Old Stuff

Cardinal Ratzinger on proof-texting the Marian dogmas

Proof-texting, typology and the unity of the Old and New Testaments, from his 1977 book Daughter Zion:

In essence the beatitudes only offer variations of the Magnificat's spiritual center: He ejects the mighty from their throne, he elevates the humble. The center of the Magnificat contains simultaneously the center of the biblical theology of the people of God. This insight illuminates the distinctive structures of the Marian dogmas. For if such is the case, the cannot be deduced from individual texts of the New Testament; instead they express the broad perspective embracing the unity of both Testaments. They can become visible only to a mode of perception that accepts this unity, i.e., within a perspective which comprehends and makes its own the "typological" interpretation, the corresponding echoes of God's single history in the diversity of various external histories.

These methodological insights shed light on the reasons for the suspicion against Mariology that has arisen in modern times, either inducing a rebellion against Mariology or driving it into a dangerous romanticism. Wherever the unity of the Old and New Testaments disintegrates, the place of a healthy Mariology is lost. Likewise this unity of the Testaments guarantees the integrity of the doctrines of creation and of grace. In modern times, however, the loss of typological exegesis (seeing the cohesion of the one history in the many histories) has actually led to the separation of the testaments, and by isolating the doctrine of grace it has at the same time increasingly threatened the doctrine of creation. In this respect one can note in passing how mariology serves as an indicator of the correct positioning of the christological accents.