Through Whom: Cyril of Alexandria and Mariology

Mariology tends towards extremes. Many Protestants have basically turned her into a receptacle, a box  which carries the goods (Christ) and thrown out afterwards . Roman Catholicism has dogmatized Mary as basically a savior figure (mediatrix) and dispenser of grace. Mary's role in various apparitions (Fatima), as well as the use of Mary to justify the Pachamama idols in the Amazon, has made her a goddess figure in folk Catholicism. Additionally, some wild theologians (following Solovyov in Eastern Orthodoxy) elevated Mary dual hypostatic union-revelation of the Spirit, a quasi-incarnation of the Spirit as God's consort and eternal feminine. I find all of this repulsive as a Christian. Reactionary fever among Protestants led to degrading Mary (even as early Reformed, like Johannes Oecolampadius and Zwingli, still revered Mary as mother of God and ever-virgin). And Roman Catholicism (and other radical forms of Mariolatry) has made Mary into Ashtoreth.

Christians ought to revere the blessed virgin Mary as both the figural Ark and New Eve. In fact, Christians (now, more than ever) need to recover a cult of the saints as a recognition of the faithful heroes who've gone before (even if this does not entail any kind of prayers to the saints). Such would be the biblical sense of honoring the faithful departed. It's the same which informed the Protoevangelium of James, a biography of Mary. Like other Second Temple Judaism apocrypha about heroic saints, Mary reveals the power of God through her faithful living. She is given honor because honoring her honors God (as such happened with other saints like Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, et al.). When Jesus said "whoever does the will of my Father is my mother, brother, and sister", how can we ignore how clearly Mary obeyed most of all. Did she not reverse Eve's disobedience when she said "be it unto me according to your word" (Luke 1:38)? Mary's glory, like the glory of any saint, is in radiating the glory of God. Correct praise for Mary depends upon recognizing who she mothered. It is for this reason that the traditional title Theotokos (God-bearer) was given to her. Cyril of Alexandria preached about this theme after his victory at the council of Ephesus (431)

"We hail you, Mary Theotokos, the venerable treasure of all the world, the inextinguishable lamp, the crown of virginity, the sceptre of orthodoxy, the indestructible temple, the container of the Uncontainable, the Mother and Virgin, the source of the one of whom it is said in the holy Gospels, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord'

Hail to the one who contains the Uncontainable in her holy and virginal womb, through whom the holy Trinity is glorified and worshipped in all the world, through whom heaven is glad, through whom angels and archangels rejoice, through whom demons are put to flight, through whom the devil the tempter fell from heaven, through whom the fallen creature is received back into heaven, through whom the whole creation caught in idolatry has come to the knowledge of the truth, through whom holy baptism comes to believers, through whom is the oil of gladness, through whom churches have been founded throughout the world, through whom nations are led to repentance. Why should I say more? Through whom the only-begotten Son of God has shone as a light to those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, through whom the prophets spoke, through whom the apostles proclaim salvation to the nations, through whom the dead are raised, through whom kings rule." (Cyril of Alexandria, sermon preached in Ephesus cathedral a few days after Nestorius' condemnation, 431, in Richard Price, "Theotokos and the Council of Ephesus", in Origins of the Cult of the Virgin Mary, 98) [Bold added]

As it should be clear from my emphases, Cyril saw Mary's glory strictly in Christological terms. Mary doesn't save us. Rather she participates in cosmic redemption through  her Son, Christ Jesus, who saves the world. Mary's glory is that she brought the tabernacling Word of God into the world. The historical specificity (this body and this soul) focuses Mary's unique vocation. She alone mothered the Logos as He was made flesh and dwelt among us. But Cyril's high praise is not Mariolatry, worshiping Mary for her own sake (reflecting later practices). As Richard Price explains, critiquing this misreading:

