Customer Reviews

Refuting the Attack on Mary: A Defense of Marian Doctrines

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Father Mateo was the pen name of a Catholic Priest who hosted the "Ask Father" forum on the Catholic Information Network until his death in 1996. This book was written as a direct rebuttal to a two-part article entitled "The Mary of Roman Catholicism" printed up in the Christian Research Institute Journal in 1990. Father Mateo hits many of the theological points of Marian doctrine in this book, though it would be nice to have a copy of the two CRI articles mentioned in this book. If you are not familiar with Marian doctrine, this book does not give you time to catch the basics, and it can get quite heady at time. If you have been "down this road before" though, this book will be fast paced. Though it is a direct rebuttal to a duo of CRI articles, this book can be used by Catholic apologists when discussing Marian doctrine, as the book is quite comprehensive. However, if you are looking for a slower paced, easier to read Catholic Apologetics book based on Marian Doctrine, I would recommend "The Catholic Answer Book of Mary" by Peter Stravinskas instead.

Refuting the attack on Mary is a book written in response to material published by the Christian Research Institute. The CRI argues against the Catholic Church seeking to increase devotional practices to Mary among Catholics. CRI sees this as jeopardizing the ecumenical movement. With this idea as their battle cry, they issue a full frontal attack on straw man arguments related to Mary. In this way CRI acts as Don Quixote knocking down false arguments in a seemingly heroic way.

Fr. Mateo sets the record straight. He gives counterpoints to their arguments in a blow-by-blow defense. Fr. Mateo gives quick lessons in Greek grammar when necessary to explain verses. He also includes plenty of protestant quotations that support veneration of Mary. His refutations are well written.

The issue I had with the book is that I think with a little more work, it could have been much better. The book is a reprint of articles published in This Rock magazine. Because of this, it answers CRI's objections well, but that's all it really does. Fr. Mateo does not anticipate counter attacks, which could have been handled easily without adding much to the articles. One example is in the chapter Queen of Heaven. One common counter argument against Mary as the queen of heaven is that in Rev 12:2 the woman with the crown of stars is experiencing labor pains. Labor pains are a temporal effect of original sin. If this woman was Mary and Mary was conceived without sin, how would she experience labor pains? It would have been prudent to add the answers to these kinds of questions to this book. (In case your wondering, the answer can be found in The Lamb's Supper by Scott Hahn pages 78-79.)

Refuting the attack on Mary is a decent book to learn how to counter some arguments against Mary but it could have been much more. If you are going to buy only book, skip this one. If you have more than a passing interest in Marian studies, you will probably enjoy Refuting the attack on Mary.

Father Mateo succeeds in answering the Protestant's charges against the Marian doctrines, but not in a lot of detail. He does, however, point you in the right direction.

If you are looking for a general explanation for these doctrines, or if you just want to have some good answer to give a Protestant who is grilling you, then this book is for you. If you prefer a textbook analysis of Mariology, see "All Generations Shall Call Me Blessed" by Stefano M. Manelli.

Father Mateo presents a good deal of information in this small book, discussing many separate matters related to the Virgin Mary. For instance, Father Mateo addresses the issue of Mary's perpetual virginity when he discusses the "brothers of Jesus". He points out that the Greek word adelphos does not have to mean brother. Nor, for that matter, does it have to mean cousin. Adelphos can simply mean relative. Of course, it is possible that Joseph had children from a previous marriage, in which case Jesus would have had physical brothers without impairing Mary's perpetual virginity. The latter was the position held by some of the early Church fathers.

Father Mateo spends some time defending the Immaculate Conception of Mary. He claims that the Greek verb form, with the stem that is used, requires Luke 1:28 to state that Mary was "completely, perfectly, enduringly endowed with grace". This necessarily requires Mary to have been shielded from sin from the moment of her conception.

One of the many other Scriptural issues which Father Mateo addresses is the matter of our Lord seemingly scolding his mother (Luke 11:27-28). This apparent scolding is an artifact of the translation. A more accurate translation would have our Lord saying that Mary is blessed not just because she happens to be His mother, but also because she hears the Word of God, and keeps it.

The Christian Research Institute published a series of articles attacking the Marian docrtian of the Catholic Church. Father Mateo makes it clear to Catholics and all Christians alike how to defend Mary. He focuses on the most debated topics of Mary. I especially liked the chapters defending Mary's life long virginity,her assumption into heaven, and the Immaculate Conception. It is a great book for people who want to learn how to debate these topics.

