How we view God is critical for a theocentric philosophy such as Unification Thought. Our view of God is the starting-point for a life of faith as well. For example, why do we call God "Father"? Could we call God "Heavenly Mother"? Is "Heavenly Parent" more correct?

Exposition of the Divine Principle describes God has having dual characteristics and God as the masculine subject partner.' Unificationists often emphasize that God has the dual characteristics of both internal nature and external form and of masculinity and femininity. Regarding God as "the Subject in whom the dual characteristics of internal nature and external form are in harmony" can explain the ground of the material world and the consistency of spirit and matter. God as "the harmonious union of masculinity and femininity" clarifies the ground for the existence of man and woman.

However the third definition of God, as the masculine subject partner, has been dealt only in the context that God is in the position of masculinity in relation to the created world. When "God as dual characteristics" is emphasized, "God as the masculine subject partner" is neglected. For example, Unification theologian Young Oon Kim taught, "Modern theism must go beyond God the Father."' Neither is there any explanation about this third definition in the texts of Unification Thought. Dr. Sang Hun Lee has struggled to express, with limited words, an absolute, unique, eternal and unchanging God. However, to come closer to God, more such efforts are necessary.

This paper elucidates the importance of understanding God as the masculine subject partner. It seeks thereby to clarify the view of God in Divine Principle. While the Unification teaching about God's dual characteristics of internal nature and external form and of masculinity and femininity leads to an understanding of God as the God of divine polarity, I maintain that God's character is best understood as that of a masculine being. Because conventional Unification Church teachings do not elucidate how God can have dual characteristics of masculinity and femininity and at the same time have a masculine character, we are left with questions. Is God a neutral being who created both man and woman? Or is God a God of two entities, male and female, because characteristics of both masculinity and femininity are found throughout the creation? I will argue that the correct understanding of Divine Principle is that God is most essentially a masculine being who has dual characteristics of masculinity and femininity.

According to the Divine Principle, "God is the Subject in whom the dual characteristics of original internal nature and original external form are in harmony."' This passage indicates God has both spiritual elements and elements of matter/energy, as well as all the natures of both man and woman. With this we can solve three important problems: first, the problem of spirit and matter, second, the ground in God for the existence of man and woman, and third, God's character and the relationship between God and the created world.

In the Christian tradition, God is pure spirit. This leads to the first problem: How can a being that is pure spirit create matter? Additionally, what is the relationship between sprit and matter? In Christian view of God, God who transcends human elements does not have the concept of masculinity and femininity in Him. This leads to the second problem: What is the ground in God for the existence of man and woman? Since these two problems have been discussed many times in Unification Thought, we will not repeat the traditional explanations here. Only the third problem will be the focus of this paper, and relating with the third problem those two problems will be also discussed.

In this world of three dimensions, we struggle to understand either the world before creation or the world before the creation of time and space. Before the creation, God was the sole existence. Somehow, within God's specific character was internal nature and external form, masculinity and femininity.

When God was the sole existence, God was conscious only of Himself. In other words, before the creation, God Himself was everything. This was the static situation before the subjective impulse for creation was actuated. However, God, whose essence is Heart, is a being of dual characteristics. Being alone, God felt lonely, and God's loneliness motivated Him to create. Hence, at a certain moment God had a subjective impulse to create His object partner. Once God started the creation of an object, He invested everything into that object.

To imagine "before the creation" is difficult. One of Rev. Moon's speeches illuminates this obscure image.

In other words, there was a time when God existed alone, conscious only of Himself. However, once God started to think of His creation, He began living totally for His object partners. Therefore, in this sense, a human being's self-centered nature is natural-notably in children.

Nevertheless, according to the Divine Principle, before the creation "God existed alone... as the masculine subject partner":

How can we elucidate this passage? Before the creation, God existed only as the subject partner having the qualities of internal nature and masculinity. When Rev. Moon uses the word "masculinity"(, namsong-gyok), it means "masculine character of a man" (, namsong jok in-gyok). Rev. Moon usually uses this word to indicate "man" or "male." In other words, God is man with dual characteristics. Concerning this point, Rev. Moon explains on numerous occasions:

The reason God is the masculine subject partner is typically explained in the context of "God-in-relationship" with the created world. God is masculine because God and the created world are in the position of subject partner and object partner. However, according to Rev. Moon's words, God is masculine (in the form of a man) prior to any relationship with the created world.

It is well established in Unification teachings that God has dual characteristics of internal nature and external form, and of masculinity and femininity. Since masculinity and femininity are attributes or regulatory elements of internal nature and external form, God has masculine (yang) internal nature (sungsang) and external form (hyungsang), and feminine (yin) internal nature (sungsang) and external form (hyungsang). The Divine Principle states that God is the harmonious Subject of the dual characteristics of masculine sungsang and hyungsang and feminine sungsang and hyungsang.' In the Korean phrase "harmonious subject" (, chunghwajok juche), , chunghwa) is not simply harmony. It means "harmony on the center" (, chungshin jok chohwa). What is the center? The center is "Heart" or "True Love." Divine Principle doesn't discuss Heart in this context; however the word , chunghwa, implies that Heart or True Love is the center. Therefore, God's Original Internal Nature and Original External Form are harmonized centering on Heart or True Love. God's masculinity and femininity are also harmonized centering on Heart. The question is: how are they harmonized?

