Stephen J. Shoemaker - Mary in Early Christian Faith and Devotion

Copyright 2016 by Stephen J. Shoemaker

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Shoemaker, Stephen J., 1968 author.

Title: Mary in early Christian faith and devotion / Stephen J. Shoemaker.

Description: New Haven : Yale University Press, 2016.

LCCN 2016004005 | ISBN 9780300217216 (c1 : alk. paper)

LCSH: Mary, Blessed Virgin, SaintDevotion toHistory. | Church historyPrimitive and early church, ca. 30600.

Classification: LCC BT645 .S53 2016 | DDC 232.9109dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016004005

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For my goddaughter and niece Grace Ann Shoemaker

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CONTENTS

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T HIS BOOK HAS BEEN in the works for a long time, sitting on the back burner while I completed other projects. It is in many ways the logical successor to my first book, The Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Marys Dormition and Assumption, and it was conceived not long after that volume appeared. I owe Sarah Jane Boss a large debt of gratitude for inadvertently inspiring this project. Over ten years ago Sarah approached me about contributing an article on Marian liturgies in Early Christianity to a Marian resource book that she was editing. On receiving the initial invitation, I recall thinking, oddly enough, that I dont really know much about that. This recognition, however, also brought awareness that the topic had not really been covered very well in a systematic way by previous scholarship, and I thought, if I didnt tackle this, who would? While writing the article, which would eventually be published as Marian Liturgies and Devotion in Early Christianity in Mary: The Complete Resource, I came to realize that the early Christian apocrypha were a largely untapped resource that had much to add to this topic even though they had been largely overlooked to this point. I decided to write a book on early Christian devotion to Mary before the explosion of Marian piety that ensued after the Council of Ephesus. For the past decade I have worked steadily on this topic, and this book draws on a number of previously published articles, all of which have been indicated in the notes. It does not simply reproduce these articles, however, but instead provides a fresh and more accessible synthesis of these studies, along with significant new material regarding early Christian devotion to Mary.

I would especially like to thank the Institute for Advanced Study and the National Humanities Center for a membership in the School of Historical Studies and a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship respectively during the academic year 201314. Support from both of these institutions was invaluable for the timely completion of this project. Not only did their financial generosity make it possible for me to write this book, but both centers provided extraordinary intellectual communities. Conversations with the members and fellows contributed significantly to this project, and these exchanges sowed the seeds for many new ideas that I am certain will open up new directions for my research in the near future. I also wish to thank the superb staff at these institutions: their extraordinary assistance greatly assisted in the completion of this project. In particular, I would especially thank Karen Carroll of the National Humanities Center for her copyediting while I was a fellow there. I would additionally thank all those who offered comments and suggestions in response to presentations of various parts of this book at the meetings of the North American Patristics Society; the Society of Biblical Literature; the American Academy of Religion; the International Conference on Patristic Studies, Oxford; the Byzantine Studies Conference; lAssociation pour ltude de la littrature apocryphe chrtienne; the Mariological Society of America; the Conference on the Origins of the Cult of the Virgin at York St. John University (7/06); the Conference on Christian Apocryphal Texts for the New Millennium: Achievements, Prospects, and Challenges at the University of Ottawa (10/06); the Fifth International Symposium of the International Centre for Christian Studies at the Orthodox Church of Georgia (05/14); and at the University of Tbingen; Duke University; the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Given the long gestation of this project, it is impossible to remember all of the individuals who have contributed their thoughts and comments along the way, and I fear that I will inevitably forget to mention some. Nevertheless, I especially wish to thank for so many helpful exchanges related to the topics in this book: Pauline Allen, Rina Avner, Jane Baun, David Brakke, Jorunn Jacobson Buckley, Averil Cameron, Elizabeth Clark, Kate Cooper, Mary Cunningham, Theodore de Bruyn, Alain Desreumaux, Jan Willem Drijvers, Bart Ehrman, Deirdre Good, Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Scott Johnson, Jean-Daniel Kaestli, Ally Kateusz, Derek Krueger, Julie Kelto Lillis, Vasiliki Limberis, AnneMarie Luijendijk, Chris Maunder, Enrico Norelli, Bernard Outtier, Leena Mari Peltomaa, Michael Peppard, Pierluigi Piovanelli, Richard Price, Walter Ray, Brian Reynolds, Miri Rubin, Timothy Sailors, Philip Sellew, Alexander Toepel, and Lily Vuong. I also thank the two anonymous reviewers for the press for their helpful comments. Finally, I am most grateful to Malcolm Gerratt at Yale University Press for his strong interest in this project and for his help and advice in seeing it through to publication.

INTRODUCTION

Mapping a New Approach to Early Marian Piety

I T IS RATHER REMARKABLE , I think, that even at this late date there is still no satisfactory study of the development of Marian piety in ancient Christianity. In view of the considerable importance that devotion to the Virgin Mary has had over the course of Christian history, one might expect that by now there would be any number of historical studies on this topic. But as others have noted before me, such a comprehensive study remains lacking.

Of course, there has been much previous investigation of Marian doctrine during the early Christian period, but such studies generally pay scant attention to the emergence of Marian devotion and cult, preferring instead to focus on Marys position in the development of early Christian dogma. And, likewise, there has been a significant amount of Roman Catholic scholarship on Mary in early Christianity, much of it coming toward the end of the so-called Marian Century of 18501950. Nevertheless, these works frequently show a strong tendency toward dogmatic readings of the evidence that seek to align early Christian history with modern Roman Catholic doctrine, and occasionally they are also overly optimistic about how quickly veneration of the Virgin Mary took hold within ancient Christianity. While such perspectives have obvious value in a Roman Catholic context, they hold limited use for understanding the development of early Christianity and Marys place therein. Thus, it would appear that a history of early Marian piety still remains to be written.