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The Story of Mary: Luke's Version
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2024
Extract
Mary’s role in the first chapter of St Luke’s Gospel is integral to the author’s overall design, introducing his major themes of Christian discipleship and social justice. This chapter, which forms part of Luke’s infancy narrative, has been neglected by many modem biblical scholars. On the one hand historical critics have relegated it to the realm of ‘secondary source material’. On the other hand it has not readily attracted the serious attention of new hermeneutical schools that have arisen in the area of biblical studies, in particular feminist theology. Perhaps this is because one of the main characters featured in these chapters is Mary, the mother of Christ, who is a figure radical feminists tend to dismiss rather than use as a role model. One notable exception to the body of feminists who have rejected the figure of Mary is Rosemary Ruether. She has demonstrated that devotion to Mary and allegiance to feminist ideals do not have to be mutually exclusive. Although the Church has concentrated on certain aspects of the Marian tradition which centralise Mary’s passivity and immaculate nature, these are not central themes in her portrayal in the New Testament. Like the Liberation theologians of the Third World, Ruether puts the biblical evidence at the heart of her argument and assesses the tradition of the Church in its light. She takes as her evidence Luke’s Gospel, where Mary is portrayed as a character with an active role to play in God’s plan for the salvation of the world. Here I shall extend Ruether’s insight into Luke’s portrayal of Mary to suggest that this character provides an important clue to understanding the purpose, unity and integrity of the Gospel itself.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © 1989 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers
References
1 One extreme example is Hans Conzelmann, still the most renowned historical critic of Luke's Gospel, who, although acknowledging that Lk. 1:5–2:52 may have formed part of the original, does not include it in his thesis regarding the theological structure of the Gospel; see The Theology of St Luke. ET, London, 1982 (1960), e.g. p. 18Google Scholar n. 1.
2 See e.g. Daly, Mary, Beyond Cod the Father, Boston, 1974, pp. 81–90Google Scholar.
3 See Sexbm and God‐Talk, Towards a Feminist Theology, London, 1983, pp. 152–158Google Scholar.
4 Trible, , God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality, Philadelphia, 1978, pp. 8–12Google Scholar.
5 See Zech. 13:2ff.
6 This parallelism is worked out in detail by J. A. Fitzmyer in The Gospel According to St Luke (1–IX), pp. 313–321, also his contribution to Mary in the New Testament, London, 1978Google Scholar, Raymond Brown et al eds, pp. 105–177.
7 This point is made, for example, by Rosemary Ruether in Mary–the Feminine Face of the Church, London, 1979, pp. 26–28; see also Boff, Leonardo, The Maternal Face of God, The Feminine and its Religious Expressions, New York, 1987, pp. 110–111Google Scholar.
8 This teaching occurs also in Lk. 14:11; cf Matt. 23:12.
9 See also, e.g., Ps. 89: 1–4, 29, 36; 132:12; Dan. 7:24.
10 Daube, The New Testament and Rabbinic Judaism, London, 1956, pp. 27–36.
11 Cf. Ps. 17:8, 57:1, 63:7, 91:1; Is. 25:4, 49:2; Jonah 4:5. salmawet‘the shadow of death’, is the puzzling exception that proves the rule.
12 E.g. Joel 2:28–29, quoted in Acts 2:17ff; Is. 44:3b.
13 E.g. Is. 11:2, 61:lf, quoted in Lk. 4:18–19; also 1 Enoch 62:2; Pss of Solomon 71:37ff.
14 Sexism and God‐Talk, p. 154.
15 Gen. 12: 1–4.
16 The best example of this theology in the Pauline epistles can be found in Rom. 5:12ff; 1 Cor. 15:20ff.
17 See, e.g., Rom. 4 where St Paul describes Abraham as one who was justified by his faith alone.
18 The account of Hannah's petition for a child, and her thanksgiving when her prayers are answered, is found in 1 Sam. 1:1–2:11.
19 See above p. 11.
20 Sexism and God‐Talk, p. 155.
21 In Memory of Her: A Feminist Reconstruction of Christian Origins, London, 1983, p. 316Google Scholar.
22 Ruether, Sexism and God‐Talk, p. 153.
23 The Gospel in Art by the Peasants of Solentiname, Philip, and Scharper, Sally (eds), Maryknoll NY, 1984, p. 8Google Scholar.