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There was an incident in the early church where a teaching arose that Jesus was not God, but a created being, not co eternal with the Father. Those who believed this way called Mary "Christotokos" - literally, the one who gave birth to Christ. The Church insisted that Mary gave birth to God the Son, and so insisted on calling Mary "Theotokos" - the one who gave birth to God. This title is not one of honor to Mary so much as it is a doctrinal teaching about Jesus! It is the common teaching of the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.
"Theotokos" does not mean to imply that Mary is the mother of God the Father, nor of God the Holy Spirit, but affirms that her son Jesus was true God. Those who deny that Mary is Theotokos must be very careful not to deny that Jesus is God the Son in the same breath. The Church hashed this out very carefully 1500 years ago!
A little understanding can go a long way to using this term without fear of elevating Mary to the Godhead. It was never meant to do that, and is not used that way by Orthodox or Roman Catholic Christians.
The decision to call Mary "Theotokos" was made in the Third Ecumenical Council in 431 A.D. -- the same one that forbade changes to the Nicene Constantinopolitan Creed.
Both consider Mary to be "ever-virgin" -- meaning that she retained her virginity throughout her life, and was specially prepared by God to be the mother of the incarnate Logos. The "brothers and sisters" mentioned in the gospels could also have been translated as "cousins", as the term is not precise. The Orthodox in particular consider Joseph to have been an older man, possibly with children from an earlier marriage (he was presumably, then, a widower).
She is the new Eve because it was through her that the Savior came into the world, who overcame the sin our first parents Adam and Eve thousands of years earlier.
There is some difference in the amount of devotion paid to Mary; a little less among the Orthodox, but she is highly featured as a saint and as one who intercedes for us, as do all the saints.
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