Without irony or sarcasm, I really do wonder why there has been an effort to import the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Theotokos in the Orthodox community.
I do not question the reason why this doctrine persists in the Roman community. It seems to me that it is necessary if you accept a essential division of nature and grace.
But I thought that this division is out of place in Orthodox theology. And thus, Mary -- in the humanity that has always been essentially graceful, despite the Fall -- needed nothing extra to be the Theotokos, or even to be sinless and ever-pure. I do not question her exceptionality: she was exceptional precisely in that she was the most successful at being human (excepting, of course, her Son, the Godman).
Now, if one gravitates toward the notion of total depravity, in which human nature has become totally disabled after the Fall, then I suppose one would have to gravitate toward Immaculate Conception. The Virgin would thus be set apart from this totalizing sense of complete disaster of Original Sin, and also "inoculated" against the possibility of personal sin.
Again, this sort of thinking is really not traditional in the Orthodox community. I don't think that Mary needed anything more than I received in my constant creatureliness -- and thus, her faithfulness and meekness is all the more heroic.
She seems to be the best and greatest minister of Divine Wisdom in the creaturely world (angels included). I think, too, that this sort of Wisdom, from Genesis through Sirach to Revelations and beyond, is so shot through Creation that it cannot be divided into nature with, on one hand, and without, on the other, grace.
I think that for the most part, this Orthodox welcome, by some, of the Immaculate Conception represents a courteous sensitivity to our Roman friends. I know that Fr Lev Gillet suggested that this doctrine can be held at least as "theologoumena" (i.e., private opinion), especially with an eye toward such rapprochement.
I'm all for rapprochement, and for unity (with the preservation of difference, of course). But, speaking only for myself, I think that the Immaculate Conception does not square with a non-juridical ontology.
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