God, sex and redemption
I think there are three different issues in one. They all involve, God, sex and redemption. The first one has to do with the sex of God. Is He a male or a female? How appropriate is to refer to God as father or mother, or both? Is God a male but with a feminine side?
The second issue is one that has divide Catholics from most Protestants denominations. Is Mary themother of God? The main problem that I see with this point of view is that Jesus has eternally existed. John 1:1 says, in reference to Jesus, that He was God and was with God from the beginning. In fact all three person of the Trinity have always being in existence. The incarnation of the Son happen at one point in human history, but how can an eternal being has a finite mother?
The mostcommon logical argument used to defend this position is, Jesus is God, Mary is the mother of Jesus, and therefore Mary is the mother of God. This same argument could lead in many other directions. Jesus is God, Mary is the mother of Jesus, and therefore Mary is goddess. Should we even consider this? Going even further, the Scripture talk about Jesus being born through Mary, and that Mary waspregnant through the Holy Spirit, or by the power of the Holy Spirit. If following the natural process of how children are conceives some people could make the argument that the Holy Spirit is the actual father of Jesus, not God the Creator.
Also, I have found that in many places in the Bible Mary is called, mother of Jesus, but nowhere is called mother of God. I tend to go with the Scripture whentraditions do theological contortionism to explain something.
The third issue is closely related to the second one, but could be analyzed independently also, what is Mary’s role in the plan of salvation. Was she just an instrument used by God for the miracle of the incarnation or does she actually has a place as co-redeemer of humanity?
Catholics believe in the doctrine of Mary as co-redeemer,implying that Mary was co-participant with Christ in our redemption. They claim that since Jesus became flesh and goes His humanness through Mary and because she shared Jesus’ suffering at the cross then she is co-participant of His redemptive work. According to their theology Mary’s participation in redemption is not equal to Jesus, then what kind of co-participation did she had?
First, whatis redemption, what was needed for redemption? I found the following definitions about redemption and atonement in Wikipedia, probably not the most reliable source, but I will use it anyways:
As a theological concept redemption is an element of salvation that broadly means the deliverance from sin. The English word redemption means 'repurchase' or 'buy back', and in the Old Testament referred tothe ransom of slaves (Exodus 21:8). In the New Testament the redemption word group is used to refer both to deliverance from sin and freedom from captivity. Theologically, redemption is a metaphor for what is achieved through the Atonement. Therefore there is a metaphorical sense in which the death of Jesus pays the price of a ransom, releasing Christians from bondage to sin and death.Atonement is a doctrine that describes how sin can be forgiven by God. In Christian theology the atonement refers to the forgiving or pardoning of sin through the death of Jesus Christ by crucifixion, which made possible the reconciliation between God and creation. Within Christianity there are three main theories for how such atonement might work: the ransom theory, the satisfaction theory and the moralinfluence theory.
Obviously, for redemption to be accomplished through the atonement, in any of the different variations of how this work, something more than a human was needed, not even the most righteous of all man and women was not enough to or had the qualification for this. A perfect life, a sinless life was the only life acceptable as a sacrifice. If Mary was without sin, Immaculate...
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