The Image of Mary — II

RECENT BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP has raised the question of the gap between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. The gospels themselves were not intended to be historical biographies; they were written to proclaim the faith of the early Christians in the Risen Jesus and represent the end product of years of preaching, reflection and interpretation. Still, in spite of the difficulties involved, biblical scholars have been able to move from the Christ of faith back through the levels and that therefore symbolism, not history, is the key to Mariology. The Catholic scholar Raymond Brown has examined Pannenberg' s argument and found himself in agreement with it. And a collaborative assessment by Catholic and Protestant scholars, Mary in the New Testament, sponsored by the Lutheran-Catholic dialogue in the United States, has resulted in very similar conclusions. Briefly, the scholars involved in the Lutheran Catholic study on Mary offer the following arguments.