Some early Protestant Reformers venerated and honored Mary.
Martin Luther said of Mary:
Zwingli said, "I esteem immensely the Mother of God" and "The more the honor and love of Christ increases among men, so much the esteem and honor given to Mary should grow". Thus the idea of respect and high honour was not rejected by the first Protestants; but rather it was the matter of degrees of honor given to Mary, as the mother of Jesus, that
Protestant Reformers were concerned with, and therefore the practical implications for
Mariology are still a matter of debate.
John Wycliffe The pre-Lutheran reformer
John Wycliffe reflected the Marian spirit of the
later Middle Ages in one of his earlier sermons: "It seems to me impossible that we should obtain the reward of Heaven without the help of Mary. There is no sex or age, no rank or position, of anyone in the whole human race, which has no need to call for the help of the Holy Virgin."
Martin Luther , Strasbourg Despite Luther's polemics against his Roman Catholic opponents over issues concerning Mary and the saints, theologians appear to agree that Luther adhered to the Marian decrees of the
ecumenical councils and dogmas of the church. He held fast to the belief that Mary was a
perpetual virgin, and the
Theotokos or
Mother of God. Special attention is given to the assertion that Luther, some 300 years before the dogmatization of the
Immaculate Conception by
Pope Pius IX in 1854, was a firm adherent of that view. Others maintain that Luther in later years changed his position on the Immaculate Conception, which, at that time was undefined in the Church, maintaining however the
sinlessness of Mary throughout her life. Regarding the
Assumption of Mary, he stated that the
Bible did not say anything about it. Important to him was the belief that Mary and the saints do live on after death. "Throughout his career as a priest-professor-reformer, Luther preached, taught, and argued about the veneration of Mary with a verbosity that ranged from childlike piety to sophisticated polemics. His views are intimately linked to his Christocentric theology and its consequences for liturgy and piety." Luther, while revering Mary, came to criticize the "Papists" for blurring the line, between high admiration of the grace of God wherever it is seen in a human being, and religious service given to another creature. He considered the Roman Catholic practice of making intercessory requests addressed especially to Mary and other departed saints to be
idolatry.
John Calvin John Calvin accepted Mary's
perpetual virginity and the title "Mother of God", in a qualified sense. However, he takes extreme exception to what he regards as the excessive veneration of the "Papists", honour which is due only to Jesus Christ. Calvin stated that Mary cannot be the advocate of the faithful, since she needs God's grace as much as any other human being. If the Catholic Church praises her as Queen of Heaven, it is blasphemous and contradicts her own intention, because she is praised and not God. Calvin expressed deep concern over its possible "superstitious" use of the title "Mother of God" from the teachings of the
Council of Ephesus: I do not doubt that there has been some ignorance in their having reproved this mode of speech, — that the Virgin Mary is the Mother of God … I cannot dissemble that it is found to be a bad practice ordinarily to adopt this title in speaking of this Virgin: and, for my part, I cannot consider such language as good, proper, or suitable… for to say, the Mother of God for the Virgin Mary, can only serve to harden the ignorant in their superstitions. , Germany.
Karl Barth Karl Barth (1886–1968), a
Reformed Protestant, was a leading 20th century theologian. Aware of the common dogmatic tradition of the early Church, Barth fully accepted the dogma of Mary as the
Mother of God. In his view, through Mary, Jesus belongs to the human race; through Jesus, Mary is Mother of God. Barth also agreed with the
Dogma of the
Virgin Birth. It meant to him that Jesus as a human does not have a father and that as the Son of God he has no mother. The Holy Spirit, through whom Mary conceived, is not just any spirit, but it is God himself whose act must be understood spiritually and not physically. Mary is "full of grace" according to Barth, but this grace is not earned but totally given to her. Regarding Mary's
virginity after birth, Barth argued that the Church adopted this position not because of Mary but in defence of its
Christology. Barth considered the Roman Catholic veneration of Mary a terrible mistake and
idolatrous heresy.
James Dunn New Testament scholar
James Dunn discusses the tradition of Catholic dulia and Marian Veneration in Augustine and Aquinas, mentioning that the new testament's use of δουλεία (pronounced dulia) is always used negatively. He states:"douleia occurs only in the sense of 'slavery, servility', and always in a negative sense – the slavery to physical corruption (Rom. 8.21), slavery to the law (Gal. 5.1), slavery to the fear of death (Heb. 2.15)" as well as the devil (cf. Heb 2.14–15 [Jesus' death breaks] the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death").
New Testament uses of "δουλεία" ==Issues in Protestant theology==