Reforming Mary: Changing Images of the Virgin Mary in Lutheran Sermons of the Sixteenth Century (review)

The Reformation wrought a major transformation in the role of the Virgin Mary in popular devotion. Protestant reformers rejected many aspects of late-medieval Marian piety, but they could not eliminate Mary entirely from the popular mind. To the extent that scholars have paid much attention to Protestant views of Mary, they have tended to focus on the leading figures, especially Luther and Zwingli, often with an eye to furthering Protestant-Catholic dialogue. Kreitzer expands the scope of this investigation by looking at the presentation of Mary in the sermon collections of over forty Lutheran pastors and theologians published between 1520–80.

The sermons Kreitzer examines fall under three headings: those on the major Marian festivals of the Annunciation, the Visitation, and the Purification of the Virgin (Candlemas) that were retained by the Lutherans; the Gospel texts on Jesus's presentation at the Temple and the wedding at Cana where Mary is an important figure; and the Christmas and passion narratives which focus on Christ but also mention Mary. Kreitzer identifies both continuities and changes in the sermons published over this sixty-year period. Luther and his followers endorsed Mary's title as the mother of God as a means of guaranteeing their Christological orthodoxy. Despite Luther's emphasis on Scripture alone, he and other first-generation reformers did not question extra-scriptural traditions such as Mary's perpetual virginity. Beginning with Melanchthon and becoming more noticeable by the end of the period, Kreitzer sees a greater willingness among Lutheran preachers to acknowledge Mary's ability to err and even to sin.

In other respects there was a clearer break with medieval tradition and greater consistency between Luther and his followers. Mary was removed from her position as Queen of Heaven and became instead an image of passivity. Rather than being held up as a "type" of the church, she was reduced to one of the many pious faithful who comprise the church. She was praised as an example to all of the Christian virtues of hope, love, and especially faith, and as an example to women in particular for her obedience, chastity, and humility. Mary emerges from the pages of this book as the model of submissive female behavior in a patriarchal society.

Kreitzer's study is clearly defined, sharply focused, and convincingly presented. It goes beyond the usual preoccupation with points of Mariology on which Catholics and Protestants disagree to look more holistically at what Lutheran pastors had to say about Mary. If it has a weakness, it is the concentration on the texts of the sermons and the relative neglect of their context. Kreitzer provides capsule biographies of the sermons' authors as an appendix, but one wonders if a more detailed analysis of the authors would have revealed more nuances in the view of Mary presented in the sermons. For instance, many of the authors were contemporaries of Luther and had been Catholic clergy before the Reformation. Were there any differences between those who were secular clergy and those from within religious orders? Kreitzer also indicates that there were generational differences among the preachers, particularly by pointing to the rise of a more critical attitude toward Mary during the 1570s, although the chronological limits of her study prevent her from pursuing this issue further. But even within her specified time limits, are there significant distinctions in the views of Mary between those who grew up before the Reformation and those born and educated after it?

Kreitzer acknowledges that these sermons are the production of a male and clerical elite, and hence cannot be understood as representing what the laity, both male and female, thought about Mary. Nevertheless, her study is valuable for moving beyond the preoccupation with Luther to show how other Protestant preachers tried to reshape the popular image of a...