The Centre for Marian Studies Research Seminar: Theological and Philosophical Perspectives from Joseph Ratzinger and Peter Kreeft on Mary, the Mother of God, Providing the Grammar of Person in Humanity

In our November research seminar, Dr Mary Frances McKenna (The Centre for Marian Studies) will explore theological and philosophical aspects of Mary in relation to the notion of person and how that notion of person is appropriately applied to humanity.

The presentation will consider how Mary provides the grammar for the theological notion of person in humanity—specifically, how Mary as the Mother in her relationship with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit illustrates the full actualisation of person in the human being.

The aim of the presentation is to explore what it means for a human being to be person—to actualise their personhood. The thesis presented will be that Mary, Mother of God, provides the grammar of mother that is the actualisation of person in humanity. The presentation will first detail the Scriptural basis of this grammar along with relevant refences to the Church Fathers. Then Ratzinger’s theological and Kreeft’s philosophical perspectives are explored which offer opportunities to further shape and give form to the proposed grammar of person that Mary provides humanity.

To underscore the thesis of Mary providing the grammar of mother as the actualisation of person in the human being, an attempt will be made to synthesise into a coherent whole the salient aspects of Ratzinger’s theological and Kreeft’s philosophical contributions. The grammar of mother will be shown to be sanctity which is the actualisation of personhood, and that sanctity is the act of self-giving, the act of self-donation, which is relation without reserve with God the Father, through the Son and in Holy Spirit.

The speaker

Dr Mary Frances McKenna is a Fellow of The Centre for Marian Studies, UK. She holds a PhD in Humanities in Theology (2012) from All Hallows College, Dublin City University, Ireland, and a MA (1996) and a BA (1994) in History from University College Dublin, Ireland. Her research interests mainly focus on Mary in Christian faith and theology, and the thought of Joseph Ratzinger. She is the author of Innovation within Tradition: Joseph Ratzinger and Reading the Women of Scripture (Fortress Press, 2015). In addition, she has published on the role of Christianity in the world, on the reasonableness of faith and Christian anthropology. She has two articles included in Joseph Ratzinger in Dialogue with Philosophical Traditions: From Plato to Vattimo, edited by Tracey Rowland, Alejandro Sada and Rudy Albino de Assunção (Bloomsbury 2024) and two articles in the forthcoming Oxford University Press Handbook on Ratzinger edited by Tracey Rowland and Francesca Murphy.

Register

To join the audience, please register for the free Zoom link by sending an email to Catherine O'Brien at info@marianstudies.ac.uk.