Theology 102 - Christology and Mariology

Theology 102: Christology and Mariology

Marian Dogmas

  • The most important features of Mary's role and person are captured in the four Marian dogmas.

What are Dogmas?

  • Dogmas propose truths contained in Divine Revelation.
  • These truths are grounded in Scripture.
  • They reflect the full authority of the Church received from Christ, including tradition, liturgical practice, and the faith of the people.
Definition
  • A dogma of the Catholic Church is defined as "a truth revealed by God, which the magisterium of the Church declared as binding."
Catechism of the Catholic Church on Dogmas
  • The Church's Magisterium exercises its authority to the fullest extent when it defines dogmas.
  • It proposes truths contained in divine Revelation or truths having a necessary connection with these, obliging Christians to an irrevocable adherence of faith.
  • There is an organic connection between our spiritual life and dogmas.
  • Dogmas are lights along the path of faith; they illuminate and make it secure.
  • An upright life will open the intellect and heart to welcome the light shed by the dogmas of faith.
Connections Between Dogmas
  • The mutual connections between dogmas and their coherence can be found in the whole of the Revelation of the mystery of Christ.
  • There exists an order or hierarchy of truths in Catholic doctrine, as they vary in their relation to the foundation of the Christian faith.
Dogma Defined
  • A Dogma is a Doctrine of Faith officially declared by the Church, which every Catholic must believe.
  • The following dogmas state the important aspects of Mary's role in salvation and her personal relationship with God.
Four Marian Dogmas
  • Divine Motherhood
  • Perpetual Virginity
  • Immaculate Conception
  • The Assumption

The Divine Motherhood (Theotokos)

  • The First Marian Dogma, defined by the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD, declares that the Virgin Mary is the Mother of God, which in Greek is rendered as “Theotokos.”
  • Mary is the Mother of Jesus; Jesus is God: therefore, Mary is the Mother of God.
  • The official Greek title Theotokos literally means “Bearer of God” or “The one who Gives Birth to God”. In Latin it was rendered as Mater Dei, and in English Mother of God. The exact Greek translation of “Mother of God” would be Theometer.
  • Mary is the Mother of the Incarnated Son of God, or Mother of God Incarnated, namely, of the human nature of Christ, and she is by no means a goddess.
  • The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, is celebrated on January 1.
Biblical Passages
  • Two bible passages that prove the dogma of Mary, Mother of God:
    • The Annunciation (Luke 1:31-32): The Archangel Gabriel said to Mary: Behold, you will be conceived in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of God: therefore, she can be called Mother of the Son of God, or in short Mother of God.
    • The Visitation (Luke 1:43): After Mary entered her house, Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Spirit exclaimed: “How does this happen that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
    • The title “Lord” used by Elizabeth, or Kyrios in Greek, is applied only for God: therefore, she proclaim Mary as the Mother of the Lord, meaning, the Mother of God.
Council of Ephesus
  • The council of Ephesus (431 AD) was assembled by Pope Celestine I upon the request of St. Cyril, Patriarch of Constantinople (376-444) to refute the heresy of Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople (386-451 AD).
  • During the 5th century Nestorius promoted a theory that Christ had two distinct natures, one human and one divine, and that Mary was the mother of his human nature, but not the mother of his divine nature.
  • Nestorius had objected that Mary should be called “Mother of Christ” (Christotokos) and not “Mother of God” (Theotokos).
  • Reasons:
    • God is eternal and cannot have any beginning
    • The title implied that Mary was herself a deity.
  • Nestorius professed that the human and the divine nature of Christ remained separated, and were not united into one divine person.
  • The council of Ephesus asserted that since Mary is the Mother of Jesus, and Jesus is God, she could be truly venerated as the Mother of God.
  • The council clarified that the divine nature of Jesus Christ is begotten of God the Father from eternity; while his human nature was conceived in the womb of Mary in time.
  • The dogmatic definition declared: “If somebody does not believe that the Immanuel is God and that therefore the Holy Virgin is Theotokos since she generated in the flesh the Word who is God, be excommunicated.”
  • The Dogma of the Theotokos was never meant to suggest that Mary was a goddess or Mother of God from eternity, but only Mother of the Incarnated Son of God.
  • After the declaration of Mary as the Theotokos, the people of Ephesus, full of rejoicing, escorted the fathers to their houses with torches and incense. Nestorius was discharged from his diocese and retired to his former monastery near Antioch.
Protestant Reformers on Mary as Mother of God
  • Almost all Protestant sects accept the theology of the Council of Ephesus so they acknowledge that Mary is properly recognized as the "Mother of God".
  • The Protestant position on the Immaculate Conception, Perpetual Virginity, and Assumption in to Heaven, however, varies among denominations. Some, such as Anglicans, accept Catholic positions on most matters, or at least do not deny them.
  • Protestant sects relying exclusively on Biblical interpretation, however, generally deny the Perpetual Virginity of Mary and the Immaculate Conception based on scriptural references, and deny the Assumption because it is not referred to directly in scriptures.
  • Martin Luther: “In this work whereby she was made the Mother of God, so many and such good things were given her that o one can grasp them… Not only was Mary the mother of Him who is born (in Bethlehem), but of Him who, before the world, was eternally born of the Father, from a Mother in time and at the same time man and God.” (Weimer, p. 572)
  • John Calvin: It cannot be denied that God in choosing and destining Mary to be the Mother of His Son, granted her the highest honor… Elizabeth calls Mary Mother of the Lord, because the unity of the person in the two natures of Christ was such that she could have said that the mortal man engendered in the womb of Mary was at the same time the eternal God” (Calvini opera, p. 348, 35)
  • Ulrich Zwingli: “It was given to her what belongs to no creature, that I the flesh she should bring forth the Son of God” (Zwigli, v. 6, 1, p. 639)

