Mariology at the Beginning of the Third Millennium

Wagner, Naumann

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781532601446
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Marianische Theologie

Since the Second Vatican Council the place of Mary in theology and generally in the life of the Church has been at times muted. This is perhaps understandable given the debates concerning Mary's "place" in the documents of Vatican II. In an ecumenical age, it was argued, the church needed a less triumphalist Mariology and piety with a greater focus on Mary as model disciple. In certain respects this has led to a dichotomy between the continued Marian piety of many faithful (and, truth be told, the piety of the post-conciliar popes) and a theological timidity concerning Mary.This collection of chapters seeks to address the current situation of Mariology. Taken as a whole these chapters represent a welcome call for renewal and reawakening in Mariology. The collection is also delightfully eclectic, both in terms of topics covered and in terms of the denominational and academic backgrounds of the authors.

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Mariology at the Beginning of the Third Millennium

—M. Isabell Naumann ISSM

According to the document The Virgin Mary in Intellectual and Spiritual Formation, “the dignity and importance of Mariology . . . derive from the dignity and importance of Christology, from the value of ecclesiology and pneumatology, from the meaning of supernatural anthropology and from eschatology: Mariology is closely connected with these tracts” (22). The Second Vatican Council marked a turning point in the Church’s approach to her own identity and mission, which consequently affected Marian theology and spirituality. What emerged from the conciliar discussion and from post-conciliar magisterial documents, in particular from the writings of the recent popes, suggests a balanced approach toward a more integrated Mariology. Mary represents in a tangible and personal form the Church’s own identity, activity, and goal. This more integrated picture of Mary and the Church has raised and opened up many issues, which necessarily involve further investigation and development. Contemporary Marian studies—enriched by a biblical rediscovery of Mary’s unique role—reflect upon hermeneutical-cultural, anthropological-historical, Mariological-ecclesiological, ecumenical and related aspects.

Mariology at the Beginning of the Third Millennium

Where do Mariology, Marian studies, and Marian devotion stand in contemporary culture and climate? Why are Mary, the Mother of God, and the Church’s teaching about her largely considered irrelevant and often reduced to what, for example, Barth referred to as an “excrescence, a diseased construct of theological thought”1 (within the Catholic Church). In fact, why is there no mention or merely an inconsequential reference to Mary or Marian studies in tertiary religious studies curricula, contemporary theological publications, and related studies?

In part it might be due to the prevailing concept of scientific theology which is unable to tolerate any Marian reference in what is classed as theology’s legitimate parameter. And regrettably, so an eminent contemporary scholar says, “evolving in scholastic categories for too long and sometimes with the self-deceptive ambition of acting scientifically, Mariology may have unwittingly contributed to its own demise in the eyes of representatives of other theological disciplines.”2

Furthermore, within the ecumenical context,3 for fear of theological misunderstanding, Mary and Marian studies are frequently considered as a point of contention and hindrance, or Mary is relegated to a persona insignificante in theological discourse as such.4

Another reason why Marian theology is often shunned in academic circles is the perception of it as being nothing more than popular religious fervor and devotions, growing out of an emotional and irrational desire for ritual observances and sentimental practices. More devotional than spiritual, its theological grounding seems rather weak and inadequate, and hence all that sounds somehow “Marian” is consigned to a level of superficial popular piety, good enough to placate the religious conscience of the masses.5

And finally there are those who, out of existential and gender related reasons, see Mary either as a patriarchal construct or as an impossible ideal to reach out to. Her portrayal is over-laden with reminiscences of an era when Mary was presented as the exalted and remote heavenly queen who, at the same time, served as a demanding and overbearing model of moral perfection.6 Being faced with such a highly elevated model, human beings, struggling with the consequences of original sin within one’s own and other’s frailty, and the social fragmentation of human life, resent Mary as an oppressive figurehead of an unattainable ideal, rather than embrace her as a loving mother, sister, and companion.7

Having indicated several negative facets of contemporary Mariology, there are at the same time positive signs, a strong re-discovery of Mary,8 for example, within the younger generation, in newly established Associations of Apostolic life, and in the so called ecclesial movements which—founded in the...