[The Limits of Paternal Civilization, The Vision of Maternal Salvation]
By Seong-Jong Seo (Ph.D. in Theology)
This article was originally published in Korean in Segye Ilbo, a major South Korean daily newspaper, under the column series “Epic History of the Korean People.” [Click here to view the original article.]
Read the previous article in this series.
◆ Missing the ‘Daughter of Heaven’: Questioning the Structural Deficiency of Human Civilization
It must be declared once again that God, the Creator, is our ‘Heavenly Parent’ possessing both masculinity and femininity simultaneously, and the ‘Holy Spirit’, whom Christianity has confessed for two thousand years, is the spiritual reality of that maternal personage. If so, we confront the most heartbreaking point in human history: Why did the first female born fully in the substantial image of Heavenly Parent—‘Haewa (Eve)’—have to live bearing the dishonor of being the cause of the Human Fall, losing her status and value throughout history?
◆ ‘Ezer Kenegdo’: A Secondary Being or an Equal Helper?
The tragedy of the providence of human salvation began with a misunderstanding in the Garden of Eden. For ages, patriarchal religious traditions, including Confucianism and Christianity, have stigmatized woman as a secondary being and a subordinate helper to man, based on the biblical narrative that Haewa was created from Adam’s rib. In particular, the translation “suitable helper” in Genesis Chapter 2 became a decisive factor leading people to perceive woman merely as a “secretary” filling in for man’s shortcomings.
However, re-reading the original Hebrew text through humanistic and theological insight reveals a surprising truth. In the scripture, “suitable helper” is recorded in Hebrew as ‘Ezer Kenegdo (עֵזֶר כְּנֶגְדּוֹ)’. Here, the word ‘Ezer (עֵזֶר)’ carries a powerful, autonomous meaning of assistance, used throughout the Bible mainly when God helps human beings. Furthermore, ‘Kenegdo (כְּנֶגְדּוֹ)’ means “opposite him” or “as his equal.”
In other words, Haewa was not Adam’s subordinate, but God’s crucial partner who was meant to face Adam as an equal and fulfill on earth the ‘Dual Characteristics’ (dual essentialities), which are the complete image of Heavenly Parent. She was the only ‘Daughter of Heaven’ designated to represent the maternal nature of the Creator in substantial form, and the archetype of the Only Begotten Daughter prepared to become the True Mother of humanity.
◆ The Ideal of the Only Begotten Daughter Embedded in the Name ‘Haewa’
In my book The Only Begotten Daughter in World Scriptures, I draw attention to the term ‘Haewa’, which is unique to Unification Theology. This is not merely a translational choice; it expresses a theological determination to restore the “status of the pure, original woman as intended in the Principle,” distinguishing her from ‘Eve (Hawa)’, who fell and became the channel of original sin.
The original meaning of the Hebrew word ‘Hawa’ is “life” or “mother of all the living.” Haewa in the original creation was not an assistant to Adam, but a subject who inherited Heavenly Parent’s feminine essence (positivity/femininity or Internal Nature/External Form) to form the core of love on earth. Had she attained perfection, all created things in the universe would have felt Heavenly Parent’s embrace through the delicate love of True Mother and enjoyed eternal rest.
However, the Human Fall brought about the collapse of this grand maternal ideal. The essence of the Fall was not simply the act of eating the forbidden fruit, but entering into an improper relationship of love with Satan while still in an immature, unfulfilled state, thereby losing the heavenly lineage and falling to the position of a ‘false mother.’ Consequently, Heavenly Parent lost the channel to substantiate His/Her feminine nature, and human history set off as a ‘half-civilization’ devoid of a ‘Mother.’
◆ The Absence of Maternity and the Limits of Paternal Civilization
Just as a family without a mother cannot be whole, human civilization, having lost its maternal divinity, rushed into a history of survival of the fittest, conquest, and struggle. The limits of ‘paternal civilization’ stem precisely from this. Male-centered leadership emphasizing justice, judgment, law, and order developed human society, but revealed clear limitations in healing wounded souls and embracing a divided world as one.
From the perspective of the providence, the history of salvation is the process of restoring the ‘lost position of Haewa.’ Just as the Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, came to repair Adam’s failure, Heaven has prepared women throughout thousands of years of history to restore Haewa’s failure and return her to her original status. The task of restoring fallen woman into the ‘Only Begotten Daughter,’ Heavenly Parent’s sinless daughter, became an unavoidable task in the providence of salvation.
◆ The Only Begotten Daughter: The Period at the End of Salvation Wiping Haewa’s Tears
Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ came as the ‘Latter Adam’ but had to walk the path of the cross without meeting the ‘Latter Haewa.’ This tragedy proves how difficult and monumental the restoration of feminine divinity through the Only Begotten Daughter truly was. Human salvation can never be completed through the restoration of Adam alone. Just as new life is conceived only when the seed of life (father) and the womb of life (mother) unite, the history of salvation can reach its completion only when the Only Begotten Son and the Only Begotten Daughter meet in reality to establish the position of True Parents.
Now, beyond the tragedy of Genesis, we must directly behold the manifestation of the Only Begotten Daughter. When the value of woman, which has been disparaged and distorted throughout history, is restored through the substantial reality of the Only Begotten Daughter, True Mother, the long-standing wounds of Eden will be healed. Then, the grand ideal of a world of peace without war—‘One Family Under Heavenly Parent’—can be realized. Wiping the tears of Haewa and leading humanity along the path of rebirth, this vision of maternal salvation is the final gospel that this era must discover between the lines of scripture.
To Be Continued …
◼ Author’s Note
Dr. Seong-Jong Seo received his Master’s degree from the Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) in New York, USA, and his Ph.D. from California Union University (C.U.U.). For 35 years, he has traveled between Korea, the United States, and Latin America, serving as a pastor and world peace activist. He presents insights encompassing religion, humanities, and contemporary issues through numerous books, including “Humanities Encountered During the COVID-19 Pandemic.”