THE PROBLEM OF GENDER: PERSPECTIVE OF PATRISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY
Skaidrīte Gūtmane
European Christian Academy, Jūrmala, Latvia
Laimutė Anužienė
St. Ignatius Loyola College, Kaunas, Lithuania
Keywords: Gender, Trinitarian structure of personality, gender as archetypal mark.
Abstract:
The problem of gender in the 21st century is due to increased global awareness, activism, and a growing understanding of the economic and social costs. Today, we can see a dramatic shift in conventional gender roles as a result of changing cultural connections and the growth of worldwide ideological movements. The positions and roles of women and men in society have attracted scholarly attention.
The study investigates the “innovations from antiquity” (I. Wallerstein) regarding the issue, emphasising mutuality. Newer perspectives highlight Patristic anthropology and the New Testament principle of equality in Christ, and promote an idea of mutuality in relationships, in which both partners submit to each other. An old but innovative paradigm for the 21st century embraces marriage phenomena through LOGOS and Church Sacramentology.
Gregory of Nyssa (ca 335 – ca 395) was a Cappadocian father who argued the true human form created in God’s image. Another Church Father, Maximus the Confessor (580 – 662), assigned the highest hierarchical priority to the hypostasis in the man that unifies the human body and soul. The key feature of human conformity to God is the hypostatic nature unity of the objective reality of a human.
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