Mary--answering the question --how is this not a new doctrine?

See the other links on Mary on the sidebar as well

from here comment 234  http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2012/06/podcast-ep-17-jason-cindy-stewart-recount-their-conversion/#comment-87827

In particular, how is it that you were able to hold on the one hand that the Church has no authority to give new revelation nor add/subtract to that one deposit of faith given from the Apostles to the Episcopate, and on the other hand that some of these doctrines of Mary appear later in history?

This is a thoughtful question and one that consumed much of my attention when I began exploring the beliefs of the Catholic Church.

In working through this issue early on, I came across a few helpful paragraphs in Peter Kreeft’sCatholic Christianity. On page 18, having emphasized that the Church does not have the authority to change or delete any part of the deposit of faith, Kreeft writes:

That does not mean that the faith cannot change. It constantly changes—but by growth from within, like a living plant, not by alteration or construction from without, like a machine or a factory— or a man-made ideology, philosophy, or political system. The Church can further explore and explain and interpret her original deposit of faith, drawing out more and more of its own inner meaning and applying it to changing times—and in that sense she “changes” it by enlarging it—but she cannot change it by shrinking it.

Again, he writes on page 19:

The Church’s Tradition is ongoing because it is alive and grows new fruits—not new in kind, like apple trees growing pears, but new in size and beauty, like bigger and better apples. “[E]ven if Revelation is already complete, it has not yet been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries” (CCC 66). For instance, the Church’s doctrine on the divine and human natures of Christ, on the Trinity, on the canon of Scripture (the list of books in the Bible), on the seven sacraments, on the nature of the Church, on the authority of the pope, on Mary, and on social ethics has developed this way.”

I’m pressed for time at the moment but in a subsequent comment I’ll zero in on the important statement “appear later in history” in relation to Marian dogmas.

also from a coAs Kreeft has indicated, the Church’s Marian dogmas draw out what is implicit in the deposit of faith. The earlies in God’s redemptive plan are considered. This insight then provided the foundation for a deeper understanding of her conception, nature, the end of her earthly life, and her ongoing function as the Second Eve in the life of the Church.

mment 259 here http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2014/04/ancient-marian-devotion/

 ....mariology is in spirit and practice as unsubtle and spontaneous as the greeting of Elizabeth to the Blessed Virgin and Mother of God, recorded in Luke Chapter 1.

t Fathers recognize Mary as the New Eve, something not explicit in Scripture, but nevertheless seen as true when her role and activity

Also back in the 200's  St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, who lived from about 213-270 A.D.---gave a homily on Mary--which shows much of the doctrine: It can be found here http://catholicdefense.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-early-church-and-virgin-mary-st.html


also http://www.oodegr.co/english/ekklisia/oldest_theotokos_prayer.htm

from comment 9 here : http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2014/10/objections-to-the-hail-mary-leo-xiii-the-rosary-and-christian-unity-part-5-of-10/

Thanks for your comments. I am glad that we share that principle of the communion of the saints, that the parts of the body help one another even as they are vivified by the Head. If we share that, I believe that we are close too on Mary’s role in mediating grace to us, for the head is attached to the body by a neck. Beth’s and Friar Charles’s comments are worthy of reflection. If I am to add something, I would point out that the point about Mary as the New Eve was very helpful for me personally in understanding her preeminent role as a creature in the work of redemption. This idea can be found in the fathers as early as St. Justin Martyr and St. Irenaeus of Lyon (see Dialogue with Trypho 100.5, and Against Heresies III.22.4 and V.19.1, respectively). The Catholic approach to interpreting Scripture is that, acknowledging that God brought about and preserved the inspired Scriptures in and through the Church, one should read Scripture in the Church and under the guidance of the Fathers.

The basic idea underlying Mary’s co-mediation of all grace is that of there being a Woman who is the helper fit for the Man. Although Adam was the head of the human race by natural descent, Eve was the help fit unto him. Now Jesus Christ is the New Adam (cf. Romans 5, 1 Cor 15), and Mary is the New Eve made fit to be his helper (cf. Luke 1). Eve was a sinless virgin who is called by Adam both “Woman” (Genesis 2:2:23), who would become the “Mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20); Mary is a sinless virgin who is called by the New Adam “Woman” (Jn 19:26), who becomes the “Mother” of the Beloved Disciple (Jn 19:27). The Beloved Disciple is himself a type for each believer, and thus Mary is seen to be the mother of all the faithful. This is clearer in Revelation 12. Jesus Christ is the “offspring/seed” who fulfills the prophecy of Genesis 3:15 (cf. Galatians 3:16), and yet the rest of the Church is called the “rest of her [the Woman's] offspring” in Revelation 12:17 (cf. v. 1).

The point then is, by God’s wisdom in raising up the lowly in order to fulfill the promise to Abraham to bless the nations (cf. Mary’s son in Lk 1:46-55), Mary became co-redeemer with the New Adam just as Eve was a co-sinner in the fall of the first Adam (1 Tim 2:14). Where Eve said no to God, Mary said yes (“Let it be done unto me according to thy word”). So, just as Eve is the mother of all those who live by nature, so Mary is the mother of all who are alive to God through grace (and also of all who have the potential alive to God by grace, and so of all human beings). As St. Ireneaus put it, Mary undid the knot of Eve’s disobedience when Mary consented to bear the savior of the human race. Thus our salvation comes to us through Mary, in her consent to the Incarnation and at her consent to Christ’s sacrifice at the foot of the cross. Mary’s role as co-mediatrix is greater than any other Christian’s role as a co-mediator with Christ.

Friar Charles recommended Bl. John Henry Newman’s writings on this. Two other sources are worthwhile. The first is the encyclical letter Ad diem illum by Pope St. Pius X on the fiftieth anniversary of the definition of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. Also helpful is the section of Vatican II’s document on the nature of the Church, Lumen gentium, that contains a prolonged meditation on Mary from paragraphs 52-69. In particular, paragraphs 60-62 are most relevant to this question of Mary’s role in communicating the grace of Christ to us.

Another helpful resource is Dr. Larry Feingold’s lecture series on Mary, including the talk on Mary’s spiritual maternity and mediation