Redeeming The Feminine SoulSýnishorn

A Healthy Balance of Masculine and Feminine

God did not create Eve from the dust as He did Adam; Eve is formed from the rib of the man. So, as theologian Paul Evdokimov profoundly notes, “The creation of Eve is not a ‘creation,’ but a real birth; Eve is separated from Adam.” This is significant because it implies that before Eve’s creation—or birth—“Adam already contained in himself his constituent part, his ‘other half,’ Eve.” This interpretation is supported by the Hebrew words in this passage. The word used for Adam in his initial creation is adam, which according to Evdokimov means mankind, or man “in the collective sense.”

Initially Adam is not a differentiated, gendered person but represents all of humanity, both male and female. After Eve’s creation in Genesis 2:21–22, man is referred to as ish (male-man) and woman is referred to as ishah (female-man). When Adam looks at Eve, he doesn’t refer to her as other but sees his mirror image: “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” Eve is a complement to Adam, but she is also like him and he like her.*

For a woman to be healthy, she not only needs to embrace her feminine—to be free to hear and receive from God—but she also needs to embrace the masculine and be empowered to respond in the way God leads. The same holds true for men. To be healthy, a man not only needs to embrace his masculine drive to initiate and create, but he also needs to embrace the feminine so he can listen and respond to God and others.

Those of us women who possess strong masculine gifts need to also have well-developed feminine sides to avoid becoming imbalanced. If our strengths intimidate our husbands or other men in our lives, then these men may need healing and strengthening in their masculinity. The solution to our unhealthy imbalances, for both men and women, is to bless and affirm what is weak or estranged rather than to weaken and suppress what is holy and good.

* Paul Evdokimov, Woman and the Salvation of the World, trans. Anthony Gythiel (Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary, 2011), 138–139.

** Payne, Masculinity, 86.