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Man-Woman Complementarity:The Catholic Inspiration Prudence Allen RSM (bio) Every time man-woman relations moved out of balance in western thought or practice, someone—a philosopher and/or a theologian—responding to a deep source of Catholic inspiration, sought ways to bring the balance back. What do I mean by "out of balance"? When one of two fundamental principles of gender relation—equal dignity and significant difference—is missing from the respective identities of man and woman, the balance of a complementarity disappears into either a polarity or unisex theory. Table 1 provides a simple summary of these principles and theories with an asterisk indicating the best option of integral gender complementarity. Click for larger view View full resolution Table 1. Structure of Theories of Gender Identity [End Page 87] This article is divided into two parts. First, a general summary of the drama of basic theories of gender relation up through post-Enlightenment philosophy will be given. Second, a more detailed analysis of modern and contemporary Catholic inspirations for man-woman integral complementarity will be provided. For those readers who want evidence to support these summarized claims, endnotes referring to primary and secondary sources are provided. Also dates provided for each philosopher will allow the reader to follow the chronology of the dramatic philosophical developments in the history of man-woman relational identities. Historical Overview of Theories of Gender Identity The unisex position, first articulated by Plato (428–355 B.C.), rejected significant differentiation while defending the basic equality of man and woman. The polarity position, first articulated by Aristotle (384–322 B.C.), rejected fundamental equality while defending the natural superiority of man over woman. Neoplatonic and Aristotelian positions continued to promote these imbalances respectively until Augustine (354–430), Hildegard of Bingen (1033–1109), and [End Page 88] Thomas Aquinas (1224–74) attempted, in different ways, to articulate new Christian theological and philosophical foundations for the fundamental equality and significant differentiation of man and woman.1 While their works did not contain consistent foundations for gender complementarity, they nonetheless moved public discourse toward a more balanced man-woman complementarity. After the triumphal entry of Aristotelian texts into western Europe in the thirteenth century, the gender polarity position gained new momentum especially in medical, ethical, political, and satirical texts. Eventually, a new kind of Catholic inspiration to defend gender complementarity emerged within Renaissance humanism in the works of Christine de Pizan (1344–1430), Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa (1401–64), Albrecht von Eyb (1420–75), Isotta Nogarola (1418–66), and Laura Cereta (1469–99).2 Here, Italian, French, and German Catholic authors sought to provide multiple foundations for the complementarity of women and men in marriage and in broader society. Soon, however, arguments in support of reverse gender polarity—a new form of imbalance—began to appear in a few authors, such as Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1536) and Lucrezia Marinelli (1571–1653).3 They defended the position that there are significant differences between the sexes but that woman is naturally superior to man. In the same time period, other movements supported new foundations for unisex arguments. The infusion of translations of Plato's dialogues into Latin contained a metaphysical argument based on a sexless soul reincarnated into different kinds of bodies. Marsilio Ficino (1433–99), founder of the Florintine Platonic Academy, also supported some fractional complementarity, and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–94) also had a gender-neutral approach. While gender neutrality basically ignored sex and gender differences, unisex theories made direct arguments that differences between men and women were not significant. Another gender-neutral position was provided by René Descartes' [End Page 89] (1590–1650) metaphysical argument that the nonextended, sexless mind was entirely distinct from the extended material body, and that a human being was to be more identified with the mind alone, the "I am a thinking thing," than with the body or with the union of mind and body. The Cartesian approach positively provided a basis from which equal access to education and suffrage for women and men was directly supported by such authors as François Poullain de la Barre (1647–1723), Mary Astell (1688–1731), and the Marquis de Condorcet (1743–94...
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