[Kolokotronis]

"I am not sure what you expect of an uneducated person in terms of "figuring it out". On its face, the term does appear to stand by itself. Were I an average uneducated Christian and heard that your faith strongly stands behind that term, I would just dismiss your faith outright as a cult or something. I would be wrong, of course, but I do think it would be a "normal" reaction."

Odd comment, but marvelously ethnocentric, FK. A "normal" reaction? The simple fact is that every last Orthodox person on earth, every last Roman Catholic person on earth, every last Oriental Orthodox, likely every Lutheran and Anglican, on earth knows exactly what "Mother of God" means when applied to +Mary. That's, oh, 1,600,000,000+/- people, FK. Now my great grandmother from Greece had no education, I doubt she could even read, let alone spell Theotokos, but she only referred to the Mother of God as the Most Holy Theotokos, Panagia (the all holy one) or Panagitsa mou, my little all holy one. I guarantee that when she said those words, she didn't think that +Mary was the mother of the Trinity she praised and proclaimed every single day of her life.

There is no misunderstanding or mystery with the term. The misunderstanding, if indeed there is such, arises exclusively from the abysmal, simplistic "common sense" teaching which, it seems, goes on in sola scriptura assemblies.

[Forest Keeper]

A "normal" reaction? The simple fact is that every last Orthodox person on earth, every last Roman Catholic person on earth, every last Oriental Orthodox, likely every Lutheran and Anglican, on earth knows exactly what "Mother of God" means when applied to +Mary. That's, oh, 1,600,000,000+/- people, FK.

That's all fine. I've never said anything against how the term is used among adherents to it in your respective churches. My perspective has always only been in terms of how it sounds to those outside your churches.

The misunderstanding, if indeed there is such, arises exclusively from the abysmal, simplistic "common sense" teaching which, it seems, goes on in sola scriptura assemblies.

Blast that common sense! :)