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To: metmom; rwa265
A couple points.

First, by calling her "mother of GOD" yes, the church is saying that she is the mother of GOD. Unless you are going to deny that the Father is God and the Holy Spirit is God, the title makes her the mother of them as well since the church uses the generic term of "God".

Second, by saying that she is the mother of the second person of the Trinity, that is saying that she is the mother of His Godhood, making Him a created being, with beginning. If that is the case, He is no longer GOD with us. He is merely another created being in intrinsic nature.

The title is wrong.

All that it implies is wrong.


Amen! A succinct statement of the core of the problem. It is simple linguistics. You can't put out an unqualified title of "God" without implying the full Trinitarian Godhead to the average Christian. So the title "Mother of God" is irretrievably defective. It implies too much, and expects too much theological sophistication of rank and file believers.  Even if some elite few claim they can parse it correctly under Nicaea and Chalcedon, it is 100% guaranteed to be misunderstood by the vast majority of those who will hear it.  And I am a witness to this misunderstanding directly in my own extended family, who understand it as a basis for promoting Mary to virtual deity status.  

And your second point is equally telling.  It is nearly the same linguistic problem, but applied specifically to the person of Jesus.  Motherhood to most people implies generation, not mere surrogacy.  The problem is that in Jesus we have both.  The divinity of Christ was never generated by Mary.  She is not the generative mother of God.  But from her humanity came Jesus' humanity.  Of that she was truly the mother in the generative sense.  But Jesus' humanity is not His deity.  He is one, unified person, true, but under Chalcedon, His two natures, while existing in one person, cannot be recklessly confused.  And that is precisely what "theotokus" ("mother/bearer of God") does.  It fails to make a necessary distinction between the two natures as to generation, and the very predictable result is confusion of the faithful.  Not good.

Which is why, as you say, the more robust approach is simply to use the language given to us by the Holy Spirit in Scripture, Who anticipated this challenge and provided us with a ready and safe means of dealing with it.  God's word is not just some random text over which we can debate.  It is a gift of God to us, given in love.  It's all there for our good, and will be a help to us in these matters, if we are willing to receive it as the gift of love it is.

Peace,

SR


686 posted on 04/22/2015 6:53:02 AM PDT by Springfield Reformer (Winston Churchill: No Peace Till Victory!)
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To: Springfield Reformer

You can’t put out an unqualified title of “God” without implying the full Trinitarian Godhead to the average Christian.


This statement does not show much confidence in the average Christian having a good understanding of the Trinity.


697 posted on 04/22/2015 7:31:20 AM PDT by rwa265
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