By DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY
The Marian Option: God’s Solution to a Civilization in Crisis, by Carrie Gress, Ph.D. (TAN Books: 2017); 214 pages, Amazon paperback and Kindle.
Some time ago, this reviewer looked at Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation, and while commending it as a very worthwhile book, there was one aspect of that work which came in for criticism — that is, its lack of a Marian dimension, given the importance of the Virgin Mary’s role in Christian history.
The Marian Option makes up for that deficiency, and also provides much food for thought for anyone who wants to know, in the words of the subtitle, “God’s Solution to a Civilization in Crisis.”
The book begins by outlining the growing problems for the Church in the twenty-first century, as the culture around us increasingly reverts to a pagan outlook, and pagan practices, and it also evaluates Dreher’s ideas.
The author argues that, while not refuting Dreher’s thesis, she maintains that what she calls the “Marian Option” is of more practical benefit for the great majority of Catholics, most of whom are not in a position to make completely radical lifestyle changes. For her, this means being open to the role of the Blessed Virgin throughout Christian history — and understanding its importance — so as to make that understanding effective in our everyday lives.
As Gress says, “Living the Marian Option does not require a change of address, career, or nationality: What it does require is going deep in one’s faith by both living the sacramental life and acknowledging Mary as our spiritual mother.”
In other words, the Marian Option, is about a renewed and deeper relationship with our Lady.
Like Dreher, the tone adopted by Gress in analyzing our present situation is somber, as she speaks of the possibility of “civilizational collapse” and the “parallels between America today and the crumbling Roman Empire.”
She points to research on the rise and fall of civilizations done by the historian Arnold Toynbee, which indicates that emerging civilizations come from the work of small “creative minorities,” who are able to effect a shift in culture by spreading a coherent message; and they also come from the presence of a “mystical” dimension in society, such as that provided by St. Benedict, which was able to sow the seeds that would transform his culture, eventually, into medieval Christendom.
But in order for that to happen, Benedict and his followers had to retreat from the world, which itself had to be purged of the paganism which had so polluted and distorted culture, by means of the drastic process of the collapse of the Roman Empire.
The author maintains that there is a better way than this type of Benedictine retreat, and that is a wholehearted devotion to Mary. She points to the correlation between the rise of Christian culture and devotion to Mary, as expressed in the building of the medieval cathedrals, in great works of art, literature, and music, and the work of Marian saints such as St. Dominic.
She also quotes Archbishop Fulton Sheen to the effect that the level of a civilization can be measured by the level of its women, and with our Lady as a role model, we have a ready explanation as to how medieval culture was able to rise so high.
The Blessed Virgin has also been powerful in protecting Christendom in the past, such as at the Battle of Lepanto or the Siege of Vienna, when, in both cases, European civilization was saved from Muslim conquest through recourse to her.
The author also deals with some of the major apparitions of our Lady, and in particular, Guadalupe, Lourdes, and Fatima. She relates the Guadalupe apparitions in Mexico in 1521 to the reconquest of Spain from Muslim domination, and points to the connections between this shrine and the Guadalupe shrine in Spain. Likewise, she sees an intriguing connection between Lourdes and Islam, and summarizes important apparitions of the Blessed Virgin such as those at Rue du Bac in Paris in 1830, and La Salette in 1846.
She also looks at the life and Marian teaching of St. Maximilian Kolbe — a saint who was very much devoted to Lourdes and to our Lady, who he called “the Immaculata.” He saw her as the “icon of a unique type of love of the Holy Spirit,” which in turn means there is a definite Marian dimension to the Church which complements the Petrine dimension — that is, the Church under the leadership of the Popes.
So this movement of devotion toward our Lady is not just a medieval phenomenon, but something which has been evident as well through the important Marian apparitions, and also the work of more recent saints such as Louis de Montfort, Maximilian Kolbe, and Pope John Paul II.
Gress devotes a chapter to Fatima and its links with Russia and the icon of Kazan, and how, as the Blessed Virgin predicted, Russia did indeed spread its errors — initially Communism, now become secularism — around the world.
Maternal Care
The third part of the book looks at topics such as distinguishing Mariology — which is the legitimate study of our Lady’s part in theology and the Church — from Mariolatry, which involves distortions in Marian devotion. The author looks at how such devotion has developed in the Church, and contrasts this with what happened in other Christian denominations, as well as discussing modern aberrations such as the influence of feminism on Mariology.
As she points out regarding the role of Mary, “Those who believe she holds too large a place in theology are generally linked to some kind of heterodoxy, heresy, or ideology that does not uphold the true teaching of the Church.”
Gress also points to the way in which Protestantism, in largely neglecting or even rejecting Mary, has failed to give women an authentic outlet for their need to worship in a distinct way, and has thus, “pushed them in another direction — that is eyeing those roles previously reserved for men because the feminine roles have been decimated.”
The author does not neglect the maternal care which emanates from our Lady on a personal basis for believers, in that she acts as the perfect mother, but comes back to the serious situation in which the world finds itself, to the extent that it could be said that we are living in “anti-Mary times,” that is times when those vices most opposed to Mary’s virtues are in the ascendant.
She is thinking of vices such as pride and disobedience, and a situation where motherhood is denigrated, and where, since the 1960s and 1970s, contraception and abortion have radically disrupted our formerly Christian culture.
But having said that, she contends that there are signs of a “rising Marian age,” to counter the above-mentioned evils, and that if we live the Marian Option of a genuine devotion to our Lady, and in particular such practices as the rosary, and a genuinely lived out personal Marian consecration, then there is hope for the future.
This means following the example of great Marian saints such as Pope John Paul II, and do what we can to build a renewed culture, centered on the family, as highlighted in the Benedict Option. We just have to do what our Lady asked for at Fatima and expand those ideals for our families and our society.
In sum, The Marian Option is the perfect counterpart to Rod Dreher’s work, and offers very practical advice as to how to live so as to rejuvenate our dying culture.
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Donal Anthony Foley is the author of a number of books on Marian Apparitions, and maintains a related website at www.theotokos.org.uk. He has also written two time-travel/adventure books for young people — details can be found at: http://glaston-chronicles.co.uk/
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