Essence Of Manhood
Essay by 24 • November 28, 2010 • 446 Words (2 Pages) • 1,299 Views
The essence of manhood, is, personhood, which highlights the always already communal nature of what it means to be a man. Thus, men, being essentially persons, have an essential equality with women, whose essence is also personhood. But manhood cannot simply be reduced to its mere essence, because manhood is also always already embodied. There is no such thing as manhood in the abstract, but only men. And here biology and personhood are united, two natures, as it were, in one person. Men, as persons, share an essence with women, but are also different and distinct, because as embodied, they have different traits and characteristics which arise from their biological embodied ness. Men play a biological role that is distinct from that of women, and therefore, they embody conception in a different way than do women. Similarly, the natures that men give their children are distinct and different from women. But yet at the same time, their nurturing shares an essential similarity in that both men and women are always already in community, and so also the children they conceive and bear. Now beyond the obvious biological traits are the more controversial ones. Clearly Scripture embodies distinctive roles in the family. There is an essentially similar submission, but because of the embodied personhood which men and women possess, their roles are distinctive. Why I think my definition commends itself over yours is that it has obvious symmetry between the definitions for manhood and womanhood, it is clearly modeled on councilor Trinitarianism, as well as on the Chalcedonian definition of Christ as the new Adam. I'm not sure whether I think personhood an essence, per se, but it is certainly an essential nature in terms of being human. (I'm not sure what you mean by "humanity" nor how it would differ from "personhood.")I do not think men and woman share God's essence. Rather, what I was getting at is that since the Trinity is inherently
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