聖母マリアに関わる教義・崇敬、民間の伝承、聖画像が最も活発に発展したキリスト教の起源から宗教改革までを核に、カトリックや正教会をはじめとするキリスト教の宗派、そしてイスラームにおける見解を概説します。過去から現在に至るまでのキリスト教意識、そして今日の世俗的な世界におけるいくつかの誤解や思い込みについて、美術史、考古学、ジェンダー研究から教理史まで学際的な視点で考察を加えます。今日の大衆文化における「聖母出現」やマリアの表象についても検討します。
  

• Describes the evolution of Marian thought from early Christianity to the present day
• Takes an interdisciplinary approach that includes art history, archaeology, and gender studies as well as doctrinal history
• Considers Mary in Eastern and Western Christianity as well as Islam
• Discusses Mary in contemporary popular culture

　　　
The Virgin Mary - a Jewish mother - is central to Christianity, a revered woman in Islam, and a person of persistent fascination for centuries. Marian worship and theology has inspired countless appearances in art, as well as religious philosophy and doctrine, while the concept of the Virgin herself has been involved in controversial discussions over the Virginal body, race, anti-Semitism, and globalism.
　　　
This Very Short Introduction describes the evolution of Marian thought from early Christianity to the present day. Mary Joan Winn Leith focuses on the centuries between the rise of Christianity and the Counter-Reformation, the eras when most of the doctrinal issues, popular traditions, and associated conventions of Marian iconography developed, and covers Catholic, Orthodox, and other Christian denominations, as well as the Islamic Mary. Taking an interdisciplinary approach that includes art history, archaeology, and gender studies as well as doctrinal history, she considers some of the misunderstandings and unquestioned assumptions about the Virgin Mary that pervade past and present Christian consciousness and today's secular world. Leith also discusses apparitions of Mary and representations of Mary in contemporary popular culture.