The nature and sex of Satan

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It has been longstanding tradition to view God the Father as male, although some dispute whether it’s accurate to limit him to just one sex. Certainly Jesus appeared to us as a male. There is a bit more debate about the Holy Spirit, but that’s an argument for another thread.

What I am wondering is whether there is any Church teaching on whether Satan could be female.

We know Lucifer was a male angel, but is Lucifer just another name for Satan, or is Lucifer simply the chief fallen angel under Satan, or is Satan not a single “person” but rather a collective force, like “Charlie” in the Vietnam War?
 
I thought that all angels are androgynous. At least that Kreeft in his angels book states that they don’t have a gender. I would think that it would mean that since demons and satan are fallen angels, than they are genderless too.
 
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Digitonomy:
It has been longstanding tradition to view God the Father as male, although some dispute whether it’s accurate to limit him to just one sex. Certainly Jesus appeared to us as a male. There is a bit more debate about the Holy Spirit, but that’s an argument for another thread.

What I am wondering is whether there is any Church teaching on whether Satan could be female.

We know Lucifer was a male angel, but is Lucifer just another name for Satan, or is Lucifer simply the chief fallen angel under Satan, or is Satan not a single “person” but rather a collective force, like “Charlie” in the Vietnam War?
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God has never been viewed as male in orthodox Christianity. God has been spoken of as masculine, but that’s different. Similarly, Satan and the angels good and bad have usually been referred to by masculine pronouns but have not been seen as actually having a sex.

Edwin
 
God, in His essence, is pure spirit, and thus has no gender. The second person of the Trinity, in taking on a human nature, took on the nature of a human male, but that is his human nature, not his divine nature.

Angels are also pure spirits, and have no gender.
 
So would we have gender in Heaven? How about after the resurrection of the body?
 
We would likely have gender in Heaven, with the Resurection of course, but that again goes back to the fact that we believe in the eternal life of both spirit and body. Those beings that don’t have true bodies can’t be said to be male or female.
 
Sure we will have gender in heaven, because human beings DO have gender, and we are human. Even death does not change who we are, and at the resurrection our body and soul are reunited.
 
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JimG:
Sure we will have gender in heaven, because human beings DO have gender, and we are human. Even death does not change who we are, and at the resurrection our body and soul are reunited.
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Hi JimG,
Oops note edwinG and JimG. I hope you dont mind my using your post. It was the last one in the list so I am using it as a matter of convience.
Matthew 22:30 " For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage , but are like angels of God in heaven."
walk in love
edwinG
 
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Genesis315:
So would we have gender in Heaven? How about after the resurrection of the body?
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I know that’s one of the first things I’m checking when I rise from the dead. I’m kind of curious as to what the new system is going to be.
 
BUT, if one notes, ALL the angels in the Bible, are referred to as masculine/male. Even though they are pure spirits, they are NEVER presented as female…which, goes against the “spiritual” view of angels…:rolleyes: BUT, keep in mind, if it will cause you to fall, Satan will be in the form of ANYBODY!!!
 
CCC 370:

In no way is God in Man’s image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no place for the differences between the sexes. But the respective “perfections” of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God: those of mother and those of father and husband.

Catholicism by Richard P. McBrien:

Chap IX Summary
  1. Is God “a person”? No and yes. No, because God is not an anything. God is not even a being. Yes in an analogical sense. God is like a person in that God in loving, caring, compassionate, faithful, forgiving, and capable of relationship. Nowhere are these personal characteristics more fully expressed than in Jesus Christ.
  2. God is also Father, but not in the gender sense. God transcends gender. God is neither male nor female. God is loving, caring, forgiving, etc. It is the Godhood of the Father that counts, not the Fatherhood of God.
When Jesus was resurrected He was transformed and entered into an entirely new mode of existence. It was not simply the resuscitation of a corpse. I think so it will be with us too. 🙂
 
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Digitonomy:
It has been longstanding tradition to view God the Father as male, although some dispute whether it’s accurate to limit him to just one sex. Certainly Jesus appeared to us as a male. There is a bit more debate about the Holy Spirit, but that’s an argument for another thread.

What I am wondering is whether there is any Church teaching on whether Satan could be female.

We know Lucifer was a male angel, but is Lucifer just another name for Satan, or is Lucifer simply the chief fallen angel under Satan, or is Satan not a single “person” but rather a collective force, like “Charlie” in the Vietnam War?
Click to expand...
the teaching of the Catholic Church is that God the Father is masculine, not male. They do not mean the same thing, and the distinction is crucial. CS Lewis articulates it very well in Perelandra. It is important to understand since all souls are feminine in relation to God (NOT female). The misunderstanding of this distinction is at the root of several heresies, including the insistence the Jesus must have married Mary Magdalene or somebody else.

Since God is pure spirit He has no physical sex characteristics. This distinction is crucial. Jesus Christ assumed a male human body in the Incarnation. Satan (or Lucifer), like all angels both the fallen angels and the good angels is pure spirit so has no physical characteristics. Angels can assume human appearance in order to communicate with, assist (or torment, in the case of devils) human beings.
 
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Digitonomy:
It has been longstanding tradition to view God the Father as male, although some dispute whether it’s accurate to limit him to just one sex. Certainly Jesus appeared to us as a male. There is a bit more debate about the Holy Spirit, but that’s an argument for another thread.

What I am wondering is whether there is any Church teaching on whether Satan could be female.

We know Lucifer was a male angel, but is Lucifer just another name for Satan, or is Lucifer simply the chief fallen angel under Satan, or is Satan not a single “person” but rather a collective force, like “Charlie” in the Vietnam War?
Click to expand...
God and Angels do not have a gender. They are pure spirits and do not have a physical body. Within the triune God we have three distinct persons. We call God the Father because Jesus did. We know at the incarnation Jesus was male. As for the Holy Spirit I believe that Jesus says that “he will guide you” in the Scriptures.
 
Seems that although no classified sex can be given to either God or Angels, the masculine representation is always present. Angels are argued to have been made first, sexless beings but somewhat in a form of what we’d call like that of man. The man was another creation, but supposedly closer to the image of God, though without the power that angels have. Woman was created last as simlar to man but without the same essence, that is not to say woman was created lacking, but of a different sort. It was always in God’s plan to create woman, so the first man would have had been assigned a sex, seeing as how God asked him to go out to look for a suitable partner, accomplishing the purpose of having man name the animals himself and then say he did not find a suitable one among them. After that God would create a woman.

Genesis 6 seems to indicate that heavenly beings, perhaps fallen angels, found the daughters of men to be beautiful and so took them as wives. Scholars feel this was done through posession of other men, and this brought about a race of giants. So this suggests that there is more to the angel’s masculinity, perhaps to say that angels and men think alike, whereas woman do think differently from men (from a scientific/psycholigical perspective). Perhaps there in the mind lies the difference.
 
Does it really make any difference what sex, if applicable, Satan is ??

He/she/ or it is one shady nasty character that no one should be associated with.

wc
 
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edwinG:
Hi JimG,
Oops note edwinG and JimG. I hope you dont mind my using your post. It was the last one in the list so I am using it as a matter of convience.
Matthew 22:30 " For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage , but are like angels of God in heaven."
walk in love
edwinG
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True, there will be no marriage in heaven. But we will still be male and female.
 
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