does the orthodox church view her the same way the Roman Catholic church teaches?
Tags: roman catholic church, mother, Orthodox Catholic ChurchHow Does the Orthodox Christian Church View Mary the Mother of God?
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Jesus existed before Mary,therefore she is not the mother of God,just a channel in which he travelled in order for him to enter the physical world.
Revelations 17:2 and 18:3 All of the Denominations of the Christian church comes from the Roman Catholic Church, the bible backs this up in the verses. http://www.thencci.com
The notion that Jesus was god was not of the view of orthodox church.
The Virgin Mary is the Theotokos, the mother of Jesus Christ, the Son and Word of God. She conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. She was cared for by her betrothed husband, Joseph, who took the child and his mother into his home as his own. One very strong tradition in the Orthodox Church holds that the birth of Jesus was also miraculous and left Mary’s virginity intact as a sign; it is also the tradition of the Church that Joseph and Mary did not have relations after the birth of Jesus. She is also called Panagia, the “All-Holy,” indicating her closeness to God in her obedience.
The Orthodox view of Mary is that she is — from the Greek of the early councils that clarified the language of what we believe — the “theotokos”; literally, the “birth-giver of God”.
This designation is not to elevate Mary, but to protect the doctrine of Christ. There were those who were willing to call Mary “Christotokos” — the one who gave birth to Christ, but who themselves denied the divinity of Jesus. The Church calls Mary “theotokos” or “mother of God” to protect the doctrine of the divinity of Christ.
If Jesus is God, and if Mary is his mother, then she is rightly called “theotokos” — the Mother of God. If you deny that Jesus is God, but is merely “Christ”, then the term “theotokos” bothers you.
/Orthodox
Fist I would like to say Pudleaz and OP are basically giving the Orthodox view and the others who answered are idiots- and just to add that our view of the Theotokos differs from the Catholics due to our view of original sin. In Orthodox theology Mary is not free from original sin- but she as sinless as a person could be of their own free will. In order to be free of original sin Mary would either have to be a new creation- which would mean Christ did not have human nature as Mary would have been something other than human or Mary would have to be Devinne, both of which would be heretical in the Orthodox view.
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