Marian Metaphysics

This first volume of Collected Essays presents Peter Damian Fehlner's later reflections on the unique role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the place of God's eternal design for creation. These essays explore personhood, the divine missions, and ecclesiology. Framed within a Trinitarian vision and flowing out of fifty years of prayerful study of Scripture and the Tradition, Fehlner deepens and extends the wisdom of his Franciscan theological forebears, St. Bonaventure, Bl. John Duns Scotus, and St. Maximilian Kolbe, along with John Henry Newman, in Trinitarian theology, Christology, Mariology, and ecclesiology. This vision is particularly relevant in today's theological and philosophical contexts, shedding light on the joint work of the Son and Holy Spirit as they constitute and build up the body of Christ through salvation history. The intimate relationship between Jesus and Mary in the Holy Spirit is clarified in these essays, unveiling the true face of the church as mother, teacher, and bride. Mary is exemplar and active associate with her Son as a member of his body. Within this volume, we discover our true nature and calling in Christ. Fehlner shows us how salvation history and metaphysical theology meet in the church, our mother, a true Marian Metaphysics.


About the Author
Peter Damian Fehlner, OFM Conv (1931-2018), was a Franciscan priest and theologian. For nearly forty years he taught theology in Franciscan schools and seminaries in Italy and the United States. He is the author of several books and countless articles in theological and pastoral journals. His final work was published posthumously as The Theologian of Auschwitz: St. Maximilian Kolbe on the Immaculate Conception in the Life of the Church (2019).



J. Isaac Goff is an instructor of dogmatic theology at Saints Cyril and Methodius Byzantine Catholic Seminary. He is coeditor of A Companion to Bonaventure (2014) and author of Caritas in Primo: A Study of Bonaventure's Disputed Questions on the Mystery of the Trinity (2015).