Was the creation of Adam androgynous?

[KJW]

Does the following defy Catholic teaching in any way of conflict with established hermenuetical standards?

God fashioned a two sided being in the beginning, one side male the other female. (Male and female he created them, Gen. 1:27). When no suitable mate could be found God caused a deep sleep to fall over this creature and surgically seperated one side from the other, leaving a masculine human being and a feminine one. “Therefore a man shall leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Thus when man and woman come together they restore the sense of unity that existed when they were first created as one.

The Catechism has God created from Adam’s rib rather than his side, side making this androgynous creation more possible. Further Paragraph 372 states “Man and Woman were made ‘for each other,’–not that God left them half-made and incomplete, he created them to be a communion of persons, in which they can be a helpmate to the other…”

I ran across this symbolic interpreation in Harold Kushner’s ‘How Good do we Have to Be,’ and it makes for a convenient interpretation in a paper that I have to present. Does it contradict or produce conflict with Catholic teaching is my question?

KJW

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Dear K,

The Church does not teach that Adam was originally androgynous. Nor does it teach that Gen. 2:22 must be understood literally. What is most important in the creation story is THAT God created and not HOW He created. Certainly, God did not have to make Adam androgynous in order to create Eve any more than He had to create from androgynous dust when He created Adam.

When a man and woman come together they image the union the three divine Persons have in the Godhead and the union the Son has with His Church.

The idea that God created a two-side being in creating Adam is one creation that is not found in Scripture nor in the Church’s interpretation of same.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.