Mary, Daughter Zion

This book is an original study of the Marian discourses of Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) who is recognised as a major modern theologian within and without the Catholic Church. It evinces Ratzinger’s ability to open new horizons in inherited teaching and new ways of understanding it within the parameters of orthodox theology. This is especially true of his theological understanding of Mary and the relationship of her being to that of the Church. The author gives a succinct introduction to this Mariology, navigating through biblical theology, Patristics, history of dogma, Christian anthropology, and some contemporary developments in Marian studies. By highlighting the devotional and pastoral implications of Marian spirituality in the Church, Ratzinger is further portrayed as a faithful theologian and conserver of the truth of Christian worship (lex credendi, lex orandi). Undoubtedly, Ratzinger is a renowned theologian, but the scholarly nature of this text convincingly presents him as a sound and outstanding Mariologist. This book is the fi rst to offer a fascinatingly comprehensive and intelligible account of this subject by drawing together, for the fi rst time, passages from a very wide range of Ratzinger’s writings.

Fr Martin Ifeanyi Onuoha, also the author of Actio Divina: The Marian Mystery of the Church in the Theology of Joseph Ratzinger, is a theology lecturer and examiner to the B. Div. and Postgraduate students at Maryvale Institute, Birmingham, UK. Faculté Nôtre-Dame, Paris, who oversees Maryvale’s Pontifi cal status, appointed him permanent faculty and a member of the HIRS Council in 2014. He holds a doctorate and a Licence in Sacred Theology from the Pontifi cal University of the Holy Cross, Rome, with dissertations on the Writings of Joseph Ratzinger, both of which were awarded summa cum laude. He is a member of the Theological Commission of the International Marian Association, of the Catholic Theological Society of America, and of the Catholic Theological Association of Nigeria.

He is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Ahiara, Mbaise, in Imo State, Nigeria, ordained in 2001, after receiving degrees in Philosophy and Theology from the Pontifi cal Urban University, Rome (through Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu), and a HND in Mass Communication from Enugu State University of Science and Technology. In addition to his lecturing duties, he is currently the parish priest of the parishes of Our Lady and the Apostles, St Ambrose, and St Vincent, Stockport, while providing priest-chaplaincy support for Aquinas College, St James’ Catholic High School, and the Nigeria-African chaplaincy, Liverpool.