Augustinianum

Volume 61, Issue 2, December 2021

XLVII Incontro di studiosi dell’antichità cristiana (Roma, 9-11 maggio 2019). Nota d’insieme sui paradigmi patristici di “maschile” e “femminile”e del perché del loro interesse

The patristic period is of particular interest for the theme of “masculine” and “feminine” given the interconnection between the patristic exegesis of the two stories of creation (Gn 1:26-27 and 2:7) and the religious and social culture of the time. Late antiquity parameters of masculine and feminine, however although they are placed beyond the modern questions, cannot be considered completely extraneous from modernity for that path of history that connects human epochs beyond their own determined period. In this note we attempt to summarize the patristic approaches with an overall view, having both, a not too dispersive picture, and also to obtain some elements for further reflections, keeping in mind what Freud already observed «that the concepts “masculine” and “feminine”, whose content appears so devoid of ambiguity to common opinion, belong to the most confused concepts in science».