What is the Orthodox view of the role of Mary, and how does it differ from that of the Catholics and the Protestants?
“What is the Orthodox view of the role of Mary, and how does it differ from that of the Catholics and the Protestants?”
The way we pray and what we pray demonstrates what we believe. If you read this link to the Akathist Hymn you’ll see pretty much what Orthodoxy believes concerning the Most Holy Theotokos.
http://www.monachos.net/library/Akathist_Hymn_to_Our_Most_Holy_Lady_Mother_of_God_(Theotokos)
This little chant from the Divine Liturgy also shows what we believe.
“It is truly right to bless you, Theotokos, ever blessed, most pure, and mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim, without corruption you gave birth to God the Word. We magnify you, the true Theotokos.”
Our Mariology differs so much from that of the Protestants, well at least most of them, that it would take up far too much bandwidth to discuss it in a single post. Several years of discussing Mariology on FR have convinced me that Mariology just isn’t for Protestants. As for the Latins, well our Mariology is virtually identical to theirs, though perhaps without the popular “enthusiasm” (in the religious sense of the word)and apocolyptic aura surrounding what they call warnings but look for all the world to many of us like threats. Dogmatically, Orthodoxy does not accept the Immaculate Conception as usually expressed, but this is because we do not hold by the Western notion of Original Sin. We also have not dogmatized the bodily assumption of Panagia into heaven, though every Orthodox I know of believes it to be true.
FRM, I will try to respond to your various posts today, but it likely will be tomorrow night before I can give them the attention they deserve. I’m in the middle of a major case and the next two days will be taken up with that matter.