Mary — the yes.
The incarnation turned on a consent: let it be done to me. The most depicted woman in history, because the doctrine needed a mother.
Mary marks a real divide in emphasis rather than a simple disagreement. Catholic and Orthodox devotion is extensive — perpetual virginity, the Assumption or Dormition, and in Catholic teaching the Immaculate Conception — and both traditions insist this is veneration directed toward her Son. Most Protestants honor her as the model of faithful response and go no further, seeing the developments as unwarranted. All sides agree on the title that started it: Theotokos, God-bearer, defined at Ephesus in 431 to protect a claim about Christ, not about Mary.
Let it be done to me according to your word.
Luke 1:38The consent — Christian tradition's pivot from announcement to incarnation.
My soul magnifies the Lord — for he has looked on the low estate of his servant. He has put down the mighty and exalted the lowly.
Luke 1:46–52, the MagnificatMary's own song, and it is a song about reversal of power.
The same ground, other faiths
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