"Anyone who believes that she was sinless, regardless of when one considers the grace had entered her fully, has to face this question. That includes the Orthodox. The question, by the way, is a product of a distinctly unorthodox theology of atonement as purchase. If there is no sin, the transactional heresy of atonement goes, there is nothing to redeem. But we know that the work of Christ was to give us eternal life. This is the life He gave the Blessed Mother also. Whether it was given at conception or at some later point is beside the point."
In great haste I will respond now only to this as I am at the office. The whole theory of purchase/atonement is indeed a heresy and so far as I know, a Protestant innovation. Orthodoxy does not teach this at all. What Orthodoxy does teach is that because of the Sin of Adam's effects on us, no matter how good humans were, they were in bondage to death. The Righteous of the OT were bound up by death in hades, not in union with the uncreated Divine Energies. That bondage was broken by the death, descent to the dead and resurrection whereby death's hold was destroyed. The icon of the Resurrection graphically demonstrates this. Sinless or not, prior to the resurrection we were all stuck. That's what the Sacrifice of Christ wrought. It has nothing to do with a payback to some divine, blood thirsty monster, popular opinion to the contrary notwithstanding. In any event, that's why the Theotokos needed a savior, not because of any personal sin.
More later.
Well said.
Exactly so, -- and the bondage of death was destroyed in Our Lady by her savior. We only dispute when.
Okay, what about what I was calling the "Jesus Stomps the Devil" notion of the atonement. IC XC NIKA is an early graffito somewhere or other and I htink I may hav lost or given away or be too lazy to go find my copy of the Acts of Pilate, and I don't know much about the text, But SOMEBODY was thinking that Jesus went to Hell and tore up the pea-patch. I don't have any other sources for that opinion (except Aslan killing the White Witch -- and somehow that doesn't strike me as ancient).
Any thoughts?