Customer Reviews

Queen Mother: A Biblical Theology of Mary's Queenship (Letter & Spirit Project)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Being a convert to Catholicism, there have been some hard pill to swallow. The Theotokos is one of those areas which gives our separated brethren the most reason to doubt our sincerity to Christ. This is the best book I have read on the subject of Mary and her place in the Bible. I recommend it as a gift to ANYBODY you know in RCIA or Confirmation prep.

Edward Sri presents this book as a study of the theology of the Queenship of Mary and a corrective to previous explanations of Mary's Queenship. His aim is to be solidly Catholic, ecumenical, and understandable. I think he achieves these goals and then some. He gives a thorough explanation of what was lacking in previous explanations of Mary's Queenship and then he sets forth his own explanation which is scripturally sound and consonant with Church tradition. My one frustration with this book had more to do with Sri's writing style rather than with the facts he presented. He repeatedly told the reader what he was going to say, said it and then told the reader that he had said it. Such a paradigm is useful for beginning writers, but it becomes overly tedious in a book such as this. Overall this is a good and useful book, as much for the presentation of its thesis as for its extensive footnotes and bibliography.

This review is not meant to be critical of the author as a person. I simply want to offer some points for critical consideration, that I feel need to be addressed for those who may use this book in a Catholic theology course. I will just narrow them down to 3 points.
First, Sri says on p.34-35, that the PBC(Pontifical Biblical Commission of 1993, which no longer enjoys the teaching office of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, unlike the ones that came before Vatican II)makes a distinction in the different ways that the "sensus plenior" can come to be known. This distinction that Sri is trying to insist on, is NOT a distinction that the PBC talks of when explaining how the "sensus plenior" can be assertained. Please see PBC document p.130-131. The PBC states this about the "sensus plenior", "Its existence in the biblical text comes to be known when one studies the text in light of other biblical texts which utilize it(meaning sacred scripture)OR in its relationship with the internal development of revelation." The later is called by the PBC p.131 "a genuine doctrinal Tradition."(sacred tradition) Notice how the PBC does not make a distinction on how to arrive at the "sensus plenior" as Sri is insisting. The PBC does not place one above the other, but rather side by side. The PBC has so worded it this way because the sacred deposit of Faith comes from 2 divine sources, sacred scripture and sacred tradition(see also Dei Verbum #9,10). Sri seems to suggest that the PBC deems less important on how sacred tradition or the Magisterium comes to the understanding of the sensus plenior, than sacred scripture. This is not true. It seems as though Sri has either unintentionally or intentionally, adopted this view that sacred tradition is of little value when it comes to biblical exegesis. A case in point is found specifically(& generally throughout the book) on p.54-58, where Sri speaks about the prophecy of Is.7:14. Sri is in agreement with the view of modern and rationalistic exegests, that the "almah" spoken of in Is.7:14 refers to the "wife" of King Ahaz and sees this prophecy has having a "double fulfillment with the successor to Ahaz bringing the prophecy to a partial fulfillment & Christ giving its ultimate fulfillment(p.58)." Sri also says, "Finally, we note that the extent to which this passage can be viewed as messianic prophecy is still debated(p.58)."
First of all, this view of "partial or double fulfillment" of this prophecy or that it was referring to the wife of King Ahaz, therefore his son, was defended in early times by Jews against Christians. Sts. Justin & Jerome, both refuted this view. Is.7:14 has been viewed by the Faith of the Catholic Church & the unanimous view of the exegetical tradition, that this text is to be understood as exclusively Messianic & Marian. Meaning that the debate is over as to whether it is messianic or not & it exclusively and literally refers to Jesus & Mary.
Let me make another note, the PBC itself gave this text of Is.7:14 as a prime example of how the "sensus plenior" can come to be known. It says, "when a subsequent biblical author attributes to an earlier biblical text, it takes it up in a context which confers upon it a new literal sense(p.130)." As an example of what the PBC means by this, it refers to the very text of Is.7:14. It says that the "almah" in Is.7:14 was taken up by St. Matt.1:24 & had given it the fuller meaning(sensus plenior). St. Matt. definitively gave the meaning of the word "almah" to mean virgin, because it was translated into the Septuagint as "parthenos". Therefore, the Gospel of St. Matt. then confered upon the text of Is.7:14 a NEW LITERAL MEANING. The word "almah" is to literally mean "virgin" in the strict sence & could not refer to the wife or the son of King Ahaz. If Sri had paid more attention to what the PBC said & to what sacred tradition had already solved, he would not still hold this view of "partial or double fulfillment" of Is.7:14. In addition, it would have given him a stronger case for the Church's Queen-Mother typology of Is.7:14.
Another note: Sri says on p.153 in footnote #113 that "While it is true that Vatican II was cautious on its use of Gen.3:15 as having Marian significance,..." This is just not true, nowhere in Vatican II Lumen Gentium, which has a section devoted to the Blessed Mother, are the Council Fathers cautious on giving Gen.3:15 "Marian significance". If they did do this they would have been going against sacred tradition & the dogmatic development of Marian dogma. The dogma on the Blessed Mother's Immaculate Conception, specifically referred to Gen.3:15 in Pope Pius IX bull Ineffabilis Deus.
Lastly, Sri agrees with the position that the "Woman" in Rev.12 refers primarily to "the community of believers, God's people of both the Old & New Covenants(p.96)." On p.103 Sri asserts the same statement but adds, "she also can be understood as the mother of Jesus, Mary, when the passage is read in light of the Gospel of John & the wider New Testament canon." It is unfortunate that Sri has not brought out the view of the "Woman" being Mary the physical person representing the Church as a mystical figure. This view has a strong support among prominent biblical-mariologist & this would have also given a stronger support for the Queen-Mother typology for Rev.12. For a more extensive treatment on this topic please see the great work of Fr. Stefano Manelli's book "All Generations Shall Call Me Blessed."
In conclusion, I did not see how the 3 criteria for interpretating scripture as expounded on in the Catechism of the Catholic Church #'s 112,113,114 was followed, as stated at the beginning of the book.