Mariology
As a protestant, I must say that I have never seen this word before - Mariology - and I am struggling with beginning the study of Mariology – How to start? Will my comments be relative? How can I help others and myself gain knowledge and understanding of Mariology?
On this website, we frequently deal with very intricate apologetical issues relating to Catholicism; the proper understanding of the Greek in the phrase "works of the law" used by St. Paul; specific rebuttals to accusations that Catholics believe the Virgin Mary died for our sins [my objection to this corrupt, fraudulent catholic view; a defense of the concept of Apostolic Succession against attacks that the teaching is contrary to St. Paul's complaints about disciples boasting that they are from Paul or Apollos. Sometimes the focus of our articles presupposes that our readership already possesses advanced knowledge of the points of dispute between Catholics and Protestants. Today, let us go back to basics and examine a very fundamental obstacle to Protestant reunion with the Church: the issue of Marian's devotion to Catholic spirituality. For many Protestants, every other Catholic teaching can be accepted with the proper education and the working of grace. However, aversion to the Catholic veneration of Mary is so firmly ingrained in Protestant Tradition as to be extremely difficult to overcome for some Protestants [myself included], even when they positively will join the Catholic Church. Objection to this doctrine:
1. It is not taught in the Bible.
2. Jesus did not teach it to the disciples.
3. Mary was not made to suffer for my sins or yours.
4. She is not identified as God's daughter [didn't God say, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"].
5. Mary did not return from the dead as Jesus did.
6. Jesus is recorded many times praying to His Father. He calls Him Father; Mary never addressed Him as "Father."
7. Mary did not tell anyone that their sins were forgiven, as Jesus did.
8. Mary is not said to have healed anyone. However, Jesus healed many.
9. Mary is never said to come from the Father as Jesus did;
10. While hanging on the Cross, Jesus instructed the Apostle John to care for Mary as he would his mother. Should He have asked the same thing of God?
I could give many examples of the objections to the doctrine of Mariology, but that is not necessary; instead, I will trust my future to Jesus, not Mary. He is my Savior! Lord!
It is impossible to treat every aspect of Mariology in an article like this; in many places, our treatment of the issue will be superficial and refer the reader to other sources. We will progress along the outline used in this article.
Does it say we are to offer "veneration" [Worship, Adoration, Reverence, honor, respect] to the Blessed Virgin Mary? She was a good and honored woman to be chosen as the earthly mother of Jesus. Understanding Marian's veneration depends largely upon understanding the doctrine of the Communion of Saints. The Communion of Saints is the truth that the Church exists in three states - the Church Militant, Church Suffering, and Church Triumphant encompassing those believers on earth, in purgatory [a purely Catholic concept], and in heaven that the Church remains one despite its existence in three states.
Therefore, all the members of the Church are capable of sharing in spiritual goods and graces. The fact of physical death is no barrier to this; just as Christ overcame death by His perfect love, so in Christ, death is no longer a barrier for the believer. We can pray for one another on this earth and in the Spirit, pray for those in purgatory, and solicit the prayers of those members of the Church already in heaven, whether they are saints or angels. The interrelationship of the Church in her three states is illustrated aptly in this picture:
St. Thomas Aquinas explains the doctrine this way:
"We must also know that not only the efficacy [effectiveness] of the Passion of Christ is communicated to us, but also the merits of His life; moreover, all the good that all the Saints have done is communicated to all who are in the state of grace because all are one: "I am a partaker of all them that fear Thee." [Ps 118: 63] Therefore, he who lives in charity participates in all the good that is done in the entire world; but more especially does he benefit for whom some good work is done; since one man certainly can satisfy another. Thus, through this communion, we receive two benefits. One is that the merits of Christ are communicated to all; the other is that the good of one is communicated to another."
An excellent introductory book that helps Protestants understand the Communion of Saints is Patrick Madrid's work Any Friend of God's is a Friend of Mine. However, it is easiest to see the Communion of Saints as the practical implications of Christ's teaching that the Church is one and that this oneness is the very oneness that the Son and the Father share (cf. John 17:21). Death cannot disrupt this oneness any more than death was able to keep Christ in the tomb.
