Should Mary be venerated by Protestants?

Should Mary be venerated by Protestants? That question frames the March 21, 2005 cover story for TIME magazine. David Van Biema has written an expansive and insightful report on contemporary developments among Protestants-- developments that may influence some evangelicals.

Van Biema begins by introducing Reverend Brian Maguire, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Xenia, Ohio. Pastor Maguire has decided to combine his church's Good Friday observance with a Marian Festival, calling this move "a beautiful, poetic opportunity." As Van Biema notes, this kind of attention to Mary, the mother of Jesus, would have been controversial just a few years ago.

Nevertheless, the situation has changed so much that TIME's cover carries this explanation: "Catholics have long revered her, but now Protestants are finding their own reasons to celebrate the mother of Jesus." What's going on here?

The TIME cover story is part of a larger phenomenon, with many mainline Protestants turning to a reconsideration of Mary and incorporating the veneration of Mary into personal devotions and corporate worship. Some are going so far as to acknowledge Mary as an intercessor, addressing prayers to her as well as to other saints.

The background of this includes the argument put forth by feminists that a male- oriented world of biblical scholarship has ignored the roles played by Mary and other women of the Bible. Going beyond this, some feminist scholars argue that the Bible is itself warped by a "patriarchal" bias that sublimates and hides the role of women. Added to all this is the doctrinal evacuation of many mainline Protestant denominations and the influence of New Age forms of spirituality, often packaged as a "do-it-yourself" mix of whatever elements appear to be most interesting.

In the world of biblical scholarship, much of the attention to Mary can be traced to Beverly Gaventa, Professor of New Testament Literature and Exegesis at Princeton Theological Seminary. In Mary: Glimpses of the Mother of Jesus, Gaventa argues that Protestants have missed much of the biblical teaching concerning Mary.

In Catholic devotion, and in official church teaching, Mary would later be declared to have been free from original sin by the miracle of "immaculate conception" [1854] and to have been assumed into heaven without experiencing bodily corruption [1950]. Beyond official Catholic teaching, Marian devotion has become a staple of Catholic piety around the world. Most Catholics pray to Mary, asking for her intercession before Christ. The famous "Hail, Mary" prayer of Catholic devotion is based first in Luke 1:28, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." The second part of that prayer, "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death," claims for Mary a role that is neither revealed in Scripture nor compatible with the unique role of Christ as Mediator.

Surprisingly enough, some Protestants now argue that believers should pray to Mary, and should request her intercession.

Robert W. Jenson, a theologian affiliated with the Center of Theological Inquiry at Princeton, New Jersey, argues that Protestants should feel free to pray to Mary and other saints. In his words, "There seems to be no reason why I cannot ask also a departed believer to pray for me. And if I can do it, there will certainly be contexts where I should do it." Jenson, a Lutheran, is fully aware that his proposal contradicts historic Lutheran teaching. As he told TIME, the pastor of his Lutheran youth would have been dismayed by this argument. "My pastor would have been horrified," he reported. "The pastor was my father."

In the final analysis, Jenson does not provide much of a theological argument in defense of his claim that believers should pray to Mary. In Mary, Mother of God, edited by Jenson along with Carl E. Braaten, several theologians offer reconsiderations of Mary's role in both theology and piety.

Inevitably, the background to all this is the Marian saturation of Roman Catholic devotion. Martin Luther, whose love and appreciation for Mary are well documented throughout his sermons and writings, eventually ceased to address prayers to Mary, believing that the practice was neither sustained by Scripture nor profitable for believers. As he advised fellow evangelical pastors at Erfurt in Germany: "I beseech in Christ that your preachers forbear entering upon questions concerning the saints in heaven and the deceased, and I ask you to turn the attention of people away from those matters."

Those who argue that Mary offers us a more compassionate understanding of God than is revealed in Jesus Christ alone insult both the person and work of Christ and accept the worst excesses of Catholic piety.

"Insofar as Evangelicals may have marginalized Mary's presentation in the Bible, it needs to be recovered. But the closer I look at the New Testament, the more convinced I am that it does not single her out for the kind of attention that is being proposed. We have not missed the point about her. To construct a new role for her is simply overreaching." Van Biema explained that "Mohler's judgment may sound blunt, but his questions are legitimate Protestant ones. The point at which Marian respect turns into Marian veneration is more easily parsed by theoreticians than by believers trying to work out its practice."

The TIME cover story is a prime example of a serious theological issue treated with respect and fairness. In the final analysis, evangelical Christians should gladly affirm every truth about Mary revealed in the Scripture, gladly receiving her as a model of piety, devotion, and faithfulness. Nevertheless, Mary is not presented as sinless, and her faith at times is clearly tested by the circumstances of Jesus' life and the content of his teaching. Yet, it is Mary who was the obedient young virgin in whom Jesus Christ was conceived, and it is she who was the faithful mother who stood at the foot of the cross until the end. But, affirming all that the Scripture reveals about Mary, we must take care to go not even one step further.

In the end, perhaps the most important lesson we can learn from Mary is found in the instructions she gave to the disciples of Jesus at the wedding of Cana in Galilee, at which Jesus performed His first miracle: "Whatever He says to you, do it." Take it from Mary