FORWARD
It is sometimes said that as religion consists in
communion with GOD, GOD and humanity are somehow alike, and that human nature
is meant to be a reflection of divine nature. So that, as humanity has three
phases– fatherhood, motherhood, childhood- these must have their counterparts
in the Godhead. It seems that since the 1960s, our society has been in an
uproar as women everywhere seek their rightful place. At the point of separation by GOD, both Adam and Eve, together,
represented a complete human being, male and female; neither male alone nor
female alone represented the fullness of humanity, as Imago Dei. And from the moment of separation of Adam
and Eve to the present time, the fullness of humanity has been in a divided
state, and there is a real need to define the place of the female as it relates
to being Imago Dei, the image of GOD. This may be due in part to the fact that
in our society GOD is represented as male, and therefore many women really are
not sure of themselves as made in the image and likeness of GOD.
Controversy raged for a long time in the Church over
the Biblical passage in Genesis 1:27 that says: “So GOD created man in His own
image. In the image of GOD created He him: male and female He created them.”
This passage demonstrates that male and female were made at the same time. GOD
breathed the spirit of humanity, (male and female), into the physical, male
body known as Adam.
When GOD originally created humanity in the form of
Adam, Adam contained the male and the female essence, and therefore Adam
represented the fullness of what it meant to be a human being, for to be a
complete human is to be at once male and female. Once the female essence was
removed from Adam, he was still male, but he was no longer all that represented
humanity; he was no longer complete because he no longer represented the
fullness of what it meant to be a human.
Plato, the philosopher, was one of the first to
propose that humanity was originally both male and female and were separated.
The Church admitted the synthesis of male and female essences in Adam; Adam
must have had the potentialities of both sexes, since part of him could be used
to make the female organism. The implications of this did not escape the
Church, and at one point any bisexual interpretation of this passage in Genesis
was condemned. Still, the female was and is an essential part of all that is
considered humanity. And, when sin separated humanity (in the physical form of
Adam and Eve) from GOD, humanity, both male and female representatives, was no
longer spiritually complete.
We know that Scripture in Genesis 1:27 identifies
being in the image of GOD with both female and male. Neither male alone nor
female alone can completely reflect Imago Dei, the image of GOD. And since
Scripture supports the position that humanity was created in the image of GOD
it is conceivable that there is male and female representation in the Godhead.
One of the two phases of humanity (male and female) is clear in the Godhead fatherhood
in connection with Great GOD Almighty, and childhood in connection with Jesus
the Son of GOD. However, there is no female representation in the family; and,
as religion continues to fulfill the important function of helping people to
cope with situations such as death, evil, suffering, birth, sexuality, and
death, women continue to feel the need for a religion that gives them support
and identity as women.