In my view, the essential teaching of Rev. Moon is that God is a being in whom the dual characteristics are harmonized to express a masculine nature. Though God has both masculine sungsang and hyungsang and feminine sungsang and hyungsang, the masculine aspect (masculine sungsang and hyungsang) is more dominant than the feminine aspect (feminine sungsang and hyungsang), as with human males. This is the meaning of Moon's often-repeated phrase, "God is a Subject Being of masculine character," as in the following passage:

Love is the essence of God, and as regards loving, God is male. The import of Rev. Moon's teachings is that internally God's subjective masculine nature, which means to give everything and to have dominion, is stronger than God's objective feminine nature. Externally also, creativity and subjectivity are God's external attributes. As the hyungsang is the second sungsang, this is the result of the sungsang revealing itself as hyungsang. A key corollary of this assertion, as will be discussed below, is that God is also male with respect to carrying the seed of God's lineage.

Therefore, God is subjective and masculine not because God takes the subject position in relation to an object partner, but because God has a prior subjective nature. Because God has a subjective nature, God created objects and took the subject position to them. God's subjective nature is primordial, and. His subject position in relationships is an expression of this nature.

Unification teachings describe God's subjective masculine nature. Before the creation, Rev. Moon teaches that God only experienced Himself. At that stage, God could not feel any stimulation; He did not have His object of love. At that stage, God is only harmonized as to His dual characteristics with the potential to express His masculine nature. However, from the moment God determined to create an object of love, God, as the masculine subject partner, invested all energy into the creation. Furthermore in the course of restoration after the human fall, God continues to invest His love. In loving His creation, God's masculine aspect (yang sungsang and hyungsang) is fully revealed.

Since God could have an idea to create an object to love, God was effectively and by nature masculine even before the creation. This is similar to the fact that a man, in whom the yang aspect predominates over the yin aspect, alone cannot fully express his internal situation such as joy, anger or excitement as a masculine being alone, but once he has the object partner, his masculine internal character is completed.

In Unification Thought, God's hyungsang is the aspect corresponding to the body and the fundamental cause of the visible, material aspect of all created beings. It is the substance that forms all created beings, and at the same time it is the potential that can manifest itself in a limitless number of forms.' S This hyungsang energy is manifested according to the blueprint in God's sungsang. God Himself has no definite form. However, Rev. Moon asserts that as God's masculine subjective nature is more dominant, His internal nature would be manifested in an external form like that of a human male. Accordingly, when God revealed Himself as a visible form, it was as a male (man). Rev. Moon states:

Furthermore, Rev. Moon teaches that God has a male sexual organ, which symbolizes love, life and lineage. Love, life and lineage are mutually related. Life is born from love. With love as the motivation, a new life has a love connection with its origin; that is lineage. That God has the "seed" means that God, as the Creator, has the power of love and life to create a man and a woman. That God has the "lineage" means that God has the authority and ability to have dominion over human beings through the connection of love.

Thus God is the root of love, life and lineage. In this way Rev. Moon depicts God's subjective nature as at the same time vertical, causal and masculine.

Furthermore Rev. Moon said, "There were five men and one woman in the Garden of Eden."ZS Here the five men denote God, Adam and the three archangels. In sum, God in His internal nature and external form has a predominantly masculine character. God has both natures of masculinity and femininity, but as the First Cause and Creator, God has a predominantly subjective, masculine nature.

To better understand the Unification view of how God is the masculine subject partner, let us examine the creation of human beings from the viewpoint of vertical creation and horizontal creation. Generally, the creation of human beings has been discussed with respect to the manifestation of God's dual characteristics of masculinity and femininity. But there is another way to view the creation of human beings, as two kinds of creation. First was the vertical creation, or the creation of Adam, and second was the horizontal creation, or the creation of Eve.

In Reverend Moon's teachings, the vertical creation means that the invisible God manifested Himself in the substantial form of Adam, in order to stand as the subject in the substantial world. Adam is the result of God's vertical creation.

The horizontal creation means the creation of Eve as Adam's spouse. God's motivation to create was to seek for an object of love. Since God is the masculine subject partner, God also needed a female "spouse." In this sense, God's final goal of creation was Eve. Eve was created as a final object partner of beauty who could receive the most love from God. God, as a male, desired to love Eve, His love partner, through Adam. Rev. Moon teaches:

On the first night after Adam and Eve's marriage, God, who is the root of love, life and lineage, was to have entered into Adam's mind and Eve's mind. Then their marriage was to have become God's marriage." Unification Thought teaches that before the creation of humankind, God had images of Adam and Eve in His mind. Here more specifically we can discern that God's image of Adam was as God's likeness and God's image of Eve was as God's wife.