Veneration and Adoration
When dealing with the distinct types of communication, the Church has between its three states; it is important to correct some terminology. When we petition for the intercession of the saints in heaven, we are venerating them. This is because our petition is, in a sense, a two-fold act: in the first place, we rejoice in what God's grace has fashioned in the saint and honor the saint for their virtues; second, by what God has made of that saint in grace, and by the union we have with them in the Communion of Saints, we ask their intercession for a particular intention. So members of the Church Militant (us on earth) can communicate in grace with the members of the Church Triumphant (those in heaven). We do not recognize them as the final source of our blessings but as a means to obtain graces from God. Furthermore, we understand that to the degree that they are authorized to answer our petitions, that in itself is a work of God's grace, that it is God Himself who has positioned them in that position of authority.
Therefore, the veneration is not total but relative. This relative veneration has gone by dulia (in Roman Catholic theology). The reverence accorded to saints and angels in Catholic Tradition is best defined as the reverence due to saints and angels. This is to be distinguished from the adoration which is due to God alone and which goes by the name latreia, which is best defined as an act of worship offered to God in acknowledgment of His supreme perfection and dominion and the creature's dependence upon Him. So the honor accorded a saint is different from the honor accorded to God in degree and kind.
Therefore, any reverenced, venerated, honored, or petitioned saint is done relative (dulia), while the honor due to God (latreia) is absolute.
The rationale of Marian Devotion: Divine Maternity
So it is a virtuous and praiseworthy thing for the members of the Church on earth to have recourse to the prayers of the saints in heaven and the graces obtained from there. Marian's consecration is nothing other than the same principle applied to one saint (the Blessed Virgin Mary) under her special relationship and intercessory power with God.
However, does the Blessed Virgin possess some particular relation and intercessory power before God different than any other saint or angel?
We will not debate the propriety of calling Mary "Mother of God." Catholic Tradition answers positively because her connection with Christ is fundamentally distinct from any other creature. While all believers are united to Christ in the Holy Spirit, Mary alone had an accord with Christ that was physical. She physically bore God the Son in her body for nine months, nourished Him at her breast, raised Him in her home, and remained with Him His entire life to the Cross. No other person had such close contact with our Lord as Mary did. Her relationship with Him was sincerely motherly, and since Christ was God the Son, truly is Mary called Mother of God.
Mary was titled the earthly mother of God the Son. Every other privilege the Church attributes to her flows from this fact of her Divine Motherhood and is merely an extrapolation of this important doctrine.
II. BIBLICAL BACKGROUND
Old Testament
This Divine Parenthood was not minor; it was something predetermined from the very beginning of salvation history. Let us recall God's original words to the serpent, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed; you shall strike his heel, but He shall crush your head" (Genesis 3:15). The hatred between the Woman and the Devil goes back to the beginning and the prophecy that the Seed of the Woman would mash the head of the Devil. Now, the Son of Eve did not crush the head of the Devil; this prophecy concerned a time far off, when the New Eve, Mary, would bear a Son who would crush the serpent's head without end.
This is also why in every story in the Old Testament, a woman defeats a stronger male aggressor; she does so by crushing his head - see here for more on this phenomenon. These woman-heroes are types of Mary, the Woman whose Seed destroys the head of the Devil.
Another critical insight into Mariology comes from the episode of Solomon and Bathsheba in 1 Kings 2. In this passage, Bathsheba, mother of Solomon, is established as Queen Mother of ancient Israel and has a throne set up for her at the right hand of the King (1 Ki. 2:19). This signifies Bathsheba taking on the formal office of Queen Mother in the kingdom of Solomon, for in ancient royal houses where a king may have had dozens, even hundreds of wives (like Solomon), the Queen was not the wife of the King but his mother. This office of Queen Mother is mentioned in many other places in the Old Testament (1 Ki. 15:13, 2 Chr. 15:16), and every time a king of Judah or Israel is cited in the Book of Chronicles, the sacred author takes care to point out who his mother was.
