SOURCE: Burghardt, Walter J. “Woman” and “Sin.” In The Image of God in Man according to Cyril of Alexandria, pp. 126-59. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1957.

In the following excerpt, Burghardt evaluates Cyril's generally pessimistic view of women and his theological understanding of sin as a disruption of humankind's divine qualities.

Woman

In speaking of man as God's image, we … [use] the term “man” in its widest application: a human being, a member of the human race. Anyone who has read Cyril extensively will not consider impertinent the question: did Cyril actually include the female of the species in his theology of the image? Does woman, as well as her male counterpart, resemble God in rationality, freedom, dominion, holiness, incorruptibility, and even “sonship”? If for no other reason, the question is relevant because of Cyril's ambivalent attitude towards woman. To see the problem in proper...