Aliens in This World

An ordinary Catholic and a science fiction and fantasy fan.

Tuesday, December 09, 2003

Stop Worrying and Love the Synecdoche



I was reading a page about keikyo (Nestorian Christianity in Japan, which arrived centuries before the Jesuits) and read a rather Nestorian-biased account of its beliefs. This guy felt that the Nestorians were right and that "Mother of God" (Theotokos) was a bad expression; all you could legitimately say was "Mother of Christ" (Christotokos). Ignoring how much the Arians woulda loved that, it's obviously that this guy didn't like using the word for the whole to refer to the parts.



But hey, Jesus Christ is God, right? (Well, if you're not an Arian or a non-Christian.) And Mary is Jesus' mother, right? So, though Mary didn't cause all of God to come into existence, she is the one who carried God around for nine months. So she is the Theotokos, not just the Christotokos.



Of course, this leads to a lot of poetic expressions and titles that Mary is given. Christ is the Way, Christ came through Mary, so poetically, everyone coming to Christ comes to him through Mary...hence, she's called "Gate of Heaven" (Porta Caeli). And so forth. It's poem logic and very sensible, too.

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