“Born of the Virgin Mary”: Toward a Sprachregelung on a Delicate Point of Doctrine

This essay offers an interpretation of the traditional catholic teaching that “Jesus Christ, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, was born of the Virgin Mary”. The author reviews recent exegesis and theology, then revisits the tradition of the church, then discusses the contrast between the ph...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: van Beeck, Frans Josef (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2001
In: Pacifica
Year: 2001, Volume: 14, Issue: 2, Pages: 121-143
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:This essay offers an interpretation of the traditional catholic teaching that “Jesus Christ, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, was born of the Virgin Mary”. The author reviews recent exegesis and theology, then revisits the tradition of the church, then discusses the contrast between the physiological “facts” involved in human conception as they were understood in the classical periods — and thus at the place and time of the composition of the infancy narratives — and the accepted modern, scientific account of the same “facts”. He argues that neither the New Testament nor the Church teaches that Jesus' virginal conception is a cosmological miracle: rather this is a conclusion of the data of the faith, not an article of faith in and of itself. This should guide our speech in ministry.
ISSN:1839-2598
Contains:Enthalten in: Pacifica
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/1030570X0101400201