Ernest Lussier, S.S.S. SCRIPTURE SURVEY Ill
Mariology Post- Vatican II Is Mariology a dead issue among contemporary theologians? The author, a New Testament scholar, reviews some of the most important dimensions of this question . .
It is being said that Mariology is a casualty of Post-Vatican II' renewal. The truth, to put it briefly, seems to be that there is now a refusal to multiply devotional practices and that the need is felt to unify piety and the spiritual life. Some experts claim the existence of a crisis which apparently is hardly felt on the popular level. Marian shrines are still popular and tons of candles are still being burned. There are, however, some manifestations of second thoughts among educated Christians, the clergy, seminarians, religious: the month of Mary practices have all but disappeared; public recitation of the rosary has now little appeal to the younger people; .most religious have replaced the little office of the Blessed Virgin by the breviary proper. And the problem is not only with the external elements of the devotion. Some are wondering whether Marian devotion is not secondary or even accessory in Christianism, if not actually superfluous and to a certsin extent artificial. 73