E******u
发帖数: 3920 | 1 Fundamentalists are sometimes horrified when the Virgin Mary is referred to
as the Mother of God. However, their reaction often rests upon a
misapprehension of not only what this particular title of Mary signifies but
also who Jesus was, and what their own theological forebears, the
Protestant Reformers, had to say regarding this doctrine.
A woman is a man’s mother either if she carried him in her womb or if she
was the woman contributing half of his genetic matter or both. Mary was the
mother of Jesus in both of these senses; because she not only carried Jesus
in her womb but also supplied all of the genetic matter for his human body,
since it was through her—not Joseph—that Jesus "was descended from David
according to the flesh" (Rom. 1:3).
Since Mary is Jesus’ mother, it must be concluded that she is also the
Mother of God: If Mary is the mother of Jesus, and if Jesus is God, then
Mary is the Mother of God. There is no way out of this logical syllogism,
the valid form of which has been recognized by classical logicians since
before the time of Christ.
Although Mary is the Mother of God, she is not his mother in the sense that
she is older than God or the source of her Son’s divinity, for she is
neither. Rather, we say that she is the Mother of God in the sense that she
carried in her womb a divine person—Jesus Christ, God "in the flesh" (2
John 7, cf. John 1:14)—and in the sense that she contributed the genetic
matter to the human form God took in Jesus Christ.
To avoid this conclusion, Fundamentalists often assert that Mary did not
carry God in her womb, but only carried Christ’s human nature. This
assertion reinvents a heresy from the fifth century known as Nestorianism,
which runs aground on the fact that a mother does not merely carry the human
nature of her child in her womb. Rather, she carries the person of her
child. Women do not give birth to human natures; they give birth to persons.
Mary thus carried and gave birth to the person of Jesus Christ, and the
person she gave birth to was God.
The Nestorian claim that Mary did not give birth to the unified person of
Jesus Christ attempts to separate Christ’s human nature from his divine
nature, creating two separate and distinctpersons—one divine and one human
—united in a loose affiliation. It is therefore a Christological heresy,
which even the Protestant Reformers recognized. Both Martin Luther and John
Calvin insisted on Mary’s divine maternity. In fact, it even appears that
Nestorius himself may not have believed the heresy named after him. Further,
the "Nestorian" church has now signed a joint declaration on Christology
with the Catholic Church and recognizes Mary’s divine maternity, just as
other Christians do.
Since denying that Mary is God’s mother implies doubt about Jesus’
divinity, it is clear why Christians (until recent times) have been
unanimous in proclaiming Mary as Mother of God.
The Church Fathers, of course, agreed, and the following passages witness to
their lively recognition of the sacred truth and great gift of divine
maternity that was bestowed upon Mary, the humble handmaid of the Lord.
Irenaeus
"The Virgin Mary, being obedient to his word, received from an angel the
glad tidings that she would bear God" (Against Heresies, 5:19:1 [A.D. 189]).
Hippolytus
"[T]o all generations they [the prophets] have pictured forth the grandest
subjects for contemplation and for action. Thus, too, they preached of the
advent of God in the flesh to the world, his advent by the spotless and God-
bearing (theotokos) Mary in the way of birth and growth, and the manner of
his life and conversation with men, and his manifestation by baptism, and
the new birth that was to be to all men, and the regeneration by the laver [
of baptism]" (Discourse on the End of the World 1 [A.D. 217]).
Gregory the Wonderworker
"For Luke, in the inspired Gospel narratives, delivers a testimony not to
Joseph only, but also to Mary, the Mother of God, and gives this account
with reference to the very family and house of David" (Four Homilies 1 [A.D.
262]).
"It is our duty to present to God, like sacrifices, all the festivals and
hymnal celebrations; and first of all, [the feast of] the Annunciation to
the holy Mother of God, to wit, the salutation made to her by the angel, ‘
Hail, full of grace!’" (ibid., 2).
