Last update: July 19, 2001

"And Jehovah visited Sarah, as He had said; and Jehovah did unto Sarah as He had spoken…. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne unto Abraham, mocking. And she said unto Abraham, Cast out this handmaid and her son; for the son of this handmaid shall not inherit with my son with Isaac. And the word was evil exceedingly in the eyes of Abraham, on account of his son. And God said unto Abraham, let it not be evil in thine eyes because of the boy, and because of thine handmaid; all that Sarah with unto thee, hearken unto her voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called."
Genesis 21:1, 9 – 12
See also: 
Arcana Coelestia 2615 – 2667 and De Hemelsche Leer 5:32 – 33

1. The Revolt of Woman Rev. W. L. Gladish
2. The Essential Feminine Rev. Dandridge Pendleton
3. The Purpose of Woman Rev. Ormond Odhner
4. The Uses of Men and Women Rev. Harold Cranch
5. Serving the Church Rev. Kurt H. Asplundh
6. The ?Women?s Lib? Movement Rev. Frederick L. Schnarr
7. Women on Boards Rev. Alfred Acton
8. A Comparison of Attitudes towards Woman Kathleen M. Nicolier
9. Single Women and the Church Rev. Kurt H. Asplundh
10. "Women’s Work" Rev. Kurt P. Nemitz Men as Husbands and Fathers
11. Rev. Willard L.D. Heinrichs Male and Female Created He Them Rev. Kurt H. Asplundh
12. The Male and Female Minds Rev. Erik Sandström, Sr.
13. Women and Uses Rev. Kenneth J. Alden Some Thoughts on Masculinity Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss
14. Link to "What the Bible Says about Sexual Equality" Rev. John Odhner
15. The New Church - A True Liberator of Modern Women or Is the New Church Relevant to Modern Life? Marianne Sharpe
16. The Involvement of Women in the Uses of the Organized Church Zoe Gyllenhaal Simons
17. Masculine and Feminine George H. Woodard Feminine Wisdom [Comments] Rev. Erik Sandström, Sr. [Comments: Linda Simonetti Odhner, Rev. Erik Sandström, Sr.]
18. Growing Beyond the Natural Masculine and Feminine Approaches [Comments] Rev. Eric Carswell [Comments: Anne Fitzpatrick, Margaret Shepp Hyatt, Rev. Eric Carswell]
19. The Masculine Principle Rev. Alain Nicolier
20. The Perfect Complement of Woman and Man Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss
21. The Difference between the Sexes from Divine Revelation and from Experience Sarah Headsten
22. "A Name of Glory and Honor" Rev. Robert S. Jungé

Love

Wisdom

by Rev. W.L. Gladish

(...)

What becomes of man's boasted superiority if he has in himself nothing of conjugial love or even of the love of the sex, if his reception of that most universal sphere which preserves creation depends wholly upon the female sex? May not this superiority of woman be set over against the ability of his rational to climb into a light in which women are not? "Conjugial love depends on the wife's love; and such is the husband's love in reciprocation; and the wife's love does not depend on the husband's love .... It is the reverse with those who are not in conjugial love" (De Conj. 34).

These passages clearly teach the superiority of woman over man, of the wife over the husband.

Conjugial love is hers, not his. Consider what this involves. The conjugial sphere is the most universal sphere proceeding from the Lord. It is the sphere which preserves the created universe. It is the sphere not only of marriage, but also of religion. Conjugial love is the source whence flow all human loves, spiritual as well as natural. Man must receive through woman not only conjugial love but also love to the Lord, mutual love, love of offspring, love of the neighbor; thus all that makes the sweetness, beauty and joy of life is given by the Lord to woman and through her is transferred to man so far as he, by return of her affection, is conjoined with her. Is it any wonder that woman represents the church?

The truth of the matter is that the equality of man and woman results from their inequality.

In his province-that of judgment and rational light man is supreme. His understanding climbs into a light in which woman is not. For the sake of marriage the Lord gives to him that light which is to guide them both.

In her province-that of affection-woman is supreme. Her will receives the warmth of heaven. For the sake of marriage the Lord pours immediately into her soul that conjunctive sphere which is for her husband as well as herself, which, having united them, turns them to the Lord and then conjoins them with their fellows.

Therefore each is superior to the other; and each is also inferior to the other. From the heights in which her will dwells, gently glowing with the warmth of heaven, woman stoops to man in his poverty and offers him of her abundance. And if he receives it and loves her, she lifts him up to the delectable mountains.

On the other hand, man also dwells upon the heights as to his understanding. For the Lord separates his understanding from his will and lifts it up to the peaks where it catches the eternal splendor of the Sun of Heaven. And from that Light he beckons the woman to leave caring for bodily and earthly things and dwell with him in that splendor.

The reason we think that the Writings teach the inferiority of woman is that the understanding is the only province of human life of which we have any conception. We come of a faith-alone generation to which the will and its affections were unknown. We ourselves still abide in the rind and husk and think of science as wisdom. If man can think more deeply than woman, what is there left for her to do? Thought is the all of life. She can indeed prepare her husband's meals and nurse the babies. But a servant can do these things. Woman can show her equality with man only by invading his field, beating him at his own game, becoming a more astute statesman and a better general of fighting armies. Such is the thought of today.

