The Virgin of Guadalupe: Theological Refections of an Anglo-Lutheran Liturgist (review)

Surely one of the most coveted testimonials that any author could hope to see in print would be the simple statement, "This is an absolutely unique book." Dr. Maxwell E. Johnson is assured of that accolade in this case because his work is, literally, the only major theological reflection on the Virgin of Guadalupe by a liturgist of the reform tradition. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, Johnson's book is the only serious contemporary liturgical study on Guadalupe. Period.

Given the growing, ever-more-influential Latino presence in the United States, there is certainly no need to justify another study of the most visible and familiar of Hispanic religious devotions in the United States: devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe of Mexico. Yet, while devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe has traditionally been seen primarily as a Roman Catholic matter, the fact that increasing numbers of Latinos are now found among the Protestant churches indicates the importance of addressing the question of what role Mary of Guadalupe might play in the theology and liturgical life of those same Protestant Hispanics and their churches. The question is neither contrived nor hypothetical; a serious study of that question has been long overdue. Johnson's book is the serious study that we have been awaiting.

It is important to locate Johnson's work squarely within the context of current Guadalupan theological scholarship; it is not another one of the many devotional books on Guadalupe that have been appearing with surprising frequency in the past decade or so. The work is also a rather extensive one and it would be a mistake to consider it of interest only to the narrow readership whose attention might be caught by the work's seemingly restrictive subtitle: "Theological Reflections of an Anglo-Lutheran Liturgist." Even readers with little more than a passing familiarity with the Guadalupan event (the narrative of the apparition, the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe and subsequent theological, spiritual or social reflections) will find that The Virgin of Guadalupe serves them well as a kind of vademecum on Guadalupe.

For example, Johnson's first chapter, which concludes by highlighting some of the more salient indigenous iconographical details of the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and reproduces the complete text of the classic Guadalupe apparation narrative, called in its indigenous Nahuatl or Aztec the "Nican Mopohua." The inclusion of the entire text of the "Guadalupan Gospel" is an excellent resource for readers and goes a long way toward addressing the issue of some readers' relative unfamiliarity with the Guadalupan happening. Johnson thoughtfully selects a well-received and eminently readable translation of the "Nican Mopohua" for his readers, using the text from his friend and colleague Virgilio Elizondo's recent book, Guadalupe: Mother of the New Creation (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1997).

Elizondo, a friend and colleague of this reviewer as well, is universally recognized and revered among theologians as the pre-eminent contemporary North American Guadalupan scholar and popularizer. Johnson's own text is enriched with many lengthy quotations from Elizondo's extensive writings, a sort of "two-for-the price-of-one." However, I did find myself wondering as I read his text if a methodological strategy of "more Johnson / less Elizondo" might not have produced a book even more uniquely Max's. I say that for two reasons: one, because I would really like to read as much of Johnson's own writing as possible. And two, because of a concern that the extensive inclusion of quotations and opinions from any particular author runs the risk of over-dependence, not so much on a single author, as on a single school of thought. Guadalupan studies are particularly rife with schools of thought and partisanship, and that is particularly the case with...