A Feminist Companion to Mariology

Description

The twelve essays in this volume explore, through various approaches, not only the biblical portraits of Mary but also both "the quest for the historical Mary" and the understandings of those portraits through the centuries. Valerie Abrahamsen, Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, John Dominic Crossan, Mary F. Foskett, Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Deirdre Good, Jorunn Okland, Jane Schaberg, George H. Tavard, John van den Hengel, Pieter W. van der Horst, and George T. Zervos offer contributions that address such topics as the understandings of sexuality, the divine feminine, soteriology, first-century social history, christology, Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox hermeneutics, ecumenical and interfaith relations, and the meaning of "virginity." Volume 10 of the Feminist Companions to the Bible Series

Amy-Jill Levine is the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies, Vanderbilt University Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion, and director of the Carpenter Program in religion, gender and sexuality in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Maria Mayo Robbins is a doctoral candidate in religious studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

"Together the essays provide a comprehensive analysis of Mary in history, Scripture, the Protoevangelium of James, traditional Mariology, and later interpretation. Each is replete with insights and thought-provoking ideas, and the collection as a whole provides a fascinating yet highly readable discussion of the place and significance of Mary in Christian thought." Helen K. Bond JSNTS Booklist, 2007 -- Helen K. Bond This collection of 12 essays has a broad agenda covering sexuality, femininity, pneumatology, eschatology, histiry and hermeneuicss in the Marian Tradition. Schaberg's influential work merits a place in a collection such as this; and the esssay by John Dominic Crossan, "Virgin Mother or Bastard Child?", is an interesting critical response. For those with an interest in the biblical Mary, and in various feminist challenges to Mary's status in the Catholic tradtion, this is an informative book. -- Dr Tina Beattie * Church Times *