a layman's thoughts ~ (Symbols)The Blessed Theotokos and her over-emphasis or her under-emphasis error

   Glory to God!

   When we over emphasize the Theotokos as co-redemptrix or as a fourth person of the Godhead, in this symbolism or teaching, we take the symbol of the created or female and raise the created order above the level of the uncreated or Divine. We make the symbol and its representative female part in reality, in the real world, as above or equal to God who is represented as  (an Icon only by man) the Uncreated. Hence, this error leads to a different view of women or too lofty a view exalting herself above the male and causing disorder in society. Where the created order attempts to trump the Uncreated or Divine order or unity therein, which can never work in bringing harmony, it only serves as an imbalance to things or a disordered existence, fallen.
   When we devalue the Theotokos or regard her as only a footnote in history, a stepping stone of small importance in the path for the salvation of the world, we also error. For we make the "her" of little importance as to her blessedness that was to receive God in her womb. This symbolism has grand importance to the proper place of the Theotokos and the women she represents as the "yes" to Eve's "no," as well as the human element's role in the salvation of the world by God. This devaluation of the Theotokos in equal measure brings the symbol of femininity as the created part too low and of little role in the process to Salvation of the world and man. For in her womb the Uncreated unites with the created and this Salvation or the road to its potential in reality is not possible without the virtue of the Theotokos and the virtue of her womb or the "Ark" of the New Covenant. Thus, this erasing of her value to the world for her Great sacrifice is equally harmful to the role of the virtue of women today. Her model, her sacrifice represents the virtue of all women since Eve, and without this emphasis, women suffer, mostly in the West, based on this idea of not knowing if their virtue is a real substantive virtue to be modeled after the Theotokos, or if they are only to attempt to be like fallen men and strive for power, wealth, "sexual freedom," etc... rather than be like the Theotokos and embody perfect striving or the heavenly "yes" rather than the fallen "no." In her is the perfect human response (created) to God (Uncreated) and is the runway to the reality of the God-man being born, uniting God and man forever.
  When, through, bad teaching we overemphasis or devalue the role of the Theotokos, we mess with the symbol of the feminine and the masculine with real world consequences, the created and Uncreated, which work as one clinging to each other forever. Christ the Divine and Uncreated united with the created in perfect union to restore human nature and defeat Hades and the devil forever. Taking on human nature in order to make it like God, theosis. But this would not have been possible without the "yes"... the human part, feminine part, required as the "Ark" which was the created symbol and is and was not a passive part, but an essential part to the work that would fulfill the prophecies and bless the whole world; she was not just a tool used by God. And when we mess with these symbols in any way too much or too little, the consequence is real in the attitude of women and their roles in marriage, child-raising, in the family, in the work place, and in the world in all aspects that is woman, the created essential symbol. When we mess with the symbolism and what it represents, it soon begins to mess with us and society, ringing out into the cosmos. We create an imbalance that has real-world effects to our society both micro and macro.
   We begin to see these in some churches which over-stress the feminine at the expense of the masculine raising the fallen created element and destroying the faith and proper worship of God. And the same goes in the under-stress, and therefore, creating an imbalance and an over-stress of the masculine and therefore the importance of the female is relegated to a footnote in history and women have suffered for this as their virtue becomes unimportant and hence raises their idea of "freedom" to the sexual expression "sexual power" as the end in itself rather than virtue as the rightful gift to man and God, in the ultimate of this coming together in the unification of God and man in the God-man: Christ eternal!

"... the one who in perfect love and purity of heart would surrender her whole being to God and become a vessel worthy to bear the Son of God in the flesh. The Most Blessed Virgin Mary is, therefore, the final and consummate act in God's program of preparation. From her inviolate womb comes forth the Messiah of Israel--- the One Who, in His flesh, is the fulfillment of all the promises of God to Israel and to the world."1

~ Clark Carlton

 "The Bible exalts woman as the instrument of spiritual receptivity in human nature... its capacity to receive the divine"2

~ Paul Evdokimov

   Symbols have deep, deep meanings in theology or "a word about God" and hence when destroyed, also decay the very people that they were implemented to cure and help save via the Church of Christ. Once these churches, social halls, secular houses, feel-good churches apostasy by turning these symbols on their heads, there is cause and effect to real flesh and blood, real people. This is not a "rational" church where discursive reasoning and nominalism, feminism,  humanism, secularism and scientism are the methods to truth, or an end in itself, but where the mystical, the nous ,or the intuitive aspect of the soul comes to life and knows God by His energies and communes with him and is revealed the meaning of the symbols and knowing things from within themselves and not an exterior and superficial knowledge that changes with the next new idea or finding. This is crucial to not tamper with the symbols and the proper worship of God through Eucharistic, Body and Blood, and Scripture, and Church life as tradition has passed down.
  By worshipping Mary, we do a dishonor towards God by elevating created humanity to the level of the Godhead. By limiting or demeaning her treasured importance, we dishonor the role mankind played and plays in the salvation plan itself and we dishonor God. And we dishonor women, her elevation, her virtue in becoming, and The Woman, who without having anything to do with man's seed, bore the God-man Christ to the salvation of the world. Both these extreme views are in error.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and with the prayers of Saint Peter, the intercession prayers of St. Demetrios and Saint Paisios of the Mount Athos. May we all be changed by the divine love of Jesus Christ to a good account before the awesome judgment seat of Christ unto life everlasting. Glory to God.

Source of quotes:

1 & 2 The Faith: Understanding Orthodox Christianity, An Orthodox Catechism, Clark Carlton, Regina Orthodox Press, 1997 pp. 94, 119.

Quote by Fr. Dimitru Staniloae

"The glory to which man is called is that he should grow more godlike by growing ever more human."

Fr. Dimitru Staniloae