not long after the devastation of World War II, the encyclical conveys the hope that meditation on Mary’s assumption will lead the faithful to a greater awareness of our common dignity as the human family. In the dogmatic statement, the phrase "having completed the course of her earthly life" was carefully written to leave open the question of whether or not Mary died before her Assumption, or whether, like the Assumption of the Prophet Elijah, Mary was assumed before death; both possibilities are allowed in the formulation. In articles 14, 17 and 20 of the dogmatic pronouncement, however, it is stated that Mary had indeed died: "the dead body of the Blessed Virgin Mary remained incorrupt, but ... she gained a triumph out of death, her heavenly glorification after the example of her only begotten Son, Jesus Christ." The entire decree (and the title itself) is also worded to suggest that Mary's Assumption was not in any sense a logical necessity, but rather a divine gift to Mary as Mother of God. teaches that Mary lived and completed her life as a shining example to the human race. The gift of her assumption is offered to all the faithful and signifies what to hope for at the end of time. Her assumption signifies God's intention to all the faithful. Non-Catholic opinion Paul Tillich asked fellow Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr in March 1950, about eight months before the decree was promulgated, if he expected the Pope to make the declaration about Mary's assumption . Niebuhr replied: "I don't think so; he is too clever for that; it would be a slap in the face of the whole modern world and it would be dangerous for the Roman Church to do that today". Among the Eastern Orthodox and miaphysite Copts, Armenians, Ethiopians, Eritreans, the doctrine of the Dormition of the Theotokos is different from the Assumption. Carl Jung, in the final chapters of his 1952 book Answer to Job, called the dogma "the most important religious event since the Reformation". He chastized its Protestant critics for overlooking its real psychological significance. Namely, Jung saw it as the manifestation of a culminating desire for completion in the Christian psyche; recognizing the feminine side of the divine would ease the inevitable incarnation of the Holy Ghost in humanity. See also Assumption of Mary Dormition of the Theotokos Papal infallibility Marian papal encyclicals and Apostolic