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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A very good analysis of the Biblical evidence for Mary's queenship, January 16, 2007
This review is from: Queen Mother: A Biblical Theology of Mary's Queenship (Letter & Spirit Project) (Paperback)
This re-publication of Dr. Sri's doctoral dissertation is a wonderful contribution to Mariology because it answers the Second Vatican Council's request that Sacred Scripture serve as the soul of theology (Cf. Dei Verbum).
We know well from Apostolic Tradition - as mediated by the Magisterium of the Catholic Church - that Mary was assumed into heaven to be coronated as queen. What Sri has done in this fine work is demonstrate how this dogma finds its source in the Kingdom tradition of Israel. He then goes on to show how several key New Testament passages draw from this same tradition when portraying Mary.
The scholar will discover an authentic addition to the wealth of knowledge in print regarding Mariology; the cleric will find a resource to enhance his Biblical homiletics; and the average layperson will uncover a beautiful foundation for his Marian spirituality. For all, the surprise of discovering the Old Testament foundations of Mary's ecclesial office is well worth the read. This enlightening presentation, I believe, will - as the book says in its closing chapter - advance the important work of ecumenism by demonstrating this essential Scriptural support for Mary in God's salvific plan.
With all of this praise, you may ask why I gave this book 4 instead of 5 stars? I believe Sri would have done better with a more thorough examination of the New Testament's allusions to Mary's queenship. For example, he fails to mention or examine Mary's statement: "All generations will call me blessed" in her Magnificat (Lk 1:48), which - as many have noted - seems to draw upon Psalm 45:18, the conext of which is a royal Davidic psalm that speaks of the King and Queen.
Also, Sri's examination of Elizabeth's response "How does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Lk 1:43) does not take into account Luke's continual allusion to content of the Books of Samuel, and the New Ark typology employed in the Visitation. He focuses upon "the mother of my Lord" as a form of declaration that Mary is the Gebirah, when he could have gone further and shown the correspondence between this exclamation and David's words: "How can the ark of the Lord come to me?" (2 Sm 6:9). I find this allusion to me much more tenable than a more abstract declaration of Mary as Gebirah. However, this point could lead to Mary's office as Gebirah if you take into account that in the ancient neighboring dynasties to Israel, the pagan Queen Mothers sat upon an ark that was carried in procession.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Important Contribution to a Biblical Mariology, October 5, 2006
This review is from: Queen Mother: A Biblical Theology of Mary's Queenship (Letter & Spirit Project) (Paperback)
I was quite prepared to like this book after only a brief look in the bookstore. The quotes from the well-known Marian theologians on the back were impressive:
Fr. Roten from the International Marian Research Institute wrote
"Sri's scriptural examination of Mary's queenship in light of
the Davidic kingdom tradition is a welcome antidote against
frequent unidimensional historical reductions of Mary's person
and role. Mary is not a shadowy figure frozen in the distant past
but the 'eschatological icon' of salvationhistory."
Dr. Mark Miravalle adds "The biblical queen-mother tradition is
of paramount importance for our contamporary understanding of Our
Lady's dynamic role of spiritual queen and advocate for all humanity.
Edward Sri offers an outstanding synthesis of this Gebirah or 'Great
Lady' biblical tradition."
Perhaps most intriguing was Dr. Scott Hahn's statement in the
Foreword that Sri's study is important not just for Mariology but
as a model for all biblical Theology. He writes, "An approach like
this provides theologians with superior interpretive and explanatory
power and has potential to heal historic divisions between scholars
and the Church, between the academy and the seminary, and among the
various separated Christian bodies...When we read the Bible in this
way, we find no tension between letter and spirit -- between literary
and historical study of scripture and faithful contemplation of its
religious and spiritual meaning."
The book turned out to be even better than I was expecting. This is not a book of Catholic apologetics. It is also not a book about Marian spirituality or devotion. Nonetheless it will both strengthen your faith and deepen your devotion.
Dr. Sri carefully and systematically lays out the scriptural roots of the Queenship of Mary in the queen-mother tradition of the Old Testament Davidic Kingdom. He then shows how the New Testament draws on those themes and applies them to Jesus, the royal son of David, and to His mother, Mary.
This book is scholarly but still accessible to non-scholars. My one difficulty was that he used endnotes instead of footnotes. There is so much good material in the notes (and there are over 50 pages of notes) but you have to keep flipping back and forth to follow it. I ended up just reading with my finger in the the proper notes pages and keeping two bookmarks in the book when I put it down; it's not too bad once you get used to it but footnotes would have been convenient.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Getting to know Mary as Queen Mother, June 27, 2010
This review is from: Queen Mother: A Biblical Theology of Mary's Queenship (Letter & Spirit Project) (Paperback)
Edward Sri's Queen Mother is part of the Letter & Spirit Project run by the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology (founded by Scott Hahn). Thus, it focuses almost exclusively on the Sacred Scriptures. Though there have been criticisms regarding the lack of recourse to Sacred Tradition, I don't think this is ultimately detrimental, nor am I surprised since the goal of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology is biblical theology (hence the name). It does not deny or negate the importance of evidence from Sacred Tradition, or the Magisterium, but simply seeks to draw out a deeper understanding of the biblical evidence of certain themes and doctrines of the Catholic faith.
Dr. Sri's book is an examination of the Theology of the Queenship of Mary from a solidly biblical perspective. This theology of Mary's Queenship is important as it explains and identifies her role as Queen of Heaven and Advocate. Mary's role in God's plan of Salvation was not limited to her earthly life, and this book provides biblical evidence for Mary's role in Heaven. She is the prime intercessor to her Son, the King of Heaven, and the spiritual Mother of the Church.
The book is divided into four parts: an introduction, evidence from the Old Testament, evidence from the New Testament, and then summary conclusions. It is a relatively small book, only about 100 pages, but the back half of the book is filled with copious notes, references, and a great bibliography for those inclined to deeper study of Marian doctrines.
I think Dr. Sri's book will also be of value to those practicing apologetics. The Marian doctrines of the Church, and especially the acknowledging of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Mother of the Church, have always been a concern of Protestants. Dr. Sri's Queen Mother presents a biblical view of Mary that should provide an excellent response for apologists defending the biblical view of Mary.
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