Abstract
The Theotokos Lecture is an endowed lecture of the Department of Theology in Marquette University. Starting in 2008, this handsome publication gathers together the first ten lectures in what promises to become an important benchmark in Mariology. Jame Schaefer in his informative introduction to this volume notes that the purpose of the lecture is to ‘demonstrate the faculty’s service to the Church and witness to the world under the patronage of Mary, Mother of the Church and Queen of Peace’ (p. 7). While the original endowment did not require that ‘all lectures focus on Mary per se, many fruitful topics pertaining to her continued to emerge over the subsequent years’ (p. 7). This collection is a chance to evaluate this claim.
The lectures all focus on some aspect of the presence of Mary in the Christian mystery and the collection gathers together important contributions in an aspect of theology that is still, in some sense, trying to find where it is located in the theological project. The 2008 lecture entitled ‘Woman of Many Names’ was given by the distinguished patristic scholar, Brian E. Daley, in a wide ranging essay which takes its title from a homily on the Annunciation wrongly attributed to John of Damascus. Daley after a careful and extensive examination of devotion to Mary both in the Christian East and West, notes that ‘To glimpse Mary with the eyes of faith—to see her in the context of history that encounters the grace of God in space and time, and that comes to its fulfilment in Christ—is, for Christians of both East and West, to see the love of God’ (p. 50).
It is one of these historical moments that was the focus of the 2009 lecture, given by Maxwell E. Johnson and entitled ‘The Virgin of Guadalupe in Ecumenical Context: One Lutheran’s Perspective.’ This paper may well surprise many readers with its affirmation of Guadalupe which at first glance would appear to be at odds with Reformation belief or as Johnson concludes: ‘Does one simply say to Hispanic-Latino Christians, raised in a particular Catholic cultural context, but now increasingly present within various forms of Protestantism: “Throw out your images, stop lighting candles, dismantle the altarcitos in your homes, stop wearing medals, and stop reciting rosaries and novenas because Protestants don’t do those things?” If this approach, undoubtedly has been a characteristic of Latin American Protestantism in general, and one still vehemently supported by several Hispanic-Latino Protestants themselves, another approach must surely be possible in some Protestant circles’ (pp. 78–79). Johnson’s considered lecture aims to delineate another possible approach.
The 2010 lecture saw a return to a historical topic ‘Mary at the Cross, East and West: Maternal compassion and affective piety in the earliest life of the Virgin and the High Middle Ages.’ It was delivered by an authority on this topic, Professor Stephen Shoemaker. Beginning with the earliest life of the Virgin which has been attributed to Maximus the Confessor, Shoemaker traces the development of this theme in the Christian East and its appearance in the Christian West. He ably discusses the possible but by no means certain or established possible Eastern influences on these Western developments.
For the 2011 lecture Marquette turned to a noted systematic theologian Edward T Oakes (+2013). His lecture ‘Predestination, Sola Gratia and Mary’s Immaculate Conception: An ecumenical reading of a (still) Church dividing doctrine,’ faces head on the divisions among Christians and the Marian doctrines that are held by many to be a stumbling block ecumenism.
For 2012 the lecture was given by a distinguished Australian theologian and poet Kevin Hart. His lecture entitled ‘Contemplation and Concretion: Four Marian Lyrics,’ argues convincingly that when ‘… Mary is contemplated concretely in carols and other lyrics: her mysteries are offered to our wondering gaze, not just to meditative review’ (p. 177). The use of poetry, he suggests, deals with the changing relationship between the believer and the object of their belief.
In 2013 the lecture returned to systematic theology and the lecturer was the Notre Dame Professor, Francesca Aran Murphy. She chose as her topic a phrase in an apostolic exhortation of John Paul II, where he described Mary as ‘omnipotent by grace.’ Her lecture was thus entitled ‘Mary as “Omnipotent by Grace”: An Exposition.’ She states that the ‘lecture exposits no other claim than that Mary is “packing” graced omnipotence. It claims that ascribing graced omnipotence to Mary gives a human face to the otherwise impersonal notion of a common human good’ (p. 181).
Rachel Fulton Brown delivered the 2014 lecture with the intriguing title ‘Mary in the Scriptures: The Unexpurgated Tradition.’ As a medievalist she notes how the post-Enlightenment mode of reading Scripture is at odds with earlier Christian traditions of reading. She argues against the common affirmation that Mary is rarely spoken of in the Scriptures by returning to earlier exegetical traditions. ‘Quite bluntly, we—modern historically critical scholars as well as Christians for whom Mary has seemed either incidental or an embarrassment—need to consider the possibility that we may have been wrong in our reading of the Scriptures. We need to consider that it is we, not the medieval and early modern exegetes, who have been reading more according to our own interpretive agendas than according to the Spirit in which the Scriptures were originally written’ (p. 233).
The distinguished theologian Elizabeth A. Johnson was the choice to offer the 2015 lecture ‘“The Mighty from Their Thrones”: Interpreting Mary of Nazareth,’ which explores one answer to how we might understand Mary in our multicultural 21st century. Johnson states, ‘It proposes that we interpret Mary as a real historical woman who walked faithfully with God during her life’s journey and who now, joined to the church in the communion of saints, encourages people’s faithful discipleship in their own time and place’ (p. 237).
For the 2016 lecture Marquette turned to someone from a very different cultural context to previous years, when it invited the Brazilian theologian Maria Clara Lucchetti Bingemer. Her lecture is very much cast from a Latin American Perspective and is entitled ‘Mary of Nazareth: Disciple, Mother, and Symbol.’ She notes that Mary and devotion to her came with the conquerors and that domination remains in the Church and its practice. Devotion to Mary remains central and important to Latin American Roman Catholics today as this devotion became inculturated over the course of the centuries. Popular religiosity sees Mary as the one who understands poverty and suffering and who is also the one who offers hope in these immensely difficult situations. Much of this reflection comes from the members of Base Ecclesial Communities (BEC). The lecture concludes with a stimulating reflection on the role of Mary in the mystery of the Incarnation.
For the tenth anniversary of the lecture, the organizers turned to Dorian Llywelyn, from Santa Clara University, who entitled his lecture, ‘Mirror of Justice, Mother of Mercy: Devotion and Theology in a Renewed Mariology.’ After tracing the development of Mariology and its virtual collapse in the academy after Vatican II, Llywelyn moves onto reflect on popular piety. He concludes his lecture in an interesting way calling for various approaches to be held in tension and noting they are rooted in the very fibers of believing: ‘Upon reflection, the christotypical Mother of Mercy of maximalist devotion and the ecclesiotypical Mariam of Nazareth, singer of God’s justice, championed in liberationist proposals—reflect then ultimately not the differences between popular veneration and academic theology, between devotion and scripture, between cultural and socioeconomic consideration, or even between experience and the reflection upon experience. Rather they are based on differing kinds of lived religion and different understandings of that experience. Each is associated with a particular scriptural hermeneutics, a preferred range of biblical texts, diverse historical and cultural backgrounds, and different spiritual ecologies that include relative weightings of ecumenical considerations and anthropological emphases’ (p. 312).
I enjoyed reading these ten lectures; not all of them will I return to for further reflection but each of them offer an insight and a perspective of where reflection on Mary, the Mother of Jesus is today in the English speaking northern hemisphere. In the next ten years one would hope that other contexts, both contemporary and in the past, could be explored. Topics till now not explored—liturgy, music, and the visual arts—surely have something to contribute to what is a fascinating exploration.