Mary: Glimpses of the Mother of Jesus

by Beverly Roberts Gaventa

One of the few Protestant women to write about the mother of Jesus, Beverly Roberts Gaventa takes a fresh approach to the figure who has fascinated Christians for twenty centuries and about whom we have such slender evidence. Rather than attempt to reconstruct Mary's life or assess her theological significance, Gaventa employs literary analysis to explore her varying characterizations in four early Christian narratives - Matthew, Luke-Acts, John, and the Protevangelium of James. Gaventa contends that each document offers a distinct portrait and that John's Mary is no more interchangeable with Luke's than a painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe is with an icon of the Queen of Heaven. Gaventa demonstrates that Matthew portrays Mary as the mother whose maternity poses a threat to the status quo and who is threatened by it in return. In contrast, she shows that Luke assigns three separate roles to Mary - disciple, prophet, and mother - and that it is in her role as the pondering, questioning mother that she enlivens the story. Gaventa reveals that the Johannine Mary serves to heighten awareness of Jesus' humanity and that the Mary of the Protevangelium is so pure she seems scarcely human. Without diminishing the individuality of these portrayals, Gaventa shows that each is colored by the dynamic of scandal that runs so powerfully through early Christian writings. She suggests that the scandal surrounding Jesus' conception in Matthew continues the history of scandal which punctuates God's relations with Israel; that the scandal threatening the Lukan Mary revolves around whether she will remain a disciple in spite of Jesus' perplexing behavior; that the theological scandal inherent in the incarnation of the Word subsumes the Johannine Mary; and that the Protevangelium responds to the scandal surrounding Mary's pregnancy by presenting her as the pure virgin of God.

Genres: Biblical Studies, Religion

164 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Jessie Wittman · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a necessary book for my Mary research! Gaventa strips symbolic and theological inquiry away a vision of Mary, and looks only at the literary. What exists is very spare, and very focused on Jesus (except for the Protoevangelium of James, which she covers alongside the Gospels). She focused on arguments on why certain lines of thought couldn't be applied to Mary simply from the bare literary context. Some of it made so much sense, other times it felt forced (for indeed, is the Bible only a literary text?). But overall I found this book immensely illuminating and has course-corrected much of my research and put me on a firmer path. I will continue to use some of Gaventa's methods and categories.

[Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very accessible summary of Mary's role in the gospels, Acts, and the Protoevangelium of James. The approach is to consider Mary as a literary character in each of the works and her purpose in the narratives. An enjoyable and enlightening book.

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gaventa offers a literary analysis of Mary in the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John, as well as the Protoevangelium of James. She makes the case that Mary reveals the scandal of the Gospel and is a model disciple.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was definitely one of the highlights of my entire first semester of grad school.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

The account of Mary, the Mother of Jesus is written from gospel taken from New Testament. I find myself struggling to review. The book begins with the thought that many "...have pondered the mystery of Mary..." which for me very true and the reason for reading this book. However the mystery is no more clear for me after the read, yet I feel I have a stronger hold of what I am looking for and perhaps where to turn for a few answers. This book is a good study point for a great historical mystery!

[Радостин Марчев]

Като цяло умерена, аргументирана и добре написана книга.