Merton on St. Ambrose

St. Ambrose [Bishop of Milan, d. 397], in his succinct little tract De Institutione Virginis (On the Education of a Virgin), blends mysticism and humanism together in a manner that merits much more detailed study than we can attempt here. The full maturity of the Christian life is attained in a virginal union with Christ which itself implies the perfect integration of the whole human person. Union with Christ implies His entrance into a personality which is perfectly united in all its three traditional elements of body, soul, and spirit-corpus, anima, spiritus.

This treatise of St. Ambrose's is particularly interesting for its outspoken defense of women in general. Basing himself on the creation narrative of Genesis and on St. Paul's doctrine of the mystery of Christ typified in the union of Adam and Eve, the mystical humanism of Ambrose declares that man without woman is physically and spiritually incomplete, and that woman is in a very deep sense the "glory" of man, his spiritual completion, his "grace," without whom he cannot fully possess or recover his true being in Christ...

[T]he beauty of woman's body is a great work of God, meant to be a sign of that far greater interior beauty, the special clarity and loveliness of her spirit. Indeed, St. Ambrose declares, it is quite evident that women are more generous, more virtuous, more self-sacrificing then men

This totally refreshing defense of woman gives us some indication of the depth and reality of patristic humanism. Indeed, how can there be true "humanism" when half of the human race is ignored or excluded? Pagan humanism, the exclusive preserve of man, only exalts his complacency and justifies his selfishness with a veneer of philosophy. A humanism for men only is, as we have seen, nothing but a barbarous falsehood. The light of true humanism is kindled by the Incarnate Word.

Thomas Merton. "Virginity and Humanism" in Mystics and Zen Masters. New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1961: 118-119.