Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

wished to have the feminine principle beside him instead of bearing it within himself. Genesis
narrates: „that the woman was taken out of the side of the man. Where then was the woman
before? Quite obviously in the man.“
Adam strongly desired his helpmate so that the Lord allegedly acknowledged: „What was
once good is no longer good...From in one another to beside one another -that was the giant
step that was taken and that entailed the most terrible consequences.” 40 Similar considerations
are found in Edgar Dacque: through the creation of woman, Adam allegedly received a person
„opposite to himself' who was not God. „And thereby a need had already arisen“ that finally
led to the Fall. For the original sin took place on account of Eve: „Eve knew that she could be
herself an enticement to unification without relatedness to God....and thus arose the dreadful
whirlpool of desire, spiritual and sensual.“ And man thereby „entered from within to the demonic
state, and nature did so with him.“ 41
The Christian doctrine of man rejects as heretical these pessimistic misinterpretations of the
sexual which make marriage and family out to be institutions that became necessary only
through the fall of man. It is no coincidence that the German word Ketzer (heretic) -gazzari in
Italian -is derived from the Katharen (Cathari) and thus from that medieval sect that wanted to
smuggle Manichean spiritualism into the Christian West. According to Christian thought, the
two sexes are contained in the original plan of creation willed by the love, goodness, and wisdom
of God and did not first arise from the godless fall from asexual monism into sexual dualism.
Holy Scripture refers with particular emphasis to this divine plan in the case of the
creation of man: „Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. ..Thus God created man
in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them“(Gen. I: 26
f.). St. Paul turns with unaccustomed harshness towards the gnostic „deceitful spirits“ and
„plausible liars“ who adhere to „things taught by demons“ and „forbid marriage and require
abstinence from foods....Everything God created is good“ (I Tim 1:1-4). God's providence has
made the 'nuptial' a structural law of creation.
§ 2 The Dialogical Relatedness of the Sexes
I. Although the sexual character lends the whole physical and mental being a masculine or
feminine imprint, the two sexes nevertheless stand in such a deep and delicate relatedness of
each other that a dialogical relationship of real depth is possible. The sexes experience this
relatedness as an attraction and a promise, as a mission and a responsibility. They instinctively
wish to please each other. Their turning towards one another can assume very many
different forms. It can be noble and selfless, but also aggressive and egoistical; it can appear
as an anxious inhibition, but nevertheless remains even in this case an inward relatedness.
With the same ground of the human essence, the characteristically masculine should be wed
in marriage with the characteristically feminine for a happy community of life. Man and
woman must therefore recognize one another in their particularity, take one another seriously,
and affirm one another. The man may not treat his wife as if she were still the 'young girl', a
grown-up child almost, and vice versa. Such abnormal attitudes usually arise from a sublime
egoism that frequently seeks to disguise itself under the mask of the eternal, pedantic educator
or of importunate, compassionate mothering. One 'bestows' and bespeaks oneself. Dialogical
relatedness may not be suppressed by the domineering monologue. This piece of advice is
important especially today, since a partner relationship between the spouses has taken the
place of the patriarchal constitution of the family of the pre-industrial age. It is not least the
result of the professional activity of girls and women outside the home that they feel helpless
and dependent vis-a-vis the man, but rather see the ideal in mutual recognition and equality,
which does not mean an egalitarism stereotypifying everything. Women have successfully
40 S Th Bohmerle, Die Frauenfrage im Lichte der Bibel (Wernigerode, 1924), 26, 33f.
41 E Dacque, Die Urgestalt. Der Schöpfungsmythos neu erzählt (Leipzig, 1940), 27ff.
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