In the popular imagination, Christmas is the season of Mary as much as of the baby Jesus. This year, interest in Mary includes "The Nativity Story," an earnest Hollywood film greeted with respectful reviews, respectable box office returns and a bit of controversy.

But more important than this one film is a revived religious debate about Mary. Last year, international Anglican and Roman Catholic negotiators issued a new accord on the mother of the Son of God. Now conservative evangelicals -- those least likely to hail Mary's veneration by Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox -- are talking up.

The December issue of the leading evangelical magazine, Christianity Today, features an "Incendiary Mary" cover story. It's drawn from the book "The Real Mary: Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus" (Paraclete) by Scot McKnight of Chicago's North Park University.

He uplifts Mary partly by stressing the threat she and her messianic Son represented to tyrants such as Caesar and the Herods.

McKnight's book and blog appear alongside a richer theological treatment: "Mary for Evangelicals: Toward an Understanding of the Mother of Our Lord" (InterVarsity) by Tim Perry of Canada's Providence College.

McKnight wants Protestants to overcome past neglect by holding an annual "Honor Mary Day." Perry lays ground for a full-fledged "evangelical Mariology," borrowing that category from Catholic theology.

Christmas as such is no issue (except for liberals who deny the biblical report that Mary was a virgin when she miraculously conceived and gave birth). On other topics, McKnight says, "the Mary of the Bible has been hijacked by theological controversies." A rundown:

Protestants, who believe the Bible is Christianity's supreme authority, think some Mary traditions go beyond what Scripture says or violate its teachings. The harshest polemics say popular devotion to Mary overshadows Jesus and constitutes heresy, blasphemy or idolatry.

One very troublesome tenet, the Immaculate Conception, means that God forever freed Mary from original sin. In 1854, the papacy made this a mandatory "doctrine revealed by God." The Catholic catechism affirms that "Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long."

Belief in Mary's unique sanctity underlies the papacy's required dogma of the Assumption (1950), meaning Mary was taken bodily into heaven upon death.

Protestants say Catholicism contradicts the Bible's teaching that "all have sinned" (Romans 3:23), Mary included, and that Jesus is the lone exception, "tempted as we are, yet without sinning" (Hebrews 4:15).

Perry says Mary was at least misguided because she joined doubters who tried to physically restrain Jesus and thought "he is beside himself," that is, crazy (Mark 3:21-35). Yet Mary eventually accepted Jesus' vocation and became one of Christianity's 120 founders (Acts 1:12-15).

Speculations about the beginning and end of Mary's life are unnecessary when the Bible is "utterly silent," Perry thinks. He esteems Mary not as the model of perfection above human limitations but of persistence in faith.

Is it proper to pray to Mary and other saints in heaven? Perry sees some biblical basis, since in this life believers ask each other for prayers. He proposes that both this practice and its rejection be recognized as "authentic forms of Christian witness."

From early times, Christians taught Mary's perpetual virginity, meaning she and Joseph never had marital relations. Protestants disagree because Matthew 1:25 says Joseph "knew her not until" Jesus' birth and passages including Mark 6:3 mention Jesus' "brothers" and "sisters."

Catholics think these weren't siblings but cousins. Perry rules that out but says they could have been stepchildren from a prior marriage of Joseph, as the Orthodox believe. However, he thinks this belief caused "regrettable" denigration of sexuality.

Fortunately for interchurch relations, Catholicism has never officially proclaimed Mary's popular titles of mediator and co-redeemer with Christ. Perry says that however such terms are used, Jesus' uniqueness as the only savior must never be compromised.