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Gateway to Heaven: Marian Doctrine and Devotion, Image and Typology in the Patristic and Medieval Periods, Vol. 1: Doctrine and Devotion. By Brian K. Reynolds. (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press. 2012. Pp. viii, 415. $39-95 paperback. ISBN 978-1-56548-449-8.)
This is an excellent book that should be owned by anyone interested in the history of Marian doctrine and devotion, and it is terrific that New City Press has now made it so easily and affordably available. The book was origi- nally published under the title Porta Paradisi (Taipei, 2009), and it was long extremely difficult to acquire. This was most unfortunate, since Gateway to Heaven surpasses Hilda Graef's excellent earlier survey of Marian theology and piety in early Christianity and the medieval West, Mary: A History of Doctrine and Devotion (New York, 1963); however, Graef's volume still remains valuable especially for its broader chronological scope and for its superior attention to post-Patristic developments in the Byzantine world.
The work is presented as the first volume of a two-volume study, although...