God first created Adam and next created Eve. Eve was created as God's daughter and was meant to become Adam's wife. Since Adam, had he reached perfection, was to have been the incarnation of God - God's body - Rev. Moon concludes that Eve as Adam's wife was to have been God's wife as well. More precisely, Eve was to have become God's wife internally and Adam's wife externally. This means the marriage of Adam and Eve was also to have been God's marriage.

How could God take Eve as a wife? Consider that Adam was created in God's image, to be His substantial being and His body. Taking Adam in his intended oneness with God as the mind, and Eve as the body, then Adam was to have been God's spiritual partner and Eve was to have been God's physical partner. Had Adam and Eve not fallen but grown to perfection and loved each other as husband and wife, they also would have made love with God.

From the standpoint of human beings, a man, as God's substantial body, should love his wife as God wants to love her. A man's wife should feel God's love for her through her husband's love. To say that God is the masculine subject partner means the active aspect of God's love is emphasized in the created world centered on human beings.

God, who has sungsang and hyungsang and yang and yin, was to enter Adam first and unite with him in love. Had Adam and Eve married centered on God and engaged in a conjugal relationship, God's love was to enter Eve through Adam. Thus, Rev. Moon teaches that God intended His dwelling place to be at the point where Adam and Eve unite in true love. Through such a union of Adam and Eve, God's love and human love, God's lineage and human lineage were to have connected. Adam and Eve were to become one in conjugal union, and this union was to connect heaven and earth and the universe. Rev. Moon has said:

This was to have been God's ideal of creation that would have been consummated had Adam and Eve not fallen but attained the blessing to "be fruitful and multiply." Their love was to begin the settlement of the God-centered family.

The transmission of God's lineage is a central theme in Rev. Moon's teachings. The differentiated roles of man and woman are important for understanding how lineage is transmitted, and hence how it can be restored.

Adam was created in the likeness of God, the masculine subject partner. Hence he has a vertical relationship with God. This means that like God, who has the seed of love and life, Adam also has the seed of love and life, and that Adam inherits God's blood lineage vertically." Rev. Moon teaches that lineage is passed on centered on the vertical axis between God and Adam. To expand this lineage, God created Eve to be the horizontal foundation for love, life and lineage. Eve was created to multiply the seed of the lineage that Adam inherited from God. Thus:

God's lineage is different from human lineage. Amplifying traditional Christian understandings, to inherit God's lineage means to have eternal life. It means to be connected with God in the relationship of true love. In other words this gives God, centered on love, ownership over our life. On the other hand, human lineage is transmitted through the biological union of a sperm and an ovum.

God's lineage is vertical and spiritual, whereas human lineage is horizontal and physical, yet Rev. Moon teaches that these two aspects of lineage should be connected. God's spiritual lineage should be inherited through human lineage. From the standpoint of vertical lineage, it is through the man that new life is connected with God. If the father is one with God, then his offspring inherits God's lineage. In the words of Rev. Moon:

From a biological perspective, of course, a child inherits elements from both the father's side and the mother's side. Nevertheless, it is Rev. Moon's surprising teaching that a child connects to God's spiritual lineage only through his or her father. The man passes on God's lineage because he stands as God's substantial body. Just as God is the masculine subject partner and the origin of God's lineage, so the child's father, as the incarnation of God, carries God's lineage. However, if there were only a vertical relationship between God and man, there would be no multiplication. God needs woman to multiply His lineage through the human lineage. Rev. Moon says:

Also in support of this, consider the Christian belief that through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our lineage is changed and we receive adoption as God's sons and daughters.

Rev. Moon's teaching, "The father-child relationship is the fundamental axis of the universe," can be understood from the viewpoint of vertical and horizontal creation. Here the father-child relationship does not mean the father-child relationship in general, but rather the most fundamental relationship in the universe. Without the connection of lineage based on love, the true father-son relationship cannot be made.

God, the masculine subject partner, created Adam as His substantial body and Eve as His wife to seek true love and joy. First, God created Adam. Then God loves and unites in love with Adam. Finally God wants to dwell in the place where Adam and Eve horizontally unite in love. At this one point, God and human beings can experience the best joy and God's lineage and human lineage can be connected. This one point, where God and human beings unite in love, becomes the base for the ideal of creation.

Since God dwells in Adam's mind first, the relationship between God and Adam's mind is a father-son relationship. Furthermore, the relationship between God and Adam, who has God's lineage, and the relationship between God and Eve, who was created as His daughter, are also father-child relationships. Finally, when God the Father unites with Adam and Eve who are united in horizontal love, this relationship is a unified father-child relationship. This union realizes the ideal of creation. The father-child relationship is thus the vertical, destined and absolute relationship. With this vertical relationship as the axis, all other relationships expand horizontally. In this profound sense