Perhaps the story of Christ's birth has become almost too familiar.

We've heard the story so many times that it fails to shock us: the appearances of the angel, a virgin giving birth, a child placed in a manger, the arrival of shepherds and magi. "But what if we had never heard the story before?" Edward Sri asks. "What if we were first-century Jews hearing this plot for the first time?" Only two Gospels give any details about the birth of the Messiah, but these chapters are packed with allusions to Old Testament stories and prophecies that any contemporary Jew would have recognized.

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Queen Mother: A Biblical Theology of Mary's Queenship by Dr. Edward Sri sets out to explain the firm foundation of this dogma in Scripture and Tradition. As Pope Pius VII writes in Ad Caeli Reginam, in which he instituted the first Feast of the Queenship in October 1954: "The arguments on which Mary's queenly dignity is based have already been clearly set forth, and are to be found in ancient documents of the Church and in the books of the sacred liturgy." Based on Dr. Sri's doctoral dissertation, Queen Mother explores the role of the queen mother in the Davidic kingdom, examining the ways in...