rschristopher on Nostr: She is not divine, by definition, she is created. Angels also aren’t divine. ...

She is not divine, by definition, she is created. Angels also aren’t divine. Theologically, only those possessing the divine nature are divine. It is literally the essence of God which is divine, revealed as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (technically also the grace of God is divine, but that’s a separate topic).

Importantly, Christ is both human AND divine, this is key to understanding Mary and her role.

While I have no doubt one can find poetic language from some that use “divine mother”, theologically no one claims her as divine. Usually it’s “blessed mother” or Theotokos or similar language of proper veneration.

Even in the “Immaculate Conception”(which the East rejects), or “Queen of Heaven” doctrines, they explicitly do not refer to Mary as divine, they use expressions like “highest veneration”, because “divine” is and can only be God.

Understand: what you worship will determine what you venerate. E.g., if you worship wealth you’ll venerate symbols of wealth, fancy cars and designer clothes, but even an idolatrous person isn’t worshipping clothes, they venerate the clothes (because they worship wealth). We all, by design, only worship one thing.

Another example: Protestants don’t worship the Bible, they venerate the Bible (something more Catholics and Eastern Orthodox should do, but I digress).

This is the sense of “highest veneration”, because to worship God fully, means necessarily to venerate His mother. This is also why the “Mary worship” criticisms are so stupid.

No one I’ve ever heard, even the famous heretics throughout history, would refer to Mary as divine wife of God the Father.

Mary is the “new Eve”.

And conversely, she is not “sister” the way, e.g., Mary Magdalene would be.

Mary is the Mother of God. You end up in painful Christological heresies when you try to demote her, usually Nestorianism and/or Arianism. And this is because she birthed the Son of God, who is divine (and human). Theologically, this is necessary as He is the mediator between man and God (between the created and the divine).

If you dig deep into Revelation, Mary as the “new Eve” and as “mother” and even “Queen of heaven” (the Queen mother), weave throughout Isaiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Psalms and even back to Genesis.

Although if the deeper theological reasons don’t do it for you, you should simply refer to Mary as “mother” because Christ told you to:

“When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.
~ John 19:26-27