This is important because the Davidic Kingdom of ancient Israel was governed by a series of kings (sons of David) at whose right hand sat a Queen Mother. She was an essential person in the royal house and was seen as an intermediary with the King (1 Ki. 2:13-18). Now Christ is the true Son of David, the heir of the Kingdom of David. Even as the Davidic kingdom of old Israel had kings from the line of David and Queen Mothers in the royal household, the Messianic kingdom is ruled by the Son of David, who has the Queen Mother at his right hand.
This recognition of the Virgin Mary as the Queen Mother is well established in the Church's Tradition and liturgy and is the reason why Psalm 45 - "at your right-hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir" (v.9) - has always been read on the Feast of the Assumption.
Thus, the Old Testament is replete with types of the Blessed Virgin, both as the New Eve whose Seed will destroy the serpent and the Queen Mother who sits beside the throne of the Son of David. Both types shed light on the role of Mary in the New Covenant.
New Testament
An explanation of New Testament Mariology is probably beyond the scope of this article. However, it is sufficient to note two points for further study: (1) The implications of Mary's sinlessness from the angelic greeting in Luke 1 and (2) Mary's close connection with the Holy Spirit.
In Luke 1, Gabriel greets Mary with the phrase "Hail, full of grace," or in Greek, Chairo, Kecharitomene. This greeting signifies that Mary is superior to the angel and that she has been sharpened in the grace of God. This "fullness" of grace has always been understood in Catholic Tradition to mean that Mary is perfected in God's grace - i.e., that she is without any trace of sin and is exceptionally overflowing with God's grace. While it may not have been strictly necessary, this divine favor was fitting, seeing as Mary was the vessel that bore God the Son in her womb. Here we see a connection with the ceremonial of the Old Covenant: Just as it was appropriate that the Ark that carried the word of God on stone in the Old Testament should be covered with gold within and without, so it is fitting that the new Ark that conveyed the Word of God made flesh should be all pure within and without. Hence, the traditional teaching that Mary is entirely sinless, both of actual and original sin, what Catholics call Mary's privilege of being immaculately conceived.
Protestants will often argue that this was needless, as Christ could have been made perfect, divine and sinless without requiring an Immaculate Conception of Mary. The Church's Tradition argues in favor of the Immaculate Conception based not on necessity but fittingness. There will be more on the rationale for the Immaculate Conception and the concept of fittingness.
As we mentioned above, Mary's Immaculate Conception and her ensuing sinlessness are founded upon her Divine Maternity - her mission of being God Son's mother on this earth.
It is also worth noting that Mary is very thoroughly bound with the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. In Luke 1, the Incarnation is affected by the Holy Spirit. When Mary visits Elizabeth, it is the Holy Spirit that causes John the Baptist to leap in his mother's womb; on the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit is poured out upon the Church, animating it and causing it to become the Mystical Body of Christ, Mary is there among the Apostles. In short, the Holy Spirit shows up whenever Mary shows up. Being sinless and full of grace, she is in constant communion with God through the Spirit and perfectly mediates the Holy Spirit. Her union with the Trinity is profound, and therefore her intercession with God is powerful. This is why Tradition calls her "spouse of the Holy Spirit" and why her intercession is so powerful; in her perfect submission to God's will, she is the perfect daughter of God the Father; in her close union with the Spirit, she is correctly called His spouse; in bearing the Son of God, she is Mother of the Son: Daughter, Spouse, Mother.
