THE HUMAN CREATION OF MAN AND WOMAN
THE HUMAN CREATION OF MAN AND WOMAN

Summary/Abstract: Much has been written in the theology of all the Churches about the creation of man, as man and woman, and about the image of God in the human being. But it has often been overlooked that man manifests himself in this capacity in the world, even if the image expresses not only man's relationship with the world, but primarily his relationship with God. The Holy Fathers spoke of a certain seal of God placed in the world, of a form of divine wisdom imprinted in the world; they saw in the world a set of reasons of the Logos. This is the foundation of Orthodox anthropology, as well as of any Christian anthropology. Through the image of God in his being, which is the image of the Trinity, man was created for a life of communion and not for autonomy or bondage to the world. Today's gender theories make use of an altered interpretation of the biblical verse in certain rabbinic traditions, which speak of the man with female orifices or of the primitive androgynous man (as it appears in the Babylonian Talmud), aspects vehemently condemned by the Holy Fathers. Patristic theology shows that the world is created in such a way as to help man to his spiritual growth. The world is thus formed to lead man to ever deeper and enlightening meanings; it is built as a ladder by which man can advance to its abysses and heights and illuminate his way to the One who laid the foundations of the world and Who created man in the image of the Creator. Created last in the order of the creation of the world, man is also the highest of all creatures, being at the midpoint in creation and making the connection between the sensible and the intelligible world. We have mentioned that the maximum union with God, to which we ascend by virtue, cannot mean the immersion in the ocean of an impersonal infinity, as is the theory of gender. This could no longer mean a man deified by grace (in the blessing of marriage as a man and a woman), but distinct from God in being, but a single and indistinct deity.

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