Hail, Holy Queen

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Summary: There's Something About Mary
Review: Scott Hahn's latest book is simply great. It's filled with insights; it's accessible, readable (and has its usual share of groan-inducing puns as sub-titles). In his last book, (The Lamb's Supper), Scott Hahn dealt with the Mass. I am grateful that here, Scott Hahn again wrestles with a very central and characteristic Catholic belief: Mary. This latest one in particular can be shared with your Protestant friends who are open and willing to read the Catholic viewpoint. Scott Hahn's Biblical arguments and simple explanation of Biblical typology should, I think, be able to help them come to a understanding and build bridges for discussion. I devoured this and treasure it. I can't wait for his next one.

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Summary: Lucid exposition of Mary brings biblical theology to life
Review: Even the most sceptical will find this lucid exposition of Catholic Marian teaching fascinating and compelling. The typology connecting the Old and New Testament events and figures relating to Marian doctrine, and their culmination in Revelation and in Church tradition, is explored in depth and meticulous detail, but with a fluency and accessibility that brings theology to life. Reading this book feels like piecing together a complex jigsaw and discovering buried treasure.

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Summary: God's family would be incomplete without a Mother
Review: This book explains various ways to understand Mary's place in God's plan. For one thing, Mary was prefigured in the Old Testament, just as Christ was. Hahn demonstrates the various "types" of Mary, such as Eve and the Queen Mother, but especially the Ark of the Covenant: the Ark contained the word of God in stone, while Mary's body contained the Word of God made flesh. "Hail, Holy Queen" shows another way to understand Mary's place in the Church is to recognize that the Holy Trinity is a family and, as Hahn so succintly puts it, "a family is incomplete without a loving mother." There's so much more than a book review can cover. Get the book and read it. You too will discover the "loving logic" of the Church's teaching about Mary, which Hahn explains in an extremely simple manner, and how it is all grounded in the Bible.

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Summary: Finally... thank you, Dr. Hahn
Review: It was said somewhere (perhaps in the introduction to this very book, perhaps on a radio interview with Scott Hahn) that this book was originally written for Dr. Hahn's young daughter, as a way of explaining Mary to her.

With that in mind, don't be too surprised if you don't see hundreds of pages of Greek word studies and textual criticism.

You will find in this book a very easy-to-follow, yet Scripturally deep explanation of who Mary is, and why the Church venerates her so.

Hahn looks at three critical moments in Salvation History: the Covenant with Adam, the Covenant with Moses, and the Covenant with David, and he explores the Marian facets of these events. Hahn is able to show us how Mary was prophesied in these events, albeit in a very subtle, very puzzle-like way.

Go with Dr. Hahn on this detective's adventure through Scripture, and see what has been right in front of your eyes the whole time (much like when you finally see the image hidden in a MagicEye 3D picture).

This book is fun, light, interesting, and very informative. You won't be disappointed.

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Summary: The beautiful biblical truth about Mary
Review: In "Hail, Holy Queen," Scott Hahn covers many Marian teachings: Mary as the Mother of God, the New Eve, the Ark of the New Covenant, the Queen-Mother of the Davidic King, her Immaculate Conception, and her Bodily Assumption. Hahn explains all these using Scripture as well as other witnesses to the Church's teachings through the ages. He draws from sources such as the Fathers of the Church (Sts. Ephrem, Cyril of Alexandria, John of Damascus), modern theologians such as John Henry Cardinal Newman, the teachings of various popes (such as Pius IX and John Paul II), as well as the Mariological teachings of Vatican II. By doing this, Hahn presents the continuity of the Church's teaching of Mary from her anticipation in the Old Testament, to her presentation in the New Testament, down through the Church's meditation on her role in the lives of her spiritual children today. What is more, Hahn's presentation makes clear the interconnection of the Church's Marian teaching: These are not a collection of random doctrines; rather, they come together, painting a picture of the Mother of God as a person. "Hail, Holy Queen" is easy to read, but one you don't wish to put down. It is a book that you will read and then re-read, to get better acquainted with your spiritual mother.

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Summary: This Baptist found deep scriptural insights about Mary
Review: This book really hit me hard, and that came as big shock, especially for a Baptist like me. For one thing, I never thought that so much deep insight could come from such a relatively short and easy-to-read book. For another, I never realized before how the Catholic Church's teachings about Mary were actually deeply rooted in Scripture. That is because I have been reading the Bible like most other Protestants, simply looking for proof-texts to shore-up what I was already taught. But now that I have discovered how to read the Bible typologically, I do not plan on ever going back to that.

Does this mean becoming Catholic? I still don't know for sure. However, it sure means that I can no longer use Mary as my excuse for staying out. As a lifelong Baptist, it feels very strange even to write those words. "Hail, Holy Queen" was not at all what I expected. I was ready for another set of apologetics arguments for Mary, like the ones I had heard from other Catholic apologists. I still do not know how to describe it, but this book is so different, in approach and tone and insight. It spoke both to my head and my heart. It made Mary more than convincing, it made the truth of her divine motherhood compelling. Not just true but beautiful. Do not misunderstand what I am saying. This is not mystical babble or emotionalism. It is deep scriptural wisdom. It is also not Scott Hahn's clever way with words, it is the ancient teaching and living tradition of Catholicism.

I still have a long way to go. Lots of other questions about purgatory and relics and the Mass. I have a funny feeling though that those teachings are probably as biblical as Mary. It is exciting and scary. Pray for me, and for my bewildered wife.

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Summary: Best book I have read on the biblical basis for Mary
Review: No other area of the faith is so CATHOLIC as the Church's Marian doctrines and devotions. Despite this fact, Catholics and non-Catholics alike often misunderstand the Church's Marian teachings. Scott Hahn's latest book, HAIL, HOLY QUEEN, provides a much-needed antidote for these misunderstandings.