III. DEVELOPMENTS IN THEOLOGY AND DEVOTIONS
The Four Marian Dogmas
As the ancient world gave way to the Middle Ages, the Church's Marian teaching corpus crystallized into the 'Four Marian Dogma's [Creeds]. These dogmas are Mary's Divine Maternity, her Immaculate Conception, her Perpetual Virginity, and her Assumption. The fact that two of these dogmas (Immaculate Conception and Assumption were not formally defined until relatively recently (1854 and 1950, respectively) is a source of confusion to many non-Catholics, who assume the definitions of the extraordinary papal Magisterium constitute the date the dogmas were "devised" or when they became part of Catholic teaching. As we have seen, these dogmas were all present in Catholic teaching for many centuries, sometimes back to the ante-Nicene period. They were all believed by all Christians throughout the Middle Ages. Before the definitions, there had been some discussion about whether these teachings were actual dogmas of the faith or specific theological thoughts - teachings whose authority is not part of divine Revelation but is bound up with divine Revelation. With the earnest definitions of 1854 and 1950, the popes decreed [not God] that the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption teachings belonged to the deposit of faith; i.e., they are part of divine Revelation and must be definitively held by all Catholics. [However, we must bear in mind that these dogmas are man-made, not God-made. There is no basis for accepting statements made by a pope or any man as if they are divine.]
Propriety of Marian Devotion
Marian's creed has been central to the development of Christianity. The Bible does not declare that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was always a virgin. However, it does say that she had other children with her husband, Joseph, who were not considered godlike. Thus, we see a smooth and continuous development of Mariology from the teachings of the Church Fathers on her purity and perpetual virginity through the Middle Ages and on into the modern period.
The Church has always encouraged Marian's devotion as proper to the Christian life. Moreover, following the principle lex orandi, lex credendi (the law of prayer is the law of faith), the development of Marian dogma spawned a vast and rich tradition of Marian piety. Thus, it is not sufficient to give assent to the Church's teachings on Mary if one cannot bring oneself to apply these teachings to one's own spiritual life and benefit from them.
Because of Mary's elite status, she has a unique intercessory power. There is no more powerful intercessor than Mary. In the knowledge of this, Christians have not hesitated to invoke her utilizing a rich variety of traditions: the Rosary, the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, May crownings, the Brown scapular, the Green scapular, the Miraculous Medal, the Perpetual Help devotions, and so on. We mentioned above that the devotion and veneration of the saints are referred to as dulia, while the adoration of God is called latreia. The veneration due to Mary as the greatest of all the saints and the most perfect of all God's creations is called hyperdulia, which both reaffirms that the veneration of Mary is ultimately the veneration of a creature, not God, as well as that the veneration of Mary is higher than that due to any other saint or angel by her unique position concerning God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. According to the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship, the Brown Scapular is "an external sign of the filial relationship established between the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother and Queen of Mount Carmel, and the faithful who entrust themselves totally to her protection, who have recourse to her maternal intercession, who are mindful of the primacy of the spiritual life and the need for prayer. [Proestatism will not accept this form of veneration.]
As recent papal Magisteriums [the teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church, especially as exercised by bishops or the Pope.] have emphasized, Mary's value as a role model could also be mentioned. In the manner in which she has perfect faith in God's promises despite the apparent impossibility of their fulfillment on a natural level, she perfectly embodies the faith of Abraham and is a model of Christian faith. In the manner in which she keeps God's word in her heart and ponders it (Luke 2:19), she is the model of contemplation; in her journey with Christ to the Cross, she models Christian suffering, for when we suffer, we do so with and in Christ our Lord, and in being taken into the home of the Beloved Disciple (John 19:26-27), we are shown that if we would be beloved disciples, we too, ought to take Mary into our home, for as to us as much as to St. John, our Lord says, "Behold, your mother!" Therefore, there is great propriety in devoting ourselves to Mary [not to Mary, but God and Jesus]. All saints recommend consecration to Mary as the surest way to holiness. [A purely Catholic belief]
THE GLORIFICATION OF MARY
St. Bernard of Clairvaux, one of the greatest theologians of the Middle Ages renowned for his love of the Blessed Mother, coined the phrase, De Maria Nunquam Satis, translated, "About Mary, one can never say enough." As the mysteries of her life and the graces given to her are wrapped up with the very Incarnation itself, it is impossible to exhaust the richness of her life and destiny. As the popes do and as the famous Marian Saint Louis de Montfort does, it is essential to acknowledge that Marian devotion is not an end in and of itself. Only God is worshiped for His own sake. Mary is venerated to bring us closer to Christ and make us more Christlike. One may question why one "needs" to go through Mary to get to Jesus; it can be retorted that one does not "need" to so much as one ought to and that this must be grounded in the larger context of the communion of saints to have a proper understanding of it. The saints and angels are means of grace to Mary and us in a good way. They do not stand between God and us; instead, they facilitate a perfect union between God by their intercession and us and among the members of the Church themselves.
