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Originally Posted by mammal_mama  Thank you, Bluegoat!
Yes, I've read through the Episcopalian outline of beliefs from the Book of Common Prayer, so I realize it's not as detailed as the Roman Catholic Catechism. I read through the Episcopalian Catechism (outline) at one sitting, whereas I'm only a little ways into the Roman Catholic Catechism.
I should probably go ahead and keep working my way through the RC Catechism, and I also want to read The Theology of the Body. Because I've been learning powerful things through studying this and also through praying the Rosary and learning about Marian devotion.
Bluegoat, since you are Anglican, maybe you can clue me in on the reasoning for believing that Mary remained a virgin even after giving birth to the Savior. So far, just off the top of my head, the only reason I can come up with is the old view of sex as dirty and shameful.
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Well, it is essentially a matter of Tradition. Many would agree that it would not have been a problem if Mary had had a normal sexual relationship with Joseph so long as they were married. But from the earliest days of the Church it has been passed down that this was not in fact the case.
There is actually some question as to what the nature of the marriage was - many Orthodox will tell you that they were not married at all, that the arrangement was more like a betrothal or protective custody, which sometimes happened for various reasons. (And as a general rule the Orthodox Church has been the most conservative of all groups in maintaining Tradition intact.) The story is that Mary had consecrated her virginity to God, and that an arrangement had been made with Joseph to be her protector. He is usually pictured as a much older man. Marriage and betrothal were understood a bit differently then, normally a couple were betrothed for a period where their legal status was solid, but they were not supposed to be sexually active and the woman continued to live with her parents. When they began to live together, and presumably have sex, then they were married. So since Mary and Joseph would have been living together without having sex, I suppose either description would fit.
It is often the case that those coming from a Protestant background don't have much experience in thinking about the possibility of celibacy in marriage - they tend to quote Paul's little blurb on not staying apart and leave it at that, and so it makes the arrangement described between Mary and Joseph seem very strange. But there is a long history of this kind of celibacy in marriage for a variety of reasons. Some couples adopted this when they felt their child-bearing years were over, or if they did not want more children for some good reason. So even up past the middle ages, it was not unheard of by any means. What Paul said was tempered in a way by the dictates of the body - everyone knows that in some situations more kids are not a good idea, and until recently the only way to avoid reliably was not to have sex. So it was recognized that this was not impossible, or necessarily bad, and it affected their interpretation and understanding of marriage.
Why would Mary have decided to do this? Well, I suppose for the reasons anyone might, but I guess it would come down to the reasons we are all meant to act - for the greater glory of God.
So, I think the big question is what does Tradition mean in the Church? Tradition can be described as the sum of beliefs and teachings that has come down orally through time. It also includes those of the future, which make it a living thing, but it is understood as being in a sense unchangeable - it may be further teased out, the implications better understood, but not actually changed. (Unlike tradition.) It is considered to be vital to have Tradition in order to interpret Scripture accurately (I'm sure you have noticed every group has a way of interpreting scripture, there is no way around it.) The Church says that Tradition is the tool which is given to the Church to do this. In fact, Scripture is understood as the product of Tradition.
The different groups that are big on tradition are the Orthodox, Catholics, Anglicans, and to some extent the Lutherans. The Orthodox tend to be the most conservative in teasing it out and defining what constitutes a change. They have maintained quite a lot of Tradition that the West doesn't. The Catholics are willing to go much farther, and perhaps on a related note put more emphasis on scripture and on the teachings of the magisterium. Anglicans have tended to be closer to this Western model (they have a slightly different idea which places scripture as the standard of what is necessary for salvation.), but have no magiserium and talk about reason instead. So like the Orthodox, for a long time a strong sense of Tradition kept them unified. However, they have recently (beginning in earnest since the 1940's) in NA especially really let up the floodgates on understanding Tradition which has caused a lot of the difficulties the Anglican Communion has now. So we see some groups turning more to Scripture and a kind of fundamentalism. Others follow reason unfettered by Tradition, which very easily becomes whatever the fad of the times is.
So it is fair to say, I think, that the Anglican communions difficulties relate to a crisis of Tradition, as well as a crisis concerning the nature of Scripture which became prominent at the beginning of the 20th century.
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