Peter of Alexandria
"They came to the church of the most blessed Mother of God, and ever-virgin
Mary, which, as we began to say, he had constructed in the western quarter,
in a suburb, for a cemetery of the martyrs" (The Genuine Acts of Peter of
Alexandria [A.D. 305]).
"We acknowledge the resurrection of the dead, of which Jesus Christ our Lord
became the firstling; he bore a body not in appearance but in truth derived
from Mary the Mother of God" (Letter to All Non-Egyptian Bishops 12 [A.D.
324]).
Methodius
"While the old man [Simeon] was thus exultant, and rejoicing with exceeding
great and holy joy, that which had before been spoken of in a figure by the
prophet Isaiah, the holy Mother of God now manifestly fulfilled" (Oration on
Simeon and Anna 7 [A.D. 305]).
"Hail to you forever, you virgin Mother of God, our unceasing joy, for unto
you do I again return. . . . Hail, you fount of the Son’s love for man. . .
. Wherefore, we pray you, the most excellent among women, who boast in the
confidence of your maternal honors, that you would unceasingly keep us in
remembrance. O holy Mother of God, remember us, I say, who make our boast in
you, and who in august hymns celebrate your memory, which will ever live,
and never fade away" (ibid., 14).
Cyril of Jerusalem
"The Father bears witness from heaven to his Son. The Holy Spirit bears
witness, coming down bodily in the form of a dove. The archangel Gabriel
bears witness, bringing the good tidings to Mary. The Virgin Mother of God
bears witness" (Catechetical Lectures 10:19 [A.D. 350]).
Ephraim the Syrian
"Though still a virgin she carried a child in her womb, and the handmaid and
work of his wisdom became the Mother of God" (Songs of Praise 1:20 [A.D.
351]).
Athanasius
"The Word begotten of the Father from on high, inexpressibly, inexplicably,
incomprehensibly, and eternally, is he that is born in time here below of
the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God" (The Incarnation of the Word of God 8 [A
.D. 365]).
Epiphanius of Salamis
"Being perfect at the side of the Father and incarnate among us, not in
appearance but in truth, he [the Son] reshaped man to perfection in himself
from Mary the Mother of God through the Holy Spirit" (The Man Well-Anchored
75 [A.D. 374]).
Ambrose of Milan
"The first thing which kindles ardor in learning is the greatness of the
teacher. What is greater than the Mother of God? What more glorious than she
whom Glory Itself chose?" (The Virgins 2:2[7] [A.D. 377]).
Gregory of Nazianz
"If anyone does not agree that holy Mary is Mother of God, he is at odds
with the Godhead" (Letter to Cledonius the Priest 101 [A.D. 382]).
Jerome
"As to how a virgin became the Mother of God, he [Rufinus] has full
knowledge; as to how he himself was born, he knows nothing" (Against Rufinus
2:10 [A.D. 401]).
"Do not marvel at the novelty of the thing, if a Virgin gives birth to God"
(Commentaries on Isaiah 3:7:15 [A.D. 409]).
Theodore of Mopsuestia
"When, therefore, they ask, ‘Is Mary mother of man or Mother of God?’ we
answer, ‘Both!’ The one by the very nature of what was done and the other
by relation" (The Incarnation 15 [A.D. 405]).
Cyril of Alexandria
"I have been amazed that some are utterly in doubt as to whether or not the
holy Virgin is able to be called the Mother of God. For if our Lord Jesus
Christ is God, how should the holy Virgin who bore him not be the Mother of
God?" (Letter to the Monks of Egypt 1 [A.D. 427]).
