, you will explore the devotional life of the Church: a life which includes not only the worship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but the communion of saints, the Holy Rosary, the mysteries of private revelation and Mary’s God-given role as mother of all who are chosen in Christ.

And here is some blurbage:

Mark Shea has written the single most helpful book on Sacred Tradition written in our generation. In other books he has illumined the reading of Scripture and the worship of the Eucharist. Now, in Mary, Mother of the Son, he takes us to the summit of creation, the Ark of the New Covenant, the true tabernacle of the Lord. To read this book is to love Christ as a brother, by honoring the mother he shares with us (John 19:27).

—Scott Hahn, Ph.D., Professor of Scripture and Theology, Franciscan University of Steubenville; Author, Hail, Holy Queen 

I recommend that Evangelicals read Mary, Mother of the Son. They will certainly find much here to challenge and disagree with, but they will also find a Catholic perspective on Mary that takes into account evangelical concerns. Mark Shea’s honest depiction of his own Marian pilgrimage contributes to greater mutual understanding about the wonderful handmaiden of the Lord whom all Christians in all generations call ‘‘blessed.’’

—Dr. Timothy George, Dean, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University 

With wit, wisdom, theological weight, and a whole lot of style Mark Shea delivers a work that helps readers plunge into the mystery and beauty of the Mother of the Son, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Catholics and non-Catholics alike will gain much from this well-developed trilogy and may well find themselves falling in love with the Virgin of Nazareth whose fiat birthed salvation to the world. I am eager to share Mary, Mother of the Son with everyone I know!

—Johnnette S. Benkovic
Founder and President: Women of Grace, Living His Life Abundantly
Host of The Abundant Life seen internationally on EWTN and Women of Grace Live Radio

This fine book exploring the Church’s teaching on Our Lady will be a joy to Catholics and a revelation to Protestants. I highly recommend it for both groups.

—Father Benedict J. Groeschel, C.F.R.

Mary, Mother of the Son is a winsome book. This is not to say his arguments are not rigorous and carefully thought through. They are. Rather, it is a winsome book in that it is invitational. Mark Shea is a gracious host inviting others to explore with him the marvels of the wondrous place he now calls home, the Catholic Church.

—Richard John Neuhaus
Editor-in-Chief, First Things

Mark Shea’s Mary, Mother of the Son is a comprehensive and engaging treatment of the Church’s teaching on Mary. A skilled writer, he renders complexities with simplicity without diluting them in the least. His own past experience as an Evangelical Christian and now Catholic enable him to offer helpful and thorough answers to the most common—and uncommon—questions readers from any background might have about Mary.

—Amy Welborn
Author, Mary and the Christian Life 

Recent years have seen a rapprochement between Catholics and Evangelicals, a large part of which has involved renewed Evangelical interest in the figure of Mary. One thinks in particular of Tim Perry’s Mary for Evangelicals or Scot McKnight’s The Real Mary. Evangelicals (as well as others) who would like to learn more about the role Mary plays in traditional Roman Catholic faith and practice now have at their disposal Mark Shea’s wonderful tripartite work, Mary, Mother of the Son. Shea’s clear, lucid, learned and often witty writing on the rich subject of Mariology is a pleasure to digest.

—Dr. Leroy Huizenga, Assistant Professor of New Testament, Wheaton College 

In his winsome, witty style, Mark Shea winds his way through the many rooms of Marian doctrines that separate the Roman Catholic faithful from the Protestant believer who thinks each and every doctrine must be fully supported by the Bible. I suspect curious evangelicals and skeptical Catholics will find much to think about in Mary, Mother of the Son.

—Scot McKnight, Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies, North Park University
Author, The Real Mary

Mark Shea did not lose any of his Evangelical zeal when he found his home in the Roman Catholic Church. In Mary, Mother of the Son, he challenges many Evangelical worries about Mary and explains both dogmatic and discretionaryMarian beliefs and practices simply, clearly, and sometimes wittily. Evangelical Protestants will leave this book with a better understanding ofwhy so many Christians find devotion to Mary to help rather than hinder devotion to her Son.

—Tim Perry, Associate Professor of Theology, Providence College, Otterburne, Manitoba, Canada
Author, Mary for Evangelicals: Toward an Understanding of the Mother of Our Lord

I’ve been challenged to open my heart and my mind to the complexities of a love-relationship with the mother of Jesus and her living legacy. . . . I would now probably even go so far as to say her living ‘‘presence’’ among us. Shea is an astoundingly gifted writer; communicating with ease, depth, humor, warmth and genuine love for your readers. I applaud this amazing work of brilliance, insight, devotion and faith. ‘‘Well done, O good and faithful servant.’’

—The Rev. Dr. Douglas E. Millham
President, Discover the World, Inc.

Out of print for the last couple of years, but now back in the saddle!  Yay!