The Perpetual Virginity of Mary

  • The perpetual virginity of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, and states that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virgin ante partum, in partu, et post partum—before, during and after the birth of Christ.
  • The Dogma of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, which was included in the Apostles' Creed (First Century) and solemnly defined by the Council of Nicea (325 AD), states that she remained a virgin for her whole life.
  • The Greek term for this dogma is Aeipathenos, which means “Ever Virgin” This implies that Mary remained a virgin before, during, and after the birth of Christ.
Virginity Before Birth (antepartum)
  • The virginity of Mary before the birth of Jesus is stated in the Annunciation: Gabriel was sent to “a virgin betrothed to a man, whose name was Mary” (Luke 1:26 -35).
  • Mary confirmed her virginal status when she said: “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” (Luke 1:34). Afterwards, an angel appeared in a dream to St. Joseph and said: “Do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:20)
Virginity During Birth (in partu)
  • We believe that the virginity of Mary was not lost in the act of giving birth to Jesus, as affirmed by the Catechism of the Council of Trent (1545-63): “Jesus Christ came forth from his mother’s womb without injury to her maternal virginity .”
  • This teaching was confirmed by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65): “Christ’s birth did not diminish his mother’s virginal integrity but sanctified it” (Lumen Gentium57); and ratified by the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992).
  • We confess Mary’s real and perpetual virginity even in the act of giving birth to the Son of God” (CCC 499)
  • The Council of Trent also added that “The Virgin Mary brought forth Jesus the Son of God without experiencing any sense of pain.”
  • But the painless birth was not mentioned by the Second Vatican Council and by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, because it seems to contradict the Book of Revelation when it speaks of the birth of Christ: “A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head, a crown of twelve stars (Mary), was with child (Jesus) and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth” (Revelation 12: 1-2)
Virginity After Birth (post Partum)
  • The virginity of Mary after the birth of Jesus has been universally accepted by the Church on the following arguments.
  • Nowhere in the Bible, it is written that Mary had other children from Joseph. The fact that Jesus was Mary’s “firstborn son” (Luke 2:7) and that Joseph “had no marital relations with her until she gave birth to a son” (Matthew 1:25), does not imply the existence of other siblings, or marital relationship with Mary.
  • It was not proper that the virgin mother of the Messiah should have other children in a natural manner.
  • St. Irenaeus of Lyons (d. A.D. 202): The pure one purely opens the pure womb, which regenerates men in god, which he himself had made pure. ( Against Heresies, IV 33, 11)
  • Tome of Pope Leo the Great (449): “Her virginity was as untouched in giving him birth as it was in conceived him” Adopted by Council of Chalcedon, 451a,d,
Brothers and Sisters of Jesus
  • Against the Dogma of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, the objection is sometimes raised that the Gospel mentions the “brothers and sisters” of Jesus (Mark 3: 32).
  • The Church has always understood that these passages did not refer to other children of the Virgin Mary for the reasons that Follow:
    • The Greek word “adelphoi” used in the Gospel could mean either “brothers” or “relatives.”
    • James and Joseph, addressed as “brothers of Jesus” in Matthew 13:55, are revealed as the sons of another Mary, who is not the mother of Jesus (Matthew 27:56).
    • Even nowadays, we call our fellow Christians as brothers and sisters because we share the same faith, though not the same blood.
    • If Jesus had real brothers and sisters, from the cross he should have entrusted Mary to them, and not to St. John, in accordance with the Jewish tradition and the dictates of filial love.
    • The fact that Jesus said: “Woman behold your son” (John 19:25), indirectly confirms that Jesus was the only child of Mary.
    • According to the Protoevagenlium of James (120 AD), which is an apocryphal book – meaning, it is not approved by the Church, the so-called brothers and sisters of Jesus were the children of St. Joseph from a previous marriage.
    • While serving in the Temple of Jerusalem, Mary had became engaged with Joseph, an elderly widower, who was to act as a protector of her virginity.