Male and Female

Much of the social, political, cultural, and religious fabrics in society within the Judeo-
Christian tradition has been determined by men for thousands of years, and we take it
as passively submission that this is “human nature”. All too often, the voices of women
have been silenced. While Jesus did much to liberate women, the cultural, philosophical
and biblical influenced which were deeply shaped by theology and church life, viewed
women as inferior to men- too often as evil and less human beings. However, Christian
anthropology should emphasize on dignity, freedom, equality, and mutuality of men and
women.
Clearly, the scriptures are a key source for Christian tradition in understanding of man,
women, sexuality, and the world around them. They cannot be approached however as
a source of timeless objective truths. The composition and interpretation of the
Scriptures depends on the historical context. This does not mean that we have to
question the authority of the Scriptures, but to understand the truth of revelation must
not be confused with the various cultural, philosophical, religious and scientific
presuppositions of the biblical writers.
What is central is the human-divine hierarchy. God shares God’s dominion with
humanity; both women and men in order that they might actively image this dominion
in and over creation. Created male and female, both sexes may be seen as equal in
dignity and authority. Neither the story of the creation of the female from the rib of a
male justifies such hierarchy; that male are superior. Male came from dust.
The point of origin is that both male and female roles are related to marriage. The man
leaves the family and works and the woman is the “helper” to the man. But even this
idea, refers to a partnership for survival rather than that one sex is inferior to the other.

Genesis 3:1 says that the serpent was the most cunning among all the animals that God
had created. It knew that the Lord had commanded Adam to eat fruit from all of the
trees in the garden except for the tree of knowledge of good and evil. So, the serpent
decided to tempt Adam’s wife. The woman claimed that God had forbidden her from
eating of the tree lest she be killed. The serpent, however, countered her belief and told
her that the fruit would not kill her, but give her knowledge equal to that of God. The
woman ate the fruit and, afterwards, convinced Adam to do so as well.
The divine willed equality is destroyed by human sin. Its terrible consequences
alienation and hierarchy between the sexes, disruption of the harmony od creation,
suffering and death, are the result of sin, a pervasion of God’s plan for creation. Equality
and partnership between the sexes and human dominion of creation degenerate into
exploitation and domination. Tradition, cultural, and political influences form the basis
of the New Testament perspectives on sexuality.

In Corinthians 1, addressing certain liturgical problems, the subordination of women in

the order of worship is clear. Women[ should remain silent in the churches. They are not
allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. 35 If they want to inquire
about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a
woman to speak in the church. On the other hand, in Galatians 3:28, where Paul brings
his Gospel of freedom from the law in the spirit to its interpretation, he writes that for
the baptized, there is neither a Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female. All are
“one in Christ Jesus”. In the Greek church, we do follow both of the Corithians 1 and
Galatians 3:28. women and men are the same when the get baptized as the Galatians
say. But after that we follow the Corinthians and women have no certain role in the
church- remain silent, ask husband/dad to do or say.

Jesus helped Women

Noteworthy is the independence and activity of women in the early church in nearly every form
of ministry. Doubtless, this has its roots in the very ministry of Jesus. Women were among his
closest friends and truest disciples. They were the first witnesses to the resurrection. For
example, the story about the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7 reveal how unusual and open
his relationships with women were.

Syrophoenician woman: The woman who approaches Jesus breaks through every traditional
barrier that should prevent her from doing so. She is “a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin”
(Mark 7:26). In other words, she is implicitly impure, one who lives outside of the land of Israel
and outside of the law of Moses, a descendant of the ancient enemies of Israel. She is also a
woman, unaccompanied by a husband or male relative, who initiates a conversation with a
strange man — another taboo transgressed. On top of all of this, her daughter is possessed by a
demon. Although we are not told exactly how the demon affected her daughter, we can
probably guess from other stories about demon-possessed people that it made her act in
bizarre and anti-social ways. This woman and her daughter were not the kind of family most
people would be likely to invite over for dinner. Any way you look at it, this woman is an
outsider. And what is more, Jesus actually has the nerve to say as much to her face. When the
woman falls at his feet and begs him to heal her daughter, Jesus says, “Let the children be fed
first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” (Mark 7:27). The
“children” in this statement are the children of Israel, the “little dogs” (kunaria) are understood
to be all other peoples. Jesus response was harsh but in Matthew’s version of this story, Jesus
begins by saying, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”. After a ot of begging
from this woman Jesus said to her” The demon has left your daughter”. As she returned back to
see her daughter, the demon in reality has left her daughter. In this case this woman was an
outsider. She had a child but no husband, she was poor, and she was not a Jew. But Jesus
helped her either way.

Sex and Gender

Scholars in many fields are calling our attention to differences between the sexes to which we
are previously blind. Are they different one to require dual anthropologies? Scripture,
experience and current research seem to say No. Scripture affirms that human nature is shared.
Humanity is one nature which subsists in two distinct models, male or female. We may speak of
“human nature” or the “human condition” but we have to be sure that both men and women
are speaking.