(...)

The regenerating man recognizes his wife his equal because she is in all things that he himself lacks so far his superior. He must acknowledge that superiority, and on bended knee supplicate her to unite her grace, beauty and sweetness to his uncouth austerity. And this not only in the days of courtship before marriage but his humility before her grows with the years, and his wonder that she should hearken to his plea. To him she becomes the embodiment of all his heart's desire, unattainable without her. Nor does this at all involve placing his own burden of rational judgment upon her slender shoulders. Here he is superior.

And as the understanding sees both for itself and for its will, so the husband with a clearer sight looks out the untrod path for both.

(...)

So is it with man and woman. She, being a form of affection while he is a form of understanding, is, as it were, both above and below him. She inspires him yet is guided by him. From her unregenerate affections she looks up to his superior light. Yet has she from within all things that form his rational. But with her they are only feelings, impulses. She sees them as truths only when they have been formulated and spoken by him. Her leadership is from within, hidden, unrecognized even by herself unless her husband has wit enough to see it and show it to her. His leadership is open and manifest to all, and to the unthinking seems the only leadership. Thus each leads and each follows.

Each has a soul that reaches up to direct contact with God. Neither is the internal of which the other is the external. Understanding from the Lord flows into the male, but for love he must turn himself to woman. Love from the Lord flows directly into the female, but for light she must turn to the man. The man does not represent the Lord and the woman the church but both together represent the church (see CL 21), and in heaven are not called two but one angel (HH 367).

(...)

If this study approaches a correct interpretation of the relation of man and woman, it will be apparent that our sympathy should be with every movement which places her by his side as altogether his equal; that everything which tends to encourage and develop her interior leadership, or inspiration, should be most welcome; but that the church should oppose all that takes the burden of external leadership and rational judgment out of man's hands and places it in hers. For conjugial love is dependent on each being supreme in his own sphere and seeking to be led by the opposite sex in those things which belong to that sex.

-New Church Life, July 1915 (reprinted 1992;102:106-117)

Found it here:  http://www.newchurchissues.org/wip/MF/mf15wg.htm

1468. He said to Sarai his wife. That this signifies that He so thought concerning the truths to which celestial things were adjoined, is evident from the signification of Sarai when she is called a wife. A "wife," in the internal sense of the Word, signifies nothing else than truth conjoined with good; for the conjunction of truth with good is circumstanced precisely as is a marriage. In the Word, when a "husband" is mentioned, the husband signifies good, and the wife signifies truth; but when he is not called the husband, but the "man," then he signifies truth, and the wife signifies good: this is the constant usage in the Word, as before said (n. 915). In the passage before us, as Abram is named, Sarai his wife signifies truth. To say thus to Sarai his wife is, in the internal sense, to think so concerning the truths with which celestial things were conjoined. It is historically true that Abram so said to his wife, when journeying into Egypt; but as before said, all the historicals of the Word are representative, and all the words are significative. No other historicals are recorded in the Word, and in no other order, and no other words are used to express them, than such as in the internal sense may express these arcana.

by Rev. Harold Cranch

(...)

The masculine and feminine principles are present in all things, and are analogous to good and truth, and their conjunction into one. Both love and wisdom are present in the male, and in the female. But everything of love and wisdom in the male is masculine, and everything of love and wisdom in the female is feminine in its nature. Thus, there is a masculine love of the Lord, and a feminine love of the Lord, and they are different. (1st. Index to Marriage, Posth. Th. II, page 530, Standard Edition.) There is also masculine wisdom, and feminine wisdom. And since love is the life of man, and wisdom is its love taking form in a regenerating life, we find the masculine and feminine both described in terms of love.

"The inmost in the male is love, and its covering is wisdom . . . the inmost in the female is .that wisdom in the male, and its covering is that derivative love. This love is feminine love, and is given by the Lord to the wife, through the wisdom of the husband, whereas the former love is a masculine love, and is the love of being wise and is given by the Lord to the husband, according to :the reception of wisdom. It is from .this .that the male is the wisdom of love, the female the love of that wisdom. Therefore, from creation, there has been implanted into both the love of conjunction into a one . . ." (CL 32)

and

"The male is born intellectual, the female voluntary . . . the male is born into the affection of knowing, understanding, and being wise; . . . the female . . . into the love of conjoining herself with the affections in the male. And as the interiors form the exteriors into their own likeness, and as .the masculine form is the form of understanding and ;the feminine form the form of its love, therefore, it is that the male is different in face, in tone of voice, and in body from the female . . . they differ also in their gestures and manners. In a word, there is not anything alike, but still there is what is conjunctive in each thing . . . The masculine in the male is masculine in every part of his body, even the smallest, and also in every idea of his .thought, and in every spark of his affection. In like manner, the feminine in the female." (CL 33)

In an ideal marriage, the husband is the understanding of ,truth, and the wife the will of applying that truth (CL 92 ; AE 100). In the male, the understanding predominates. In the female, the will predominates. So we read:

"The masculine is to perceive from the understanding. The feminine is to perceive from love. And the understanding perceives also those things which are about the body, and outside of the world - for the rational and spiritual sight goes thither, whereas love does not go beyond that which it feels. When it does go beyond, it derives it from conjunction . . . with the understanding of the man . . . The wisdom of the wife is not possible with the man nor the wisdom of the man with the wife. Nor is the moral wisdom of man possible with women, insofar as it derives from his rational wisdom." (CL 168)

(...)

