Theotokos
Posted on 01/08/2006 5:27:18 PM PST by TexConfederate1861
A Protestant preacher recently said that devotion to the Mother of God is the cause of all bad in the world, since she was not a virgin after she gave birth to Christ and was just another woman. This really has upset me. Why do we worship the Virgin Mary and how do we answer those who say that she was nothing but another woman? What significance does she have for us Orthodox? (B.W., TX)
One cannot react to every opinion and idea about Christianity. At some point, common sense must prevail. In the first place, the idea that devotion to the Theotokos, or Bearer of God, is the cause of the world’s ills is a ridiculous proposition. One must look at such an idea with the same passivity that we show towards so-called scholarly attempt to prove that Christian devotion to the Virgin Mary derives from the pagan cult of the earth goddess. It does not deserve a response. Secondly, while non-Orthodox Christian denominations may differ with regard to their assessment of the significance of the Mother of God, this does not explain the views of those who would like to believe—an incredible, if not demonic thing—that a woman chosen by the God of the universe to bear His Incarnate Son would simply return, after this miraculous event, to the world of the flesh. If St. Paul praises the chaste life, if Christians are called to become eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom, and if, at least in the Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran Churches, monks and nuns are called to uphold the standard of virginity and purity,* how could any rational person suggest that the woman called to bear the Son of God would be exempt from such a pious commitment?
We will not, here, comment on the mistranslation and misuse of Scripture by which some heterodox try to claim that the Virgin Mary was a virgin only "up to the time" of the Virgin Birth and not after, or by which they rather naïvely understand the children of St. Joseph (the Virgin Mary’s step-children) and their cousins to be the literal "brothers and sisters" of Christ. The Fathers of the Church have written at length on these matters. Suffice it to say that ancient Christian tradition supported the idea that the Mother of God was ever-virgin, just as Church Fathers and Councils condemned heretics in the early Church who, like their counterparts today, questioned the spiritual eminence of the Theotokos.
As for the very eminence of the Mother of God, let us turn to Scripture. Going to the house of Zacharias, the Virgin Mary greeted his wife, Elizabeth. "Filled with the Holy Spirit," St. Elizabeth cried out, "Blessed art thou among women..." (St. Luke 1: 40-42). In response, the Theotokos observes that "...henceforth all generations shall call me blessed." It would, again, suggest a psychological or spiritual problem of no small dimensions for anyone to believe that, after these statements, the Virgin Mary would simply return to the life of the flesh and set aside her spiritual role in the salvation brought to mankind by Jesus Christ.
Finally, we Orthodox do not "worship" the Virgin Mary. We "venerate" her and show her great honor. Nor have we ever, like the Latins, developed the idea that the Theotokos was born without sin (the Roman Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception) or that she is a co-redemptor with Christ (the cult of the Redemtrix in the Latin Church). The consensus of the Church Fathers rejects such ideas, and the Orthodox Church adheres to that consensus. However, we do believe that the Virgin Mary is an image, as St. Maximos the Confessor says, of the Christian goal of becoming Christ-like, of theosis. Just as the Theotokos gave birth to Christ in a bodily way, so we must, St. Maximos tells us, give birth to Christ in an unbodily or spiritual way. In so doing, we imitate her practical spiritual life, including the purity and humility by which she formed her free will into perfect obedience to the Will of God. Of this practical image of the Virgin Mary, one of our readers, Archdeacon Basil Kuretich, D.D., has written some words that bear repeating here. They give us a clear picture of the importance of the model which she presents for every Orthodox believer:
"We...are aware of the part played by Divine Grace in the Virgin Mary’s life and are aware of the perfection of her virtue. However, we cannot lose sight of the importance of free will in the development and expression of her rich personality. After the Annunication, she kept the secret of God’s plan for her; she faced misunderstanding and accusation from others. She quickly visited her cousin, Elizabeth, not thinking of her own needs, but only the need of Elizabeth to share her joy. She endured the journey to Bethlehem; she humbly prepared for the birth of her Child and obediently accepted the command to flee into Egypt. The Virgin Mary, aided by Divine Grace, carried out these actions in a real world—with real effort and sacrifice. Thus she is for us a model of many virtues."
*Although they may be familiar with monasticism in the Latin Church, most Americans do not know that monastic brotherhoods and sisterhoods survived in the Lutheran and Reformed movements, despite the generally polemical attitude towards the monastic estate that marked the Protestant Reformation. Over the years they have decreased in number or have been absorbed into Roman Catholicism, as is the case in Sweden, where most of the Lutheran monastic houses have succumbed to the widespread proselytizing of German Jesuit missionaries in that country.
From the "Question and Answer" section of Orthodox Tradition, Vol. IX, No. 4, pp. 8-9. Originally titled "The Theotokos." For more on the evolution of the term Theotokos and its central significance for upholding Christianity, see the Documents of the Third Œcumenical Synod. It is worth pointing out that though many Protestants realize this Synod was about the condemnation of Nestorius's teaching, few know that the arguments centered around the use of the term Theotokos, or "Mother of God," for the Blessed Virgin Mary. This was so much the case that Bishop Kallistos (Ware) has written: "The same primacy that the word homoousion occupies in the doctrine of the Trinity, the word Theotokos holds in the doctrine of the Incarnation." (The Orthodox Church, p. 25) So why do Protestants not use the term Theotokos, let alone even honor the Virgin Mary? In not doing so, they in practice deny the Incarnation and fall under the anathemas of the Third Œcumenical Synod. Food for thought.
So glad you brought that up. I have asked that question a number of times and never received an answer; Why does Mary have to be a perpetual virgin?? Why would having other children make her any less in their eyes?