I will discuss now the gender and sex roles. So, sex (male or female) is a biological fact. Gender
refers to complex process of socialization- it involves what it means to me a male(masculine)
and female (feminine). This si where the issues of gender and sexual identity comes nd are
comploicated. While the difference between male and female is a question of universal and
constant biological factors, while what is considered to be masculine and feminine is netheir
universal nor constant. There is no justification to conclude that there are certain roles which
are exclusively proper to one sex or the other.

For biblical faith, freedom is the central characteristic of human nature. The essence of this
freedom is the capacity and responsibility with other persons and with God. While each one of
us is determined by a number of physical, biological, cultural and so on factors, our human
nature is to a greater extent something which God has empowered us to freely imagine,
create, and shape. Beyond the biological, what is means to be a man or a woman, masculine or
feminine, is and remains a mystery, something open-ended, and full of possibilities. Experience
teaches us that sexual, gender and role identity have always been constructed by powerful
human forces, societal, cultural and religious. Realizing that these realities are, to a large
extent, our creations and not divinely established orders, we must assume responsibility for
them, and seek to ensure that humanity male and female reflects on freedom, equality, and
dignity. Gender roles are socially constructed and whatever is socially constructed can be
redefined, destroyed, rebuilt, and remade.

Sexuality and Human Relationships

In relationships of freedom, equality, and dignity, men and women are called to creative
partnership with God. This includes not only our personal relationships, but the importance of
human labor and the development of the world. It would seem that marriage and family life in
which they are partnership relationships will be actualized to men and women, but it is not the
only one. Sexuality, human development, and productive engagement in the world are basic
issues for single persons and for gays and lesbians, and all LGBTQ+ community. Moral
theologians are faced with a crucial and extremely difficult task as they attempt to articulate
how the Bible can function as a norm in decisions about all sexual matters. Obviously, listening
to the voices of experience is absolutely essential. Human are social beings and they need
others for survival. In the erotic love, male or female, homosexual or heterosexual, single,
married, the real test is whether or not we love others in the real otherness or whether we
want to take possession of them and make them an extension of ourselves. Sex is not the only
way to express love, but it is the most intimate and powerful. Like any other aspects of our
lives, it can be also thoughtless and even exploitative. It is one of the most basic powers in
human existence of liberation or domination, fulfillment or alienation, grace or sin.

In the New Testament, love between god and people is defined as AGAPE. Selfless,
disinterested, and above all dispassionate which Christians are supposed to have for others. Of
course, this definition is in question and sometimes contradicts eros or romantic love. Eros can
be self-directed and possessive. I think such a view of eros is wrong. In the present context, in
our lives, no matter the circumstances, everything about us as humans is ultimately directed
towards and finds fulfillment in others, in the human community, and finally in God.

Soul and Body

Everything in life, society , church and liturgy has made us think that a human
being is divided into the body and the soul. It is obvious what the body is. I can
touch it, feel it, embrace it, and probe it. Each one of us have a soul. But the soul
does not have a single definition. If I ask each one of you to tell me what love is,
the answer will be different every time. Maybe life-principle, ego, personality, real
self, maybe the part of the person that lives on after the person is dead would be
some of the answers. The average Christian views the soul as something
immortal, the real self, immaterial, and something that is non-bodily considered.
The body is viewed as a place for the soul to grow, for after death the soul is
separated from the body and enters eternal reward or punishment. The
separation of body and soul were very important and popular in ancient Greek
philosophy, especially in Platonism and in subsequent cultural areas in the West
like Descartes, rather than the biblical understanding of the human person as an
integral whole.

In English Bibles, the soul is translated to the Old Testament meaning: breath, life,
person or self. In Genesis 2:7, we learn that when God blew breath into Adam,
Adam became a human being. Hebrew does not have a special word for the
body. However, in the Psalms we find many examples of parallelism, in which the
word for flesh or other body words like heart are used as synonyms to the word
of soul and not to designate a contrasting component part. For example, “Oh
God, you are my God whom I seek, for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts…
Soul and flesh, either alone or together, stand for the total living person.

The Hebrews associated what we think as “spirituals” with the body. The heart is
the body of intelligence, will, and desire, the liver is the organ for consciousness,
grief, and bitterness. Thinking and feeling are essential bodily activities.
Reduction of life or self to a soul, or to the body for that matter are unknown.
Turning to the NT, we find that the world “psyche” is used in much the same way.
Psyche refers to real physical, individual flesh and blood, mortal life. Psyche
includes the whole realm of feelings, emmotions and attitudes. Sarx refers to the
whole living human being or humanity as a whole.

The issue is not between the opposition between the soul and the body, but
between a sinful humanity and the spirit of the wholy God. Writing for the
resurrection to the Corinthians, he says “ a natural body is sown and a spiritual
body is comes up”.

