Editorial January 30, 1965 Issue

The Place of the Virgin Mary

Carl J. Welz

Discussing the Protestant view of the mother of Jesus, a recent issue of Time magazine quotes Dr. Albert Outler of Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, a Methodist observer at the Vatican Council, assaying: "We've got to take seriously the whole idea of the maternal dimension of Christianity. Protestantism has stressed to an almost exclusive degree the paternal and fraternal dimensions of religion."

There is in the human mind an innate longing for a feminine element in Deity. This is natural, for as a general rule a child feels most deeply, and an adult remembers most vividly, the tender care of his human mother. To appeal to God merely as Father seems to leave one lacking the full confidence one should feel in being watched over and cared for by the Almighty One. It is entirely understandable, therefore, that Christians in trouble should cry out in prayer to their concept of an all-loving, all-protecting Mother.

The human craving for a feminine element in Deity is satisfied in Christian Science through one's realizing man's direct relationship to his Father-Mother God. The wall of material belief which seemed to hide or obstruct this direct relationship is removed. Matter is shown to be a false belief which each of us can overcome.

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