All generations shall call me blessed,” she correctly predicted in her famous song of prayer, the Magnificat (Luke 1:48). From late antiquity to the present, images of Mary during her miraculous pregnancy, cradling the infant Jesus, suffering at his death, praying at his Ascension, and being crowned heavenly queen have populated Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. Whether wandering the countryside of Poland or Costa Rica, you will find her there. Catholic doctrine acknowledges these diverse forms of popular piety toward the Virgin Mary, while also emphasizing that “true devotion consists neither in sterile or transitory affection, nor in a certain vain credulity” toward Marian traditions (Lumen gentium, Vatican II).
Humble images of Mary in roadside shrines are commonplace, but her story has always been “attractive to great artists” too, as Andrew Greeley explains in The Catholic Imagination: “The reason was that the stories and the lurking metaphors had enormous appeal to the human imagination. Once humankind recognized the Mary stories, they became irresistible.” Marian art has certainly been irresistible for “all generations” of the Catholic tradition. But in the course of writing my new book, How Catholics Encounter the Bible, I was forced to reckon with a vexing question for a biblical scholar: In what ways are these images of Mary biblical?
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