Was there an Immaculate Conception?
Newman’s concept of Mary as the Second Eve… To Newman it is not just an analogy, it is – and he has sound biblical support – a lens which puts everything to do with Mary into focus for us. Such teachings as the Immaculate Conception are made simpler for our minds with such explanations as, “If Eve was sinless on the day she was created, it seems appropriate that Mary should be equally free from sin at the dawn of a new creation. An important aspect of the Immaculate Conception is that it was necessary for Mary to be as sinless as Eve or the parallel would be faulty.
