The Virgin Mary (Heb: Miryam; Grk: Maria) is the mother of Jesus Christ in the New Testament texts (most notably, the gospels of Luke and Matthew). Throughout history, the importance of the mother of Jesus Christ has been interpreted broadly by religious traditions, including Roman Catholicism, Orthodox Christianities, and Protestant denominations as well as theologians within each of these traditions. Each has contributed to a deep hermeneutical tradition of Marian studies. The Virgin Mary is often referred to as “Maria” (Ave Maria), “Mother of God,” “The Blessed Virgin,” “Mater Dolorosa” (mother of Jesus providing maternal care at crucifixion) (Pelikan 1996, pp. 14–15), “The Second Eve,” and “Mother of the People.” In Eastern Christian traditions, Mary took on the title of “Theotokos,” which has often been understood in translations from the Greek as “Mother of God” (Latin: Mater Dei; German: Mutter Gottes) but is more precisely translated as “the one who gave birth to the one who...
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Elia, A.J. (2020). Virgin Mary. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_729
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