A wide range of views on Mary exists at multiple levels of differentiation within distinct Christian belief systems. Over the centuries, Roman Catholic Mariology has been shaped by varying forces ranging from sensus fidelium [a papal letter sent to all bishops of the Roman Catholic Church.] to Marian spirits to the writings of the saints to reflection by theologians and papal encyclicals [a papal letter sent to all bishops of the Roman Catholic Church.]
Protestant views on Mary vary from denomination to denomination. They generally focus on interpretations of Mary in the Bible, the Apostles' Creed (which professes the Virgin Birth), and the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus, in 431, which called Mary the Mother of God. While some early Protestants created Marian art and allowed limited forms of Marian veneration, most Protestants today do not share the veneration of Mary practiced by Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox. Martin Luther's views on Mary, John Calvin's views on Mary, Karl Barth's views on Mary, and others have contributed to modern Protestant views. Anglican Marian theology varies greatly, from the Anglo-Catholic (very close to Roman Catholic) to the more Reformed views. The Anglican Church formally celebrates six Marian feasts, Annunciation (25 March), Visitation (31 May), Day of Saint Mary (Assumption or dormition) (15 August), Nativity of Mary (8 September), Our Lady of Walsingham (15 October) and Mary's Conception (8 December). Anglicans, along with other Protestants, teach the Marian dogmas of divine maternity and the virgin birth of Jesus. However, there is no systematic agreed-upon Mariology among the diverse parts of the Anglican Communion. However, the role of Mary as a mediator is accepted by some groups of modern Anglican theologians. Lutheran Mariology is informed by the Augsburg Confession and honors Mary as "the most blessed Mother of God, the most blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ," and "the Queen of Heaven." The Smalcald Articles, a confession of faith of the Lutheran Churches, affirm the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary.
The Oriental Orthodox Churches regard Mary as the highest of saints and the Theotokos [Mother of God (used in the Eastern Orthodox Church as a title of the Virgin Mary): "the love poured into the Theotokos to enable her to love so fully in her turn."]
It celebrates various Marian feast days.
The First Council of Ephesus in 431 formally approved devotion to Mary as Theotokos, which most accurately translated means God-bearer; its use implies that Jesus, to whom Mary gave birth, is God. Nestorians preferred Christotokos meaning "Christ-bearer" or "Mother of the Messiah," not because they denied Jesus' divinity, but because they believed that God the Son or Logos existed before time and before Mary and that Jesus took divinity from God the Father and humanity from his mother, so calling her "Mother of God" was confusing and potentially heretical. Others at the council believed that denying the Theotokos title would carry with it the implication that Jesus was not divine.
As an active theological discipline, Mariology has received a more significant amount of proper attention in Roman Catholic Mariology based on the four dogmas on Mary, which are a part of Roman Catholic theology. The Second Vatican Council documented Lumen gentium as the views on Roman Catholic Mariology, focusing on the veneration of the Mother of God. Over time, Roman Catholic Mariology has been expanded by contributions from Liberation Theology, which emphasizes popular Marian piety, and more recently from feminist theology, which stresses both the equality of women and gender differences.