"For Michael O'Carroll this passage is an 'inspired utterance' that hails Mary as the 'mediatress' through whom are wrought 'all the glories of salvation and sanctification'. But how is it that Mary can be described as the one 'through whom holy baptism comes to believers...through whom churches have been founded throughout the world'? Only because all this is the work of Christ, whose work of redemption was initiated by his birth from the Virgin. Mary's essential role was her indispensable contribution to the incarnation; Cyril felt no need at all to expatiate on her holiness or to claim that she possessed unique powers of intercession. It is Christ who remains the unique Advocate on behalf of the human race, while to claim for Mary patronage over her devotees akin that exercised by other saints would have been to demean rather than exalt her. Cyril's 'high' Mariology did not make him a promoter of the cult of Mary". (Ibid, 98)

Cyril's Mariology is a subset of his Christology. That's why Cyril locked horns with Nestorius and challenged him at Ephesus. It's not simply whether it's right or not to call Mary Theotokos. Rather, it's about the identity of Jesus. Is Jesus the Word of God? Or is Jesus a man who simply was united with/to the Logos? If the Logos was not the passive subject of Mary birthing Him, then who was? You have to posit another subject, which degraded Christ as it sought to preserve the difference between Creator and creation. Nestorius thought this term suggested some kind of Greek myth, as if a human could bring forth divinity. On top of it, it seemed unbecoming for God to be the subject in such a process. In contrast, Cyril saw God's glory radiate in how the Most High became lowborn. It was precisely through the Logos taking on human flesh (though the human body and soul was not confused or mixed up with divine attributes) that made salvation possible. God's power was not diminished in such a change, but exemplified. Human flesh didn't contaminate the Logos, but radiated with His power. Cyril's image, from Origen, was iron taking the properties of fire when heated up in it.

For Cyril, Christ was exalted through Mary, without detracting from her very human stature. To make the point, see how Cyril describes Mary in his Commentary on John:

"He introduces as standing by the cross his mother and the other women with her, and it is clear that they were weeping. The female sex is always somewhat tearful and particularly prone to lamentation when it has an abundant cause for the shedding of tears. What is it then that induced the blessed evangelist to go into trivial details and mention the transgression of the women? His reason was to show this- that the Passion in its unexpectedness had caused even the mother of the Lord to fall, as it appears, and that the death on the cross, being extremely bitter, made her depart to some extent from the thoughts that were fitting, as did also the insults of the Jews and the mocking of the one who had been hung by the soldiers stationed by the cross, and the way they dared to divide up his clothes in the very sight of his mother. For you need not doubt that she admitted into her mind thoughts of the following kind: 'I gave birth to the one who is mocked on the tree. Perhaps in saying that he was the true Son of almighty God he was mistaken. He was apparently in error when he said, "I am the Life." Why was he crucified? Why was he caught in some way in the snares of the murderers? Why did he not defeat the plots of his persecutors? Why does he not come down from the cross, even though he ordered Lazarus to come back to life and amazed all Judea with his miracles?'

It is extremely probable that a mere woman, ignorant of the mystery, was deceived into thoughts of this kind. For we must conceive in all justice that the nature of the events was sufficient to upset even a sober mind[...]For we remember that the righteous Symmeon, when he took the Lord as an infant into his arms, as it is written, gave thanks...and said to the holy virgin, 'Behold this is for the fall and the raising of many in Israel, and a sign to be spoken against. And your own soul a sword shall pierce, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed'. By 'sword' he meant the sharp onset of grief that cleaves the mind of a woman and stimulates misguided thoughts" (Cyril, Commentary on John, 12 quoted from Richard Price etc. 96-97; bold added)

St. Cyril doesn't try to take away from Mary's need for salvation. She too was saved through the one she bore into the world. Even the blessed virgin Mary was not immune to the same darkness that fell upon the disciples. She too is driven to doubt, fear, and loss, not knowing all these things had to take place. She too lacked the perfection that would come through her son. We ought to revere Mary as the one through whom Christ came into the world.