Approaching the Assumption, 1863-1950: Revelation, Scripture, and the Laity in the Development of a Marian Dogma

The Assumption of Mary refers to the ancient Christian belief that the Mother of God was taken up into Heaven, body and soul, at the end of her earthly life.For centuries, Catholics and other Christians celebrated the Assumption as a liturgical feast and meditated on the miraculous event in the Rosary.Nevertheless, its relationship to Revelation remained undefined.This changed in 1950 when Pope Pius XII declared the Assumption of Mary a dogma of the Catholic Church.In this rare exercise of papal authority, Pius XII infallibly and irrevocably taught that the Assumption was a truth revealed by God.This book explores how the definition of this Marian dogma came to fruition. After a brief history of the prior three Marian dogmas - Mother of God, Ever-Virgin, and the Immaculate Conception - this book narrates the major moments in the effort to obtain a dogmatic definition of the Assumption.The beginning of this ""Assumptionist movement"" can be dated to 1863 when Queen Isabel II of Spain pe