Father Mateo has written a very succinct 100 page basic defense on eight major topics that scandalize our protestant brethren in regards to Our Lady. It is simply written, clear, brief, with all the classic scriptural citations in the first line of defense of the Catholic position.

Another juicy bit of evidence: Father Mateo is careful to offer quotes from many of the reformers; Zwingli, Calvin, Luther, where they vehemently defend many classical Catholic doctrines, (eg. immaculate conception, perpetual virginity, mother of God)

The book is actually based on a series of articles from 'this rock' magazine. As such, it is easy and fun to read, clear and concise, with plenty of scripture and thorough footnotes.

Be warned though, that there's only so much ground that Father can cover in a magazine article, so each subject is only touched upon in the most cursory manner. The book also suffers a bit because it is written as a response to a magazine article by christian research institute and therefore constantly refers to that article and to CRI. But you won't be arguing with CRI when you use these arguments on your born again pals, so this constant referencing is a bit wearying.

the book reminds me of a short list of chess openings with the standard defenses against each; memorize these responses and you'll probably 'win most of your games' as you defend the basic Catholic postions on Mary. I imagine most protestants think that there isn't any scriptural or patristic defense for any of these marian doctrines, so any argument will probably shock most of the casual opponents you will run into. Especially useful for falling away lukewarm Catholics who don't know anything about the scriptural basis of their own faith.

Protestant criticism of Marian doctrines always end in self-inflicted wounds. In attacking their mother, the church, they make no friends with the Catholics or Orthodox Christians they hope to influence. And, even more so, they undermine related doctrines on which they believe their own salvation rests!

For instance, by denying the title, "Mother of God," they do so in ignorance of the long debate over the dual nature of Jesus Christ. The early church fought hard to preserve the doctrine that Jesus was fully man yet fully God and one hedge they made to protect that doctrine was to acknowledge Mary as the "mother of God." This attack then, like so many others, is based in a sad ignorance of Christian history and heritage.

Such, it seems, is also true of the other attacks parried in this little book. The story of how this book came to be is interesting in itself. It began with a Protestant apologetics magazine having a series of articles challenging several Marian doctrines. A Roman Catholic, under the pen name of "Father Mateo," responded in a series of articles in a Catholic apologetic magazine. This book is an edit and consolidation of those responses into a single volume. Each chapter is short and easy to read. Packed with the context of church history (which was lacking or misleading in the attack articles) and with careful scriptural exegesis, Father Mateo provides a most charitable response.

Sadly, not all anti-Catholic polemicists will not learn the lesson that attacks on Mary only result in self-inflicted wounds. But perhaps a few will find Father Mateo's little book a help in better understanding their Catholic brothers and sisters who might not be so ignorant as they assumed. We can hope that it will open at least one mind to the possibility that they may be mistaken about Mary. The attacks on Mary may indeed lead to their own awakening to the historic and ancient faith.

By no means is this a complete apologetic on the doctrines of Mary. As a response to specific attacks, it covers only in depth enough to respond to those attacks and then not always to the depth that some will desire. Yet, this work, taken with an open mind, will go far to closing this gap between Protestants and Catholics.

The is the best book on Mary I have seen to date and should be thought of as required reading by all ( cathoilc / protestant / non-christian alike ) . It is a joy to read and answers some of the age old lies about Mary worship in the Catholic church . There is a world between prasie and worship . When a boos or friend or parents say " well done " or "good job: that is prasie the same praise that Catolic people use to honor the Virgin Mothe. Worship is saved for the Father, Son and Holy Spirit ONLY. This one one of many points this wonderful little book points out . If you have not read this one ..shame on you . It is just that good !

This is an awesome little book. I read it in a few days (though its short enough for a few hours) and profitted greatly from it. It was a great idea to write the book as a response to a CRI attack on Mary as it helps to break down Marian theology into fundamental building blocks, and more importantly, the inclusion of the CRI attacks helps make the reader more familiar with the "anti-marian" playbook of our Protestant brothers and sisters.

Father Mateo is a very good writer and his language is easily understood by the layperson and is supplemented with plenty of scripture (so be sure to have a Bible handy).

I highly recommend this book.