In the highest degree of regeneration and spiritual development, husband and wife both represent aspects of wisdom. The man represents the love of acquiring wisdom, in innocence, to learn the Lord's will. The wife then represents that wisdom in life- the will to do from love what wisdom teaches. Her wisdom of life possesses all the knowledges, truths, and rational concepts that his wisdom has evolved. So she is in the practical wisdom of his love, and he is in a continual love for gaining increase in wisdom. As with the most ancients, the will reigns. What the understanding learns is immediately willed, and the loves of the will inspire greater wisdom.

Bishop Alfred Acton expressed this relationship of men and women in a very beautiful way. He said:

"The inmost of the masculine is the love of growing wise. This love alone prompts to the desire of laboring for the acquisition of knowledges and truths, which are ultimately represented by the seed. The inmost of woman is wisdom itself, which is the love of uses, for it is wisdom alone which prompts to the reception and love of truths, that ,they may be forms of use which are ultimately represented by offspring." (NEW CHURCH LIFE, April, 1922, page 148)

So the husband should be in the love of discovering and understanding truths, his wife in the enlightenment and perception of those truths, to apply them to the life of the family, and use them to develop in regeneration. It is from this that woman is inmostly a form of wisdom. It is not wisdom to search into and acquire rational truths. Wisdom is to love truths, .to cherish them, and to return them to ,the Lord as uses. Therefore, as we read in the Heavenly doctrine: "Wisdom is the origin of beauty; in woman, wisdom latent and concealed; in man, wisdom open and manifest." (CL 383)

(...)

Another important use primarily in the hands of women should be mentioned. The standard of morality, particularly in regard to sex, and marriage, in any nation or organization, is maintained by the ladies. . We are told that the moral wisdom of men, which partakes of the rational, and the moral. wisdom of women, unite outwardly as both have something of the will. Women have an innate perception of what is orderly and proper, what is chaste, and modest. However, they also have the innate desire to please and to be pleasing to men. If men fail in their duty, to become wise, to establish rational safeguards for morality, and to use good judgment in regard to it, then women are apt to lower their standards. Yet, if they do, .there is continual increase in immorality and vice. Therefore, in the Writings, we are told that "the wife [and looking at this more generally, womankind] is the faithful guardian of the common good; and as she is the guardian of this, and the husband is wise, so she provides for the prosperity and happiness of the home." (Index to the Missing Work on Marriage, s.v. sex) So wisdom of life, and perception from that wisdom, is given to both men and women. Both are needed for the proper performance of use.

(...)

From all these teachings, we can see that the wisdom and qualities of women are needed in the development of the church, and they, together with their husbands, or mankind and womankind together, are the church. But now let us examine the nature of the incorporated body, and its uses to see if they involve both masculine and feminine qualities.

(...)

To summarize: (1) Women are given a special understanding and enlightenment on the applications of doctrine in their sphere of wisdom. This is true in regard to the home, the preservation of morality, and particularly in the education, care, and welfare of children. And as preparation for conjugial love, upon which the hope of the New Church rests, can be made only in a sphere of genuine morality, their perception as to this is needed in our body.

(2) Wisdom, to be complete, must be the wisdom of husband and wife together. Each contributes to make the mutual wisdom of life from which sound judgments can be made, and the church develop more fully. So we are told that angels, separated from their consorts, are in intelligence, but not in wisdom; but with .their consorts, they are also in wisdom. (AE 998) This would also have application to married partners here, and in more general form, to the fact that good men are affected by the perception of good women.

(3) We have also seen that everything of life, everything of use, everything of the church, has both masculine and feminine aspects. Therefore, the perception of masculine and feminine wisdom, should be taken into consideration in regard to every use. This is one of the important ways by which women become the custodians of the common good.

(4) It is evident that the teachings of the Writings regarding forensic (business and legal affairs) and domestic uses, can be widely misunderstood. There are domestic aspects to every use, as there are also forensic and legal needs. So it is said that .the uses of the wife are adjoined to the uses of the husband, and to speak more generally, the uses of womankind are adjoined to the uses of mankind. The decisions for the forward progress of the church need legal provision and protection- a masculine use. This is provided for by the Board of Directors. Implementation of uses is by both sexes, and always involves clothing the more abstract principles with a body of application that it may come into being, and may be returned to the Lord as a use- this is particularly a feminine quality.

(...)

- New Church Life 1974;94:294-301

Found it here:  http://www.newchurchissues.org/wip/MF/mf74hc.htm

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