Soma refers neither to the corpse nor the complement of the soul. As Corinthians
15 show, the resurrection of the body is understood to be God’s creative
transformation of mortal bodiliness as such. It is the total action upon the total
person, not simply the ongoing survival of some “immortal part of the self”. The
point is precisely the fact that is our whole lived, corruptible, mortal human life
that will enter resurrection. Death is easily swallowed up, but the Spirit of God not
simply avoided by an immortal soul. Paul is talking about a transformation so
wondrous in nature that he cannot even try to describe it.

God has come to save the world, not to save us from it. The familiar saying that
“You cannot take anything with you after you die”, but is our faith that God will
take us and everything in our world will be transformed into a new heaven and a
new earth.

Church Doctrine and theology

The Bible is not very interested in between the distinction or contrast of body and
soul. The church has rejected those views because it is believed that it
transformed the person as something material or spiritual. Some believed that
the material world and the body were inherently evil. Such views were rejected by
the church. In the 13th century, the Aristotelian philosophy gave a classic
formulation for theology: the soul is the substantial part of the body. Body and
soul are not two separate entities which are joined together. There can be no
body without a soul as its inner form of existence and expression. Similarly, there
is no such thing as human soul which is not related to the body.

These two dimensions are found in separately in the mystery of a single human
person in a way that is not clearly distinguishable. For example, I, a self who
exists only as body, but I always refuse to be reduced simply to a body. I am
somebody, I have a body, but I am something more than that. Is is the whole, not
only the body and not only the soul who is created in God’s image.

The traditional way of body and soul tries to remind us of: the divine depth and
destiny of the ordinary, and the unique capacity and responsibility we have as
transcendent beings to enter into a free and active relationship with others, with
the world and with God, and so to shape in some way the future.

Sin
This is the easiest verified doctrine in Christianity. The church teaches us that the
voice of conscience within every person summons us to obey the fundamental
moral law by God: “Love the good and avoid the evil”. In particular circumstances,
it may be more specific, do this or that, avoid this, this is right and this is wrong.
For example, in Greek church is still a sin to eat meat on Friday. For most
churches this was a sin but now it is not. However, today the church speaks more
clearly about the social sin.

Sin is seen as a transgression of a divine command, rebellion against God and

God’s authority- unsatisfied with the way God made us. For example, when Adam
and Eve were told not to eat the apple and they did was considered a sin. After
human evil was spread so quickly that God decided to destroy everything by
flood. He saved only the animals and a small family. The ancient writers also
understood the luck of communication in “Babel” with different languages and
cultures as a sin, because the people wanted to be like God.

In all its forms, sin consists of turning away from God with a hardened heart and
stiffened neck. Saying NO to the only one who has who is capable of offering life
that will last. Sin is idolatry. No life can come from from Gods who are made of
stone and wood by mortal hands. Since the Lord alone is God, who created the
heaven and earth, such a turning from God is suicidal; and can only lead to death.

Selfishness, greed, revenge, and every form of injustice that destroys the life and
disintegrates the community are the daily forms of idolatry. Turning away from
brothers and sisters in the world, we turn away from God. Only God can forgive
sins. Covenant and communion are God’s free gift, so forgiveness and restoration
to communion are also free gifts.

Paraptoma: means misstep; a violation of social ethics. Being angry to someone

who expressed their opinion.

Parabasis” transgression, for example, something in a serious manner- like

cheating on a test or cheating on a spouse.

Hamaria as the book says is missing the mark or a flaw that can lead a hero
downfall. For example, excessive pride and self-confidence. Paul describes
hamartia as a war within ones self- which always leads to death. Sin can be the
refusal to accept and live according to God’s free gift of love.

Both the OT and the NT emphasize that sin is a social reality. John Paul II states
that every sin even the most intimate and secret one, the most strictly individual
ones has repercussions on the whole community and in some measure upon the
whole human family. Whatever he had in mind, it seems that the most sin, is a
direct offense or failure of love toward the neighbor. On a larger scale, class
straggle, obstinate confrontation between blocks and nations, racial or ethnic
oppression are all examples of evil because it reflects social structures as a result
of personal sin.

Death is the reality and power of sin become visible. All human beings are
born into a world where which has been deeply wounded from the very
beginning by human sin. Therefore, no one can escape from human sin, even
from those sins which we are not personally responsible. Which is true,
because as human beings we cannot escape society when we are a part of it.
We cannot escape human condition as a whole. Our freedom is not free.

Sin means that my personal actions which I myself perform and for which I am
responsible for. Of course I am affected by the sins of others but I am not
accountable for them. Original sins is when I, my actions affect other people.

Adam is the first-born of the human race which suffers enslavement and death
because of a sin. As such, he is the figure of Christ, the “Final Adam” who by
obedience became the first-born from the dead- the one who destroyed
death and gives life. The gift of God in Christ far surpasses the offense of
Adam and brings righteousness and life for all. The saving action of God in
Christ originates grace for us while we are yet sinners. Christian life exists in a
dialectic between of sin and grace. While we are all children of Adam as
sinners, we have been made children of God by grace. The grace, God’s love
and life-giving power, is nothing less than participation in the divine life of the
spirit. It was God’s plan even before the beginning of the world.