[Book Review]; A Journey with Mary

Walking with Mary: 

A Biblical Journey from Nazareth to the Cross

Dr. Edward Sri

Image Books, 2013

Dr. Edward Sri is somewhat of a major name in the Church in the United States, and for very good reason. Sri, a well known author and speaker, is a professor of Theology and Scripture at the Augustine Institute in Denver, Co. in their Master's program. He is known for his vast Biblical knowledge as well as his writing style, which takes complex topics and makes them understandable through the language of Scripture. In this book, he does exactly that with the topic of Mary; he shows through this book the way that we see Mary in Scripture, and what it is that we can learn about her and from her.

As Sri himself expresses in the introduction to this book, Mary is a controversial topic in many ways for Christians. Catholics, it seems to many, love Mary too much; Protestants and other Christians, it seems to Catholics, do not give her the esteem which she is due. What Sri sets out to do is answer the question at the heart of all of this: who is the person of Mary, and what do we know about how the Lord felt about her? On top of this, Sri states that he is writing this book to help the average reader "walk in her footsteps as a faithful disciple of the Lord in [their] own pilgrimage of faith" (page 18). 

Focusing on the Gospels of Luke and John, Sri takes the reader on a journey through the life of Mary as it is revealed in Scripture. From the Annunciation and what we know about the girl to whom the Angel Gabriel appeared all the way through the cross and into the book of Revelation, this book breaks down what Scripture tells us about the Mother of our Lord. Combining a sound reading of Scripture with a wealth of background knowledge, Sri breaks open these texts to reveal the young, poor girl who accepted with faith the call that the Lord had for her. 

Overall, Sri spends much of this book breaking open a theme which he quotes from St. Augustine "Mary was more blessed because of her discipleship than her motherhood." Through the words of Scripture, Sri explains this very concretely: Mary was obviously blessed because she was God's mother, but more than anything the blessing came because she had faith and trusted everything that God was going to bring about in her life. From the moment of the Annunciation to the prophecy of Simeon at Jesus' presentation and to the cross, he shows the way that Mary's faith guided her actions, allowing her to trust in God even when His plans were unclear or very difficult. 

For each of us, this is the lesson that Mary teaches us for our lives. From her last words in the Gospel of John to today we can constantly hear Mary's voice in our hearts saying "Do whatever he tells you" (John 2:5). Throughout this book, Sri shows through Scripture the way that she followed this way of living, and the way that she models for each of us the life of a believer. Whether or not we always understand, if we follow Mary's example to always "Do whatever He tells us," we will be blessed for our faith. 

If you are someone with a devotion to Mary or not, I recommend this book. It is not fiction, but is about as easy to read as any non-fiction I have read. Sri's easy-to-read style combined with the brevity of the chapters makes this book something that you can pick up and quickly learn about the blessed Mother in Scripture.

In order to learn more about this book and buy it from Image Books, visit the website here. In order to learn more about the author, Dr. Edward Sri, visit the Image Books bio of him at this link.

"I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review as a part of their blogging for books program; you can learn more about this by visiting the program's website here Blogging for Books."