Favorite Marian Title?

[George95]

What's your favorite title for Mary?

 

[chevyontheriver]

What's your favorite title for Mary?

Stella maris. Star of the sea.

 

[George95]

I do like the title Most Pure Virgin or All Hymned Mother of our God.

 

[Clare73]

What's your favorite title for Mary?

The one stating who she is: mother of my Lord (Jesus Christ)--Lk 1:43.

 

[George95]

The one stating who she is: mother of my Lord (Jesus Christ)--Lk 1:43.

Of course, and then you have the beautiful title Mother of God.

 

[FenderTL5]

Θεοτόκος (Theotokos) and Παναγία (Panagia)

 

[eleos1954]

What's your favorite title for Mary?

Biblically Mary don't have a title ... she was the earthly mother of Jesus ... the means by which God chose His son to become partly human.

 

[dzheremi]

Biblically Mary don't have a title ... she was the earthly mother of Jesus ... the means by which God chose His son to become partly human.

Please read the SOP for the Traditional Theology subforum. This is not the place to disclaim the validity of Marian titles, nor to state idiosyncratic theology like "God chose his son to become partly human."

 

[eleos1954]

Please read the SOP for the Traditional Theology subforum. This is not the place to disclaim the validity of Marian titles, nor to state idiosyncratic theology like "God chose his son to become partly human."

Sorry ... thanks for the reminder.

 

[BNR32FAN]

What's your favorite title for Mary?

Christotokos

 

[dzheremi]

Theotokos.

I also like "our faithful advocate" from the ending formula of doxologies of Kiahk: "We ask you to remember us, O our faithful advocate, before our Lord Jesus Christ, that He may forgive us our sins."

 

[The Liturgist]

I’m just going to be Orthodox and attach myself to the sentiments of @dzheremi and @FenderTL5 . I do like how the Great Litany in the Byzantine and Armenian rites (which use basically the same Synaxis, although English translaations of the Armenian will show slightly different wording, because the Armenian is a translation from the Greek), “our most glorious Lady Theotokos.”

That said I have no objection to Roman Catholic titles, for example, Stella Maris, which strikes me as rather lovely.

 

[George95]

our most glorious Lady Theotokos

I love that one as well.

 

[George95]

Christotokos

Why that title?

 

[BNR32FAN]

Why that title?

It’s a little less controversial to Protestants.

 

[dzheremi]

Friendly reminder that no less a Protestant figure than Martin Luther himself zealously affirmed that St. Mary is mother of God (i.e., Theotokos). He uses the title "Mother of God" many, many times in his 1521 treatise on the Magnificat, for instance.

 

[BNR32FAN]

Friendly reminder that no less a Protestant figure than Martin Luther himself zealously affirmed that St. Mary is mother of God (i.e., Theotokos). He uses the title "Mother of God" many, many times in his 1521 treatise on the Magnificat, for instance.

I don’t deny or reject Theotokos, I just think that Christotokos is a less controversial title. I understand the reasoning behind the Theostokos, many Protestants don’t. I also don’t support Nestorianism.

 

[dzheremi]

In the spirit of the subforum we're on, I didn't write that to argue, but just to underline that "Theotokos" is not some kind of "Roman Catholic (-specific/only) thing" that Protestants do not or cannot affirm, in case anyone else who comes to this thread might be under the impression that it is.

 

[The Liturgist]

I just think that Christotokos is a less controversial title.

You’re mistaken. The Council of Ephesus, the third ecumenical synod, specifically anathematized the use of this title, which makes it very controversial insofar as it is entirely unacceptable to Lutherans and Anglicans, as well as Eastern and Oriental Orthodox and Roman Catholics. The only traditional church which historically made some use of this title, although I believe they avoid using it in an ecumenical context due to its Nestorian connotations, is the Assyrian Church of the East.

And it should also be stressed that Christotokos was literally the title Nestorius used violence persecution to enforce over the historic title of Theotokos, which is what led to him being anathematized at Ephesus, even by his former ally Patriarch John I of Antioch. So one could argue that the use of Christotokos is Nestorianism in its most literal sense in that this was specifically what Nestorius taught, with the separation of the humanity and the divinity of Christ later being developed from Theodore of Mopsuestia’s writings as a means of justifying it and providing a theological basis contra-St. Cyril of Alexandria and the traditional incarnational model he emphasized.

 

[BNR32FAN]

You’re mistaken. The Council of Ephesus, the third ecumenical synod, specifically anathematized the use of this title, which makes it very controversial insofar as it is entirely unacceptable to Lutherans and Anglicans, as well as Eastern and Oriental Orthodox and Roman Catholics. The only traditional church which historically made some use of this title, although I believe they avoid using it in an ecumenical context due to its Nestorian connotations, is the Assyrian Church of the East.

And it should also be stressed that Christotokos was literally the title Nestorius used violence persecution to enforce over the historic title of Theotokos, which is what led to him being anathematized at Ephesus, even by his former ally Patriarch John I of Antioch. So one could argue that the use of Christotokos is Nestorianism in its most literal sense in that this was specifically what Nestorius taught, with the separation of the humanity and the divinity of Christ later being developed from Theodore of Mopsuestia’s writings as a means of justifying it and providing a theological basis contra-St. Cyril of Alexandria and the traditional incarnational model he emphasized.

I’m not seeing the term anathematized in any of the 14 canons or any of the epistles.