Mary as Theotokos, mother of God.
I spent four months living in Washington, D.C. this past fall as part of an internship program in which I was the only Roman Catholic student attending. It was the first time many of the Protestant students in the program had ever come in contact with a Catholic, so it was only natural that they had many questions for me to field.
I can’t begin to tell you how many times I got asked why I, as a practicing and devout member of the Roman Catholic body, “worship” Mary.
The very basic answer to this question is that Catholics do not “worship” Mary, but venerate her as the mother of God.
But then, the following problem arises: that God was not created or generated from anything or anyone; He simply is, and therefore does not have a mother, or a beginning. By crowning Mary with the title of Theotokos, or “mother of God,” implies that she herself is a goddess, or deserving of the same praise and worship as God.
In order to clarify the very complicated and intricate dogma of the Church on this topic, we need a little bit of a history lesson first.
This confusion in Mary’s role as Theotokos is ages old but most noticeably surfaces around 430, in an argument between Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, and Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, over language.
Cyril practiced Alexandrian theology, which interpreted scripture on a symbolic level and emphasized the oneness of Christ’s person as the pre-existent Logos, or Word of God, the second person in the Trinity. Alexandrian theologians were all about the symbolism, and used the term “Logos-sarx,” or “word-flesh,” to describe Christ. They based this off of John’s Gospel where he says that “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) - the Logos was made sarx. For the Alexandrians, sarx was symbolic for humanity and the Logos becoming incarnate as a human being.
Nestorius practiced Antiochene theology, which interpreted scripture on a literal level, as opposed to symbolic, and emphasized the “twoness” of natures in Christ - his full divinity and his full humanity. Because they interpreted things literally and didn’t want any of this abstractness going on, Antiochenes used the term “Logos-anthropos,” or “word-man,” to describe Christ, because it expressed both Christ’s full divinity and full humanity.
Cyril and Nestorius got into an argument about whether or not it was correct to call Mary “Theotokos” - the Greek word meaning “God-bearer,” later translated as “mother of God” - because it was a Christological controversy.
We’re about to get into some pretty complicated theology and Christology, so buckle up.
Nestorius thought that by calling Mary “Theotokos” that Christ’s full humanity was being denied. He preferred the terms “Christotokos” (“Christ-bearer”) or “Theotokos-anthropotokos” (“God-man-bearer”), because they expressed both Christ’s full divinity and full humanity.
Cyril defended “Theotokos”, saying that because of the unity of humanity and divinity in Christ, it is accurate to say that since Christ is the Son of God, the Logos, and Mary is the mother of Christ, that Mary is therefore the mother of God. This does not mean that God has a mother, nor does it mean that Mary is a goddess.
To break this down a bit further, Mary is the mother of person of Christ, who is separate from the Son of God. The Son of God pre-existed “before ages,” as we profess in the Nicene Creed, and became incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth. Mary did not give birth to God, she gave birth to Jesus Christ, the Man, who is the Son of God incarnate. She is the mother to his Person, which is not split into human and divine because the two are joined together inseparably.
Mary is the source of Jesus’ humanity, and the Father is the source of Jesus’ divinity, which come together in the human being of Jesus Christ, making Jesus Christ fully divine and fully human.
Based on the little bit of background information I gave, you can see why this is so complicated - because Cyril won the argument, and with his Alexandrian theological background left us with symbolism and abstract thoughts and interpretations.
So, in short, when you hear a Catholic refer to Mary as Theotokos, mother of God, they are not saying that she is on the same level as God. They are proclaiming her as the mother of Jesus Christ, the human, who is also the Son of God, the Logos, the second person in the Trinity … which, in essence, makes her the mother of God.
I know this is pretty complicated, but feel free to ask any questions, either here at The Papists or on my personal blog.
Ad Jesum per Mariam,
Jordan
