Los rostros bíblicos de María: Exégesis y hermenéutica bíblica feminista by Mercedes Navarro Puerto

Abstract

Reviewed by: Los rostros bíblicos de María: Exégesis y hermenéutica bíblica feminista by Mercedes Navarro Puerto Barbara E. Reid mercedes navarro puerto, Los rostros bíblicos de María: Exégesis y hermenéutica bíblica feminista (Estudios Bíblicos; Estella: Verbo Divino, 2020). Pp. 335. Paper €32. This splendid book is the fruit of decades of study by Mercedes Navarro Puerto, beginning with her studies at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, which resulted in her first publication, María, la mujer: Ensayo psicológico-bíblico (Madrid: Ediciones Claretianas, 1989). This new book aims to give coherence and systematization to the work that has been done in the intervening decades, offering perspectives on Mary that are liberative. Navarro Puerto's method is primarily narrative, while also incorporating the fruits of historical criticism and other newer methods. Her hermeneutical lenses are feminist and psychological. The latter approach is important in that cognitive psychology now recognizes the critical role that narrative plays in the organization of the mind and the ways in which we process reality and construct identity and social interaction. The ways we construct the narrative about Mary are as important, N.P. argues, as how we tell the story of Jesus. N.P. notes that the Mary that most Christians construct is based on cultural memory and a composite of brief mentions of her in the Gospels. Thus, N.P. examines carefully each reference and allusion to Mary in the NT texts, showing quite distinct portraits that emerge. [End Page 504] She pays attention to both the cultural context from which the texts emerge and that into which the texts are inserted now. Throughout, she urges her readers to resist portraits of Mary that serve to advance patriarchy and sexism. Part 1 treats the Gospel of Mark and is titled "Socio-Familiar Ruptures and Transformations." At the outset, Mary is grouped with family members, characterized as mother and the one who heads the family delegation to confront her son (3:31). As Jesus redefines his family (3:33–35), mother is situated with brothers and sisters in a community of equal relations. Mother is no longer defined biologically but is a vocation defined in relation to followers of Jesus. Reading "Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses" in 15:40 and "Mary, the mother of James" in 16:1 as Jesus's mother (in light of 6:3), N.P. sees Mary as having made the choice for discipleship. Part 2 is devoted to Matthew: "At the Crossroads of Life." N.P. gives the bulk of her attention to the infancy narratives. From the genealogy, the reader sees Mary as one in a long line of women whose refusal to remain victimized calls attention the divine presence in the history of God's people, a presence that is not limited by patriarchal structures. The genealogy has an anticipatory function, preparing the reader for categories of discipleship proposed by Jesus that distances his group from familiar structures. Going forward from chap. 2, Matthew orients the characterization of Mary in relation to her son. She is mother above all. As in Mark, Mary moves from being identified as mother to becoming a disciple. The "other Mary" in 28:1 is Jesus's mother, identified as "Mary the mother of James and Joseph" who witnessed the crucifixion (27:56), and the "other Mary" who saw where the body was laid (27:61). In the third part, N.P. treats the works of Luke: "Lights and Shadows of a Woman." Like other feminist scholars, she sees Luke 1:26–38 as both an annunciation of birth and a call story to a prophetic vocation, as exemplified in 1:39–56. Mary's role as interpreter is underscored in 2:19, 51. As one who hears the word and puts it into practice, she moves, as in the other Synoptic Gospels, from mother to disciple. Located in the center of the disciples at Pentecost (Acts 1:14), Mary holds the living memory of Israel, the memory of Jesus, as his mother, and the memory of his new family of followers, for whom she exemplifies...