2022-57 Recensie van Maria: icoon van genade 33 Three points deserve highlighting. First, although redemption is more than a renewal and recovery of what was lost in the fall, describing the eschatological mystery of creation in earthly analogies (1 Cor. 15:25–53) suggest certain boundaries of creation that will not be transcended, hence renewed, and restored even while fulfilled. This perspective of creation receives support from Christ in Matthew 19:3–8 and Mark 10:6–9, given that his words refer back to the Genesis texts of 1:27 and 2:24. Second, there is also the eschatological mystery that prohibits us from simply identifying the original creation with the eschatological fulfillment of creation. In this light, it cuts off speculation—such as Huijgen’s apparent move to legitimize gender diversity by separating gender from bodily sex, maleness and femaleness from an eschatological perspective—about what we shall be with resurrected bodies. Yes, the body will be raised, indeed, the totality of our human nature will be raised. Third, in this connection, Jesus says, “in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage” (Matt. 22:30; cf. Mark 12:25, Luke 20:34–36). Similarly, Saint Paul asks, “‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’” (1 Cor. 15:35) John Paul II explains, “man will always be the same, just as he came forth from the hand of his Creator and Father.” Thus, there is a development of the truth about the same man such that in the eschatological experience of the resurrection he will still be male and female as he was “from the beginning.” Grace renews nature from within such that the transfigured one-flesh communion is already, here and now, a concrete anticipation of the Kingdom of God, that communion cannot be abolished in the new creation. So, Jesus does affirm that this man of the new creation will be male and female as he was “from the beginning” (Matt. 19:8; Mark 10:6). I recommend Arnold Huijgen’s engaging book on Mary even with these critical comments. Arnold Huijgen. Maria: Icoon van Genade. Utrecht, KokBoekCentrum, 2021, ISBN: 978 90 435 3489 5, 375 pp.
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