Mary, the Old Testament, and the Roman Catholic "Leap"
Why did the first steps of a reformed Mariology begin with the Scriptures rather than tradition?
Today's episode of Greystone Conversations is the second study in a series delivered in London called "Rescuing Mary from Rome: The Virgin in Scripture, Theology, and the Church." It is that time of year when many evangelicals and protestants have Mary very much on the mind, and so we thought it would be a good time to explore Mary and the Old Testament together. In this second lecture of five, the perhaps surprising observation is raised that Roman Catholic Mariology is rooted, not only in tradition, but also in a reading of the Bible--in particular, the reading of the familiar Marian passages in the gospels against the background of, and with a view to, the entire canon of Holy Scripture. In other words, many distinctively Mariological themes that we recognize as Roman Catholic draw not from the gospels exclusively and not from post-biblical tradition exclusively but from a variety of Old Testament figures, teachings, narratives, and themes that have long been recognized by Roman Catholics and Protestants alike as belonging to the gospel portraits of Mary.
This series aims to demonstrate not only that certain Roman Catholic Mariological themes are rooted in one way or another in legitimate Scriptural motifs, but that the legitimate connections between the Old Testament and Mary are in fact misused and distorted in Roman Catholic teaching, and that this happens by way of what is here called a leap: the leap from those legitimate connections that are there in the Bible between Mary and the Old Testament--a leap from those legitimate connections to the illegitimate Roman Catholic Mariological conclusions. This leap amounts, in short, to an ascription to Mary of what belongs, by way of Mary and other biblical figures, to the church or the eschatological kingdom of God. The Roman Catholic Church traditionally places this relationship in reverse so that the churchly and kingdom-figures found throughout scripture resolve in some way in Mary herself rather than the other way around in which the Biblical motifs that do converge in Mary give way to a greater convergence in the truth of the glorified and consummated church: the body of Jesus Christ, the motherly city-bride described as the kingdom of God in glory in the Book of Revelation.
A curious feature in all this--the story of Mary and the Old Testament--is that many evangelicals, wanting to reject Roman Catholic Mariology as strongly and as visibly as possible, tend to suspend the Old Testament hermeneutic that they are quite happy to deploy for many other topics and themes when it comes to Mary. For instance, many readers of the Bible argue quite strenuously for the Old Testament roots of infant baptism, church government, and certain aspects of the atonement all quite rightly. But they either deny or altogether overlook arguably stronger and more visible Old Testament roots for Mary's unique role in salvation-history. The fear appears to be that to recognize the Old Testament backdrop and deep roots for what the Bible says about Mary leads inevitably to Roman Catholicism. This series is designed to explain why that is not the case.
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