"This expression, however, ‘the Word was made flesh’ [John 1:14], can mean
nothing else but that he partook of flesh and blood like to us; he made our
body his own, and came forth man from a woman, not casting off his
existence as God, or his generation of God the Father, but even in taking to
himself flesh remaining what he was. This the declaration of the correct
faith proclaims everywhere. This was the sentiment of the holy Fathers;
therefore they ventured to call the holy Virgin ‘the Mother of God,’ not
as if the nature of the Word or his divinity had its beginning from the holy
Virgin, but because of her was born that holy body with a rational soul, to
which the Word, being personally united, is said to be born according to
the flesh" (First Letter to Nestorius [A.D. 430]).
"And since the holy Virgin corporeally brought forth God made one with flesh
according to nature, for this reason we also call her Mother of God, not as
if the nature of the Word had the beginning of its existence from the flesh
" (Third Letter to Nestorius [A.D. 430]).
"If anyone will not confess that the Emmanuel is very God, and that
therefore the holy Virgin is the Mother of God, inasmuch as in the flesh she
bore the Word of God made flesh [John 1:14]: let him be anathema" (ibid.).
John Cassian
"Now, you heretic, you say (whoever you are who deny that God was born of
the Virgin), that Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, cannot be
called the Mother of God, but the Mother only of Christ and not of God—for
no one, you say, gives birth to one older than herself. And concerning this
utterly stupid argument . . . let us prove by divine testimonies both that
Christ is God and that Mary is the Mother of God" (On the Incarnation of
Christ Against Nestorius 2:2 [A.D. 429]).
"You cannot then help admitting that the grace comes from God. It is God,
then, who has given it. But it has been given by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ is God. But if he is God, as he certainly is
, then she who bore God is the Mother of God" (ibid., 2:5).
Council of Ephesus
"We confess, then, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God,
perfect God and perfect man, of a rational soul and a body, begotten before
all ages from the Father in his Godhead, the same in the last days, for us
and for our salvation, born of Mary the Virgin according to his humanity,
one and the same consubstantial with the Father in Godhead and
consubstantial with us in humanity, for a union of two natures took place.
Therefore we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord. According to this
understanding of the unconfused union, we confess the holy Virgin to be the
Mother of God because God the Word took flesh and became man and from his
very conception united to himself the temple he took from her" (Formula of
Union [A.D. 431]).
Vincent of Lerins
"Nestorius, whose disease is of an opposite kind, while pretending that he
holds two distinct substances in Christ, brings in of a sudden two persons,
and with unheard-of wickedness would have two sons of God, two Christs,—one
, God, the other, man; one, begotten of his Father, the other, born of his
mother. For which reason he maintains that Saint Mary ought to be called,
not the Mother of God, but the Mother of Christ" (The Notebooks 12[35] [A.D.
434]). | b********n
发帖数: 38600 | 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_qZ_GoEJIc&list=PL438386E8D4710
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【在 E******u 的大作中提到】
: Fundamentalists are sometimes horrified when the Virgin Mary is referred to
: as the Mother of God. However, their reaction often rests upon a
: misapprehension of not only what this particular title of Mary signifies but
: also who Jesus was, and what their own theological forebears, the
: Protestant Reformers, had to say regarding this doctrine.
: A woman is a man’s mother either if she carried him in her womb or if she
: was the woman contributing half of his genetic matter or both. Mary was the
: mother of Jesus in both of these senses; because she not only carried Jesus
: in her womb but also supplied all of the genetic matter for his human body,
: since it was through her—not Joseph—that Jesus "was descended from David
| y*****g
发帖数: 1822 | 3
从未听过这版本, 谢谢分享 .. :)
但片中标题漏了一点： 是 Charles Gounod 把 巴赫 的 平均律的前奏曲之上, 加上
一个主旋律的全新声乐作品。
【在 b********n 的大作中提到】
: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_qZ_GoEJIc&list=PL438386E8D4710
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| l**********t
发帖数: 5754 | 4 one of my favorite. 谢谢分享.
【在 b********n 的大作中提到】
: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_qZ_GoEJIc&list=PL438386E8D4710
:
: to
: but
: the
: Jesus
: ,
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