Below are the contents of the handout for Session Three, along with a passage from Gregory of Nyssa regarding the original equality of man and woman as created in the image of God.
The 7 Days of Creation
From Bible Basics for Catholics: A New Picture of Salvation History by John Bergsma
Church Teaching on Creation (Genesis 1-2)
How Catholics Read the Biblical Creation Stories
Among all the Scriptural texts about creation, the first three chapters of Genesis occupy a unique place. From a literary standpoint these texts may have had diverse sources. The inspired authors have placed them at the beginning of Scripture to express in their solemn language the truths of creation — its origin and its end in God, its order and goodness, the vocation of man, and finally the drama of sin and the hope of salvation. Read in the light of Christ, within the unity of Sacred Scripture and in the living Tradition of the Church, these texts remain the principal source for catechesis on the mysteries of the "beginning": creation, fall, and promise of salvation. (CCC paragraph 289)
Catholics do not have to believe in 6 literal days of creation
God himself created the visible world in all its richness, diversity and order. Scripture presents the work of the symbolically as a succession of six days of divine "work", concluded by the "rest" of the seventh day.204 On the subject of creation, the sacred text teaches the truths revealed by God for our salvation, permitting us to "recognize the inner nature, the value and the ordering of the whole of creation to the praise of God." (CCC paragraph 337)
Catholics can believe in evolution, but must believe in the special, immediate creation of the soul -- i.e. the soul does not evolve from anything (Pope Pius XII)
“The magisterium of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter—for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God. However, this must be done in such a way that the reasons for both opinions, that is, those favorable and those unfavorable to evolution, be weighed and judged with the necessary seriousness, moderation, and measure, and provided that all are prepared to submit to the judgment of the Church, to whom Christ has given the mission of interpreting authentically sacred Scripture and of defending the dogmas of faith” (Humani Generis (1950), paragraph 36).
Catholics must believe that all human beings are descended from one set of original parents (Pope Pius XII)
When, however, there is question of another conjectural opinion, namely polygenism, the children of the Church by no means enjoy such liberty. For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains that either after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parent of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents. Now it is in no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled with that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the Teaching Authority of the Church propose with regard to original sin, which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam and which, through generation, is passed on to all and is in everyone as his own. (Humani Generis (1950), paragraph 37).
The Double Nature of Man (Gregory of Nyssa)
“In Christ Jesus”, says the Apostle, “there is neither male nor female.” Yet Scripture says that mankind was divided in that way. It follows that our nature is constructed on a twofold plan: united in the common possession of human nature, by which man is like to God; yet divided into the two sexes. There is a hint of this truth contained in the order of the expressions which Scripture uses. The first account says, “God created man, to the image of God he created him”; but when the account is repeated, something is added: “male and female he made them”: and the latter division is not one of the characteristics of God.
In this passage Holy Scripture contains, it seems to me, a deep and profound lesson, namely, that man’s nature lies midway between two extremes—between the divine, incorporeal nature, and the irrational nature of the brute creation. Examine the compound which is man, and you will find that he has a share in each of these opposite elements. From the divine nature we receive reason and understanding, which are not divided according to sex; from the irrational nature of the brutes, we receive our bodily structure, divided into male and female. Each of these two elements is to be found complete in every human being. From the order of the account of man’s first creation we learn that in man the power of understanding takes first place, while his sharing in the nature of the brute creation, his similarity to the brutes, is something superadded.
Gregory of Nyssa, On the Formation of Man, ch. 16
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