Re: Grace, Theotokos (was: Ave Maria)

On Thu, 29 Jun 2000 13:04:14 -0400, John Cowan <jcowan@...>
wrote:

>Vasiliy Chernov wrote:
>
>> I don't think
>> 'Grace' would be the proper translation, linguistically (but
>> I can't speak for theological uses).
>
>"Grace" is indeed the standard translation in theological uses.
Translation of what? It would be easier if you could point to the
Greek equivalent.

>The rather old-fashioned adjective "graceless" means "lacking in
>divine grace" = "immoral", as opposed to "ungraceful" which means
>"lacking in aesthetic grace" = "ugly, awkward, crude".
It seems that the common usages in modern languages got too far apart
each other...
>
>As for "Theotokos" = "Mother of God", the fact that there is no
>Western equivalent of this does not reflect a difference in doctrine,
>only a reluctance in the Latin Church to *call* the Second Person
>"God" without further modification.  So although Jesus is God, and
>Mary is the mother of Jesus, it is uncustomary (not incorrect) to
>call her the mother of God.
Interesting... Sorry for 'godmother', by the way - a confusion coming
from the similar compound model :o


Basilius