Okay, here's more detail, as promised.
Human beings consist of both body and soul. The body is biological, and is sexed. The soul, as spiritual, is not in itself sexed. The angels, which are pure spirit, are not sexed. God, who is pure spirit, is not sexed. Because we humans have biological, sexed bodies, our whole being is informed by this sexed nature. We engender our being into the world as either male or female, depending on the type of body we were created with. After we die, our souls will not be sexed in the biological sense, but our personalities will nevertheless be inextricably tied up with our experience as sexed beings. And, of course, we believe that God will ultimately reunite us with our bodies in the new creation, and those bodies will certainly be sexed.
In short, we would not say that an individual soul is male or female, but we would say that an individual soul is of a man or a woman.
Now, because we are created in God's image as male and female, our engendered nature reflects something of the nature of God. On a fundamental, biological level, the relationship between the sexes is that man initiates and gives, and woman responds and receives. Obviously the relationship between men and women has many more dimensions than that, but fundamentally, when man and woman come to union, particularly and clearly in the sexual act, it follows that basic pattern.
In the spiritual life, God always initiates. As Augustine says, "Late have I loved thee, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new." God initiates from the very moment of our creation, and we can do nought but respond. God gives us everything we have, and we can do nought but receive. The Word of God goes forth, becomes incarnate, seeks out fallen man, and gives everything, even His life, to win us over. Throughout the Old Testament, God uses spousal imagery to refer to the chosen people of Israel. In the New Testament, Paul refers to the Church as the bride of Christ, and in Revelations we see the wedding feast of Christ the Lamb with his bride.
Thus, each of us is always in a position of receiving and responding to what God has done first. The spousal imagery in Scripture is no accident. In the relationship between the sexes, man reveals something about how God reaches out to us, pursues us, and seeks to win us over, and woman reveals something about how we are created for Him, to receive and return His love.
That is why I say that, in an analogical sense, every soul is female.
Michael J
npub1wq…cqsyn
2023-11-01 05:17:26
in reply to nevent1q…w790
Author Public Key
npub1wqfzz2p880wq0tumuae9lfwyhs8uz35xd0kr34zrvrwyh3kvrzuskcqsynPublished at
2023-11-01 05:17:26Event JSON
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"content": "Okay, here's more detail, as promised.\n\nHuman beings consist of both body and soul. The body is biological, and is sexed. The soul, as spiritual, is not in itself sexed. The angels, which are pure spirit, are not sexed. God, who is pure spirit, is not sexed. Because we humans have biological, sexed bodies, our whole being is informed by this sexed nature. We engender our being into the world as either male or female, depending on the type of body we were created with. After we die, our souls will not be sexed in the biological sense, but our personalities will nevertheless be inextricably tied up with our experience as sexed beings. And, of course, we believe that God will ultimately reunite us with our bodies in the new creation, and those bodies will certainly be sexed.\n\nIn short, we would not say that an individual soul is male or female, but we would say that an individual soul is of a man or a woman.\n\nNow, because we are created in God's image as male and female, our engendered nature reflects something of the nature of God. On a fundamental, biological level, the relationship between the sexes is that man initiates and gives, and woman responds and receives. Obviously the relationship between men and women has many more dimensions than that, but fundamentally, when man and woman come to union, particularly and clearly in the sexual act, it follows that basic pattern.\n\nIn the spiritual life, God always initiates. As Augustine says, \"Late have I loved thee, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new.\" God initiates from the very moment of our creation, and we can do nought but respond. God gives us everything we have, and we can do nought but receive. The Word of God goes forth, becomes incarnate, seeks out fallen man, and gives everything, even His life, to win us over. Throughout the Old Testament, God uses spousal imagery to refer to the chosen people of Israel. In the New Testament, Paul refers to the Church as the bride of Christ, and in Revelations we see the wedding feast of Christ the Lamb with his bride.\n\nThus, each of us is always in a position of receiving and responding to what God has done first. The spousal imagery in Scripture is no accident. In the relationship between the sexes, man reveals something about how God reaches out to us, pursues us, and seeks to win us over, and woman reveals something about how we are created for Him, to receive and return His love.\n\nThat is why I say that, in an analogical sense, every soul is female.",
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