The twelve essays in this volume explore, through various approaches, not only the biblical portraits of Mary but also both 'the quest for the historical Mary' and the understandings of those portraits through the centuries. The expert contributors address such topics as the understandings of sexuality, the divine feminine, soteriology, first-century social history, christology, Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox hermeneutics, ecumenical and interfaith relations, and the meaning of 'virginity'. This is Volume 10 of the Feminist Companions to the New Testament & Early Christian Literature series.

"This collection of 12 essays has a broad agenda covering sexuality, femininity, pneumatology, eschatology, histiry and hermeneuicss in the Marian Tradition.   Schaberg's influential work merits a place in a collection such as this; and the esssay by John Dominic Crossan, "Virgin Mother or Bastard Child?", is an interesting critical response.   For those with an interest in the biblical Mary, and in various feminist challenges to Mary's status in the Catholic tradtion, this is an informative book." - Church Times