Fun with Patristics

I have my first class on Marriage and Family in Patristic Theology later today, so I thought I'd do a bit of the reading...

Origen: "Our inner man consists of spirit and soul. The spirit is said to be male; the soul can be called female. If these have concord and agreement among themselves, they increase and multiply by the very accord among themselves and they produce sons, good inclinations and understandings or useful thoughts, by which they fill the earth and have dominion over it... But now if the soul, which has been united with the spirit and, so to speak, joined in wedlock, turn aside at some time to bodily pleasures... She will be punished, therefore, like a harlot and her sons will be ordered to be prepared for slaughter."

No word on what happens to a man, spirit, if he strays.

St. Ambrose: "Accordingly, the Lord declared that it was not good for man to be alone, because the human race could not have been propagated from man alone... For the sake, therefore, of the successive generations of men it followed that woman had to be joined to man... God said, 'Let us make him a helper like himself.' We understand that to mean a helper in the generation of the human family-- a really good helper... even though in an inferior position. We find examples of this in our own experience. We see how men in high and important offices often enlist the help of men who are below them in rank and esteem."

Wow. This class is going to be interesting. When you read these things, it's easier to see where some people are coming from when they think that certain doctrines should change. It's amazing how much we know now, even just in exegesis, like the word used for "helper" and all it entails... If only we were better at communicating things...