Methodology
As a field of study, Mariology uses the sources, methods, and criteria of theology, beginning with the Marian reference in the Apostles' Creed. In Mariology, the question of scriptural basis is more accentuated. In Roman Catholic Mariology, the overall context of Catholic doctrines and other Church teachings is also considered. The Marian Chapter of the Vatican II document, Lumen gentium, includes twenty-six biblical references. They refer to the conception, birth, and childhood of Jesus, Mary's role in several events, and her presence at the foot of the Cross. Of importance to Mariological methodology is a specific Vatican II statement that these reports are not allegories with symbolic value but historical revelations, a point further emphasized by Pope Benedict XVI.
Christology
While Christology has been the subject of detailed study, some Marian views, particularly in Roman Catholic Mariology, see it as an essential basis for the study of Mary. Generally, Protestant denominations do not agree with this approach.
The concept that by being the "Mother of God," Mary has a unique role in salvation and redemption was contemplated and written about in the early Church. In recent centuries, Roman Catholic Mariology has come to be viewed as a logical and necessary consequence of Christology: Mary contributes to a fuller understanding of who Christ is and what he did. In these views, Mariology can be derived from the Christocentric mysteries of Incarnation: Jesus and Mary are Son and mother, redeemer and redeemed.
Moral theology
Some scholars do not see a direct relation of Mariology to moral theology. However, Pius X described Mary as the model of virtue, and a life free of sin, living a life that exemplifies many of the moral teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. As a result, Mary is often cited in this guise in pastoral theology and in sermons.
Mother of God
The dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium at the Second Vatican Council affirmed Mary as the Mother of God. "The Virgin Mary, who at the angel's message received the Word of God in her heart and her body and gave Life to the world, is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and Mother of the Redeemer."
Assumption of Mary
This dogma states that Mary was assumed into heaven with body and soul. The Catechism (item 966) states:
The Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things.
When responding to Pope Pius XII following the circulation of Deiparae Virginis Mariae, many Catholic bishops pointed to the Book of Genesis (3:15) as a scriptural basis. In Munificentissimus Deus (item 39), Pius XII referred to the "struggle against the infernal foe" as in Genesis 3:15 and to "complete victory over the sin and death" as in the Letters of Paul as a scriptural basis for the dogmatic definition, Mary being assumed into heaven also seems to verify 1 Corinthians 15:54: "Then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."
This dogma states that Mary was conceived without original sin. This means that from the first moment of her existence, she was preserved by God from the lack of sanctifying grace and that she was instead filled with divine grace.
Queen of Heaven
Many popes have given tribute to Mary in this regard; for example, Mary is the Queen of Heaven and Earth (Pius IX), Queen and Ruler of the Universe (Leo XIII), and Queen of the World (Pius XII). The theological and logical foundation of these titles rests in the dogma of Mary as the Mother of God. As the mother of God, she participates in his salvation plan. The Catholic faith teaches that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, reigns with a mother's solicitude over the entire world, just as she is crowned in heavenly blessedness with the glory of a Queen, as Pius XII wrote: Certainly, in the whole and strict meaning of the term, only Jesus Christ, the God-Man, is King; but Mary, too, as Mother of the divine Christ, as His associate in the redemption, in his struggle with His enemies and His final victory over them, has a share, though in a limited and analogous way, in His royal dignity. For from her union with Christ, she attains a radiant eminence transcending that of any other creature; from her union with Christ, she receives the royal right to dispose of the treasures of the Divine Redeemer's Kingdom; from her union with Christ finally is derived the inexhaustible efficacy of her maternal intercession before the Son and His Father.
In the writing of this article, I have not tried to refute all the tenants of Catholicism. An adage says, "those who are not against us are for us?" Catholics are our brothers and sisters in Christ, for they meet all the criteria, especially faith in Christ, that is necessary for Christians. There are a few places where I interject my opinion and that of the Protestant faith; however, the Protestant Church has some doctrines that I will not accept. I believe that I will meet many Catholics when I arrive in heaven. God bless all of you, for Christ's sake.