The book demonstrates how the Church's Marian teachings are firmly rooted in the Bible. While some Marian teachings are easier to find in Scripture than others, reading the Bible typologically makes all of these doctrines come alive. Typology is not just symbolism, it's what shows how passages in one part of Scripture relates to other parts. It also allows one to read the Bible as the Church has always read it. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the most recent document to recommend this type of Scripture reading to the faithful (see CCC 128-130).

This is a book every Catholic should read to better understand the Church's teachings on Mary and to deepen your Marian devotion. It is also a book that every non-Catholic should read to learn that true devotion to Mary does not contradict the Bible.

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Summary: Informative and profitable for catholics and protestants
Review: "Hail, Holy Queen" is the latest offering from the indefatigable Scott Hahn, today's most popular Catholic popularizer, and the author of "The Lamb's Supper," an exposition of the Mass. Here Hahn explains the Church's teaching about Mary with scriptural arguments about her identity as Queen Mother, Ark of the New Covenant, New Eve and type of the Church.

Hahn's primary audience is Catholic, and his presentation is especially informative for those educated during the past 30 years with little exposure to the Marian doctrines, much less to the reasons why we hold them. Even supposedly well-catechized older Catholics will profit from Hahn's treatment. Nevertheless, Hahn's former Protestant brethren are also part of his target audience, whose fears of the Canaanite Queen of Heaven "Hail, Holy Queen" is meant to allay.

Hahn's final chapter summarizes current Catholic mariology as taught in the Vatican II document, "Lumen Gentium," which serves as a source of inspiration for his book. He shows that teaching the full truth about Mary won't hurt ecumenism with Protestants and Eastern Christians. Both groups may profit from Hahn's appendix on the Rosay, along with his treatment of our need for familial intimacy with God, enhanced by Mary's maternal love. As sources concerning Mary's role in the Church, Hahn invokes patristic writings, a connection that helped him in own journey to the Church. Hahn also quotes John Henry Newman and recent Church documents. Other scholarship is relegated to endnotes. Hahn's love for our Lady is warm and sincere, and "Hail, Holy Queen" is a useful guide to the Bible.

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Summary: A new biblical look at Mary, just right for every believer
Review: How do modern-day Catholics relate to Mary? Too often with disdain, writes Scott Hahn, a former Presbyterian minister, now a Catholic theologian who appears on Catholic cable station EWTN.

Hahn explores enough scripture, tradition and theology to engage a church study group. In so doing, this Marian expert challenges fellow Catholics, and exhorts Protestants to take a new look.

Hahn draws on Hebrew Testament foreshadowings of this event in showing how Mary has taken her place as the New Eve (mother of all living), Queen Mother (of the heavenly Davidic dynasty fulfilled) and New Ark of the Covenant (that contained the Christian holy of holies, Jesus, and is triumphantly brought back by him to the heavenly Jerusalem). In so doing, Hahn presents the doctrine of Mary's Assumption in a way that both penetrates reality and touches mystery.

Is the Assumption, in its celebration of a sinless, heavenly queen, too out of touch? On the contrary, Hahn contends, the doctrine answers once and for all, "How much glory is Christ willing to share? And how successsful will be be?" It herlds this mother's glory as the destiny of her sons and daughters. At the same time, it evidences a Christ who takes the commandment to heart: "Honor thy father and mother."

The key to Christians embracing Mary, says Hahn, is accepting that they are really sons and daughters of a divine Father and have a brother, Christ, who wants to share everything he has with them, including his own mother. Hahns cites the words on the cross when, speaking of Mary, Jesus tells St. John, "Behold thy mother." That declaration, he writes is meant for every believer.

Enough. Any more will spoil it. Go buy a copy and read it.

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Summary: The definitive book on Mary for Catholics-and all Christians
Review: Scott Hahn's "Hail, Holy Queen" may well be the definitive book on Mary for the lay Catholic, or any other lay Christian, for that matter. In his usual methodical manner, Hahn takes the reader through the Bible to demonstrate step-by-step, passage-by-passage, verse-by-verse what he sees as the proper place of Mary in Christian thought.

Reflecting St. Augustine's premise that the New Testament is concealed in the Old and the Old is revealed in the New, Hahn looks carefully at the Garden of Eden story, the role of the Ark of the Covenant in Israel's history, the function of the Queen Mother in the Davidic monarchy (including not just David but his successors as well), the Gospels, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the book of Revelation.

Over and again, he arrests the reader with astonishing insights, parallels that most believers--even those who consider themselves relatively familiar with Scripture--might never see on their own. Hahn uses a number of the Church fathers to support his argument, but as always his strength is his use of Scripture.

His weakness--and this is really a petty point--is his affection for puns. This little idiosyncrasy was noticeable in the title of one of his first books, "Rome Sweet Home." But he reaches new heights of punning is this latest work with section titles such as "Maternity Warred," "Mary, Mary Reliquary," and "Cutting the Unbiblical Cord."

This book is relatively easy reading, relatively short and relatively inexpensive. The text is just 175 pages, with another 15 pages of "Sources and References" to assist the reader in finding documentation and further discussion in Scripture, and other church writings and even secular documents.

As always, Hahn's enthusiasm for the Bible and all things Catholic is evident. Coming into full communion with the Catholic Church as an adult, this former Presbyterian minister, scholar, and renowed apologist loves the Bible, the Church, Jesus and Mary. While this book is not intended to be a devotional book, it cannot help leading the reader to a closer relationship with the Blessed Mother.