Making Assumptions
Concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary
It’s Friday. Here’s the weekly article. It’s free. And will remain free. But I’d really appreciate it if you could spread the word. I like writing it. You seem to like reading it. Wouldn’t it be nice if others could enjoy it and my efforts find a wider audience? Would you consider sharing it via email or social media?
Oh, and last time, I wrote about St Lawrence. And earlier this week, I went to the village of Priddy in the Mendips and made a video about the sheep fair and visited the Church. It’s is on Instagram. Why not have a look?
To business. Ahem.
There are lots of parlour games in which you either have to lie convincingly, or catch someone in a lie. There was a card game I used to play with one of my sisters called Cheat. (The game was called Cheat. Not my sister.) It was called ‘Cheat’ because cheating was part of the game. This creates something of a philosophical paradox. If it’s part of the game, how can it be cheating? Nevertheless, one was still appalled and scandalised when you caught your opponent – in my case my very own sister – cheating.
The most popular game of lying in the UK at the moment is the prime time TV panel game, Would I Lie To You? Brydon, Mitchell and Mack are excellent as host and team captains respectively, but the show always takes an extra turn when Bob Mortimer is a guest. In his day, Mortimer was a surrealist comedian with his comedy partner, Vic Reeves. However, his whole life seems to be extraordinary, making it is impossible to know whether he is telling the truth or a lie. Some things he claims sound unbelievable, but are true. Others are extraordinary but happen not to be true. The results are genuinely hilarious.
This is my favourite one – and worth watching to the very end.
The problem with separating the fact from the fiction is the difference between the words ‘believable’ and ‘true’. Sometimes, people say things that could easily be true. They are not far-fetched or impossible. They are believable. They just happen to not be true, rendering their statement a lie.
This is how I feel about the Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary, which is celebrated on 15th August. For me it’s believable. I just don’t think it’s true.
I have no trouble with the Virgin Birth. This is belief that Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. I’ll go further. I resolutely believe it, considering it a non-negotiable. It is clearly affirmed by the Apostle’s Creed, the bedrock of doctrine of the Christian faith.
There are, however, other doctrines around the Virgin Mary – called Marian dogmas - that I have problems with. The Assumption is one, and we’ll get to that.
Perpetual Virginity
One Marian dogma is ‘Perpetual Virginity’ which states that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virgin her entire life. This view is not only held by Roman Catholics, but some Anglicans and Lutherans too.
Nor is it a Roman Catholic development from the late Medieval period when all kinds of new festivals were being added, especially in relation to the Virgin Mary. This doctrine of perpetual virginity was put forward at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 and confirmed by Pope Martin I in 649. Clearly the likes of Jerome and Luther, who both affirmed it, have made their peace with the Biblical testimony that Jesus had brothers and sisters. But let’s not go into that here.
Immaculate Conception
I’m also not persuaded by the Marian dogma of the Immaculate Conception. This teaches that the Virgin Mary was free from original sin from the moment of her conception.
This view can be traced back to early Church Fathers who danced with the angels on the heads of pins about Mary’s ‘incorruptibility’. It was a short skip and a jump from there to Immaculate Conception. The widely held doctrine did not become dogma until 1854 in Pope Pius IX’s bull, Ineffabilis Deus, although not everyone was happy with this, including the Archbishop of Paris, Marie Dominique Auguste Sibour.
A Feast Day was instituted on 8th December, if you’re not doing anything. Why that date? It is 9 months before the celebration of Mary’s Birth – the Nativity of Mary – on 8th September.
The more Reformed and non-conformist of you are already starting to feel queasy at this parallel calendar based around Mary rather than her son, Jesus Christ. I share those reservations, not least because I sense grave theological consequences of exempting Mary from the Sin of Adam. For me, this doctrine seems theologically impossible. So I don’t believe it.
The Assumption into Heaven
At last, we come to the Assumption – and my comments about Would I Lie To You? Let’s give Pope Pius XII the chance to infallibly explain this dogma, which is contained in his bull Munificentissimus Deus from 1950.
We pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.
Again, this was not a new doctrine. Look at the painting (above) by Titian from c. 1516, found in the Church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice. At almost exactly the same time, the Assumption was also painted by Cola dell'Amatrice in the Church of San Domenico in Ascoli Piceno, not far from the eastern coast of Italy. Another painting by early Renaissance master Andrea del Castagno dates back to 1450.
Art notwithstanding, the theological tradition that I could find around this dogma, was not robust. But I’m prepared to believe this curious event happened and that Jesus’s own mother ascended up into the heavenly realms. After all, there are all kinds of puzzling events in scripture that are not dissimilar; Jesus’s ascension and Elijah’s chariot of fire being obvious examples. Likewise, Enoch walked with the Lord, who took him away. Why? How? And then we have Samuel raised up from Hades. What happened there?
Whilst I believe that systematic theology has its place, we must not neglect the Biblical witness. Scripture contains all kinds of strange events and anomalies to keep us on our toes. So the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is unusual, but believable. I just happen to think it’s not true. I certainly don’t think it’s essential for if we needed to believe it, it would be in scripture. And it isn’t.
The Anglican Way
Naturally, the Church of England glides over all of the above with stately grandeur. Anglicans celebrate ‘The Blessed Virgin Mary’ on the 15th August. In Common Worship, the closest we get to Mary being raised up in the heavens is a reference to Revelation so let’s finish with those:
The apostle John saw a vision of a woman in heaven, robed with the sun.
Bring us with all those who have died in the faith of Christ
to share the joy of heaven with Mary and all the saints.
Lord, have mercy on those who fear you.
Holy is your name. (Er, that would be God’s name that’s holy. Not Mary’s…)
Mooses with Bazookas?
I spoke to the wildly successful author of the Green Ember series, SD Smith on the Cooper and Cary Have Words podcast:
The Trauma of the Edinburgh Fringe
This time last year, I wrote this over at Seen& Unseen about the harrowing experience of visiting or performing at the Edinburgh Fringe.
There’s something about the Edinburgh Fringe that keeps performers coming back year after year. Next year, it’ll be different. And it isn’t.
If you enjoyed this blog, you might enjoy this article I stumbled across the other day:
That’s probably plenty for now. If you’re read this far and no subscribed, that really makes no sense. Join me - for free - and get an email like this every Friday:
Excellent. I loved the Mortimerian link, I must have listened to his ludicrous stories hundreds of times and yet they never get old. I thought this was respectful, irenic, and truthful. Well done mate