I posted my 39 before I saw the above. I will still ask, as a fellow protestant (I presume), where specifically is the Scriptural prohibition against asking a saint to pray to God on one's behalf? I don't do it (I pray to God), but just wondering if you have incontrovertible evidence that the practice is unscriptural. I don't see the harm when done specifically as my RC and Orthodox friends actuall do it.
I'll let you know if I ever find an answer. :-)
This is my biggest issue with the author's choice of language. He leaves one with the impression that he sees moral equivalence between having sex with one's husband and hanging out at the local pickup bar (the more common allusion for "life of the flesh").
The immaculate conception may have been a policy accepted to answer rationalistic questions prior to grasping the rationalsim behind DNA and genetics.
Today, a rational argument may be presented that the old sin nature or natural man is propagated via the male chromosome provided in sperm, whereas the female, when fertilized via procreation conceives a child that also is dichotomous, still requiring a regenerate spirit before it may have eternal or everlasting life.
Likewise, with the virgin birth, Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit, perfect in body, soul, and spirit. Something not possible unless conceived by the Holy Spirit.
Another point might be that RC tends to label Mary as the Mother of the Church as well as Mother of God. They do not take the view that she created God, but rather by her obedience to God by faith she became the mother of Christ Jesus. I agree with this perspective.
I find it more consistent to view man after regeneration of the spirit to be trichotomous in body, soul, and spirit. That regeneration of the spirit being purely the work of the Holy Spirit, of God,..not of any man.
The RC seems to leave the door open on this note to help explain some language used such as mother, brother, and cousins, in Christ in several different places in Scripture.
I have been able to glean more faith and belief in advanced doctrine by interpretting many of those passages more literally than spiritualizing them. However, there may be other advances in doctrine by following the RC studies on these word usages and deeper significance.
Not any less, but from a strictly dichotomous view of man's anthropology, if she was perfect in body, soul and spirit after Pentecost, then one might argue that others could come and fulfill the role of Christ in the body and soul from her siblings unless she remained celibate after His birth. I suspect the interpretation of language to construe her as remaining celibate and only having one offspring, simplified these types of secondary issues.
"The immaculate conception may have been a policy accepted to answer rationalistic questions prior to grasping the rationalsim behind DNA and genetics."
Well, and there you have it. A "policy". It's making God something less than perfect and AWEsome. She HAD to be sinless so that Jesus would not have her sinful nature passed down to him?? Catholics will readily believe a statue can cry blood but not that God could send his Son to earth thru a sinful human? Or a woman that would bear other children? Believing Mary was without sin is blasphemy. Nothing less. Even writing it makes me cringe. :)
Night.
I don't attack the position in that fashion. I don;t see anything wrong from another denomination to develop doctrines of faith while remaining in fellowship with God through Faith in Christ.
Even though I disagreed with the doctrine, upon my study of the position at http://www.catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=5244
I find their position to be well reasoned, if one takes other doctrinal interpretations such as adhering to dichotomous vs trichotomous anthropology. An error which I find more Reformed Christians to stumble into without much in depth study.
The Protestant view is that she was perfect in body, and in her thinking and remained obedient in faith during the conception and through the birth. Nothing of her thinking, decisions, or acts made the birth of Jesus Christ impure in body, soul, or spirit.
IMHO, this is possible not because of something AWEsome happening, but simply a God planned event at the approriate time and place predestined in eternity past. The only thing AWEsome, is if we have placed our thinking elsewhere and have sacrred our souls to the point that when we observe His action, we are too scarred to realize He is very real in all things around us.
The EO have a much more level-headed understanding of the role of Mary than the RC (the Church I was raised in), which has effectively made her a co-redemtrix. This, in my eyes, is largely responsible for the feminization of the faith.
No...sex with a spouse is NOT impure, but remember the words of St. Paul where he exhorts people(clergy) to be unmarried like him if possible, but if not then it better to "marry than to burn"
What about the Ark of the Covenant? The command is meant to be understood as worshiping things OTHER than God the Creator of heaven and earth.
If one bows down before an image, or prays to someone other than Father Son and Holy Ghost, clearly they do violate the law of God.
So when people bow before kings (as in the Bible), or ask others for help (called "prayer"), is that clearly violating God's Law?
Regards
Co-redemptrix means she participated in the Redemption, but not in a necessary capacity (much like the "necessity" of a 2 year old child helping her mother bake cookies). TWO people's hearts were pierced on calvary. Jesus by the spear, and Mary's heart spiritually pierced, as prophesized by Simeon in the Temple. As early as 150 AD, the Church saw Mary as the New Eve, just as Scripture pointed out that Jesus was the New Adam. Thus, if two people took part in the fall, two people also took part in the redemption; One person absolutely responsible for the Fall/Redemption alone (Adam/Jesus), and the other person, though not necesary, nevertheless participated (Eve/Mary).
This line of thought has existed in the Church from the very beginning. I am not quite sure what you mean by "feminization of the faith".
Regards
Ping!
Scripture calls Christian believers "holy" and "saints" (which is simply another word for holy) in many places. Do you really not know that?
You ought to direct that question to Jesus, since he seems to get "love your enemies ... pray for those who persecute you" out of "Thou shalt not commit murder".
It's a common Jewish way of understanding Torah.
God does not prohibit images to be used in worship, but He prohibits the images themselves to be worshiped.
In Exodus 25:18-22; 26:1,31 - for example, God commands the making of the image of a golden cherubim. This heavenly image, of course, is not worshiped by the Israelites. Instead, the image disposes their minds to the supernatural and draws them to God.
Please then explain Mark 3:20-21, [Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, They went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind".] In verse 31 [Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him.]
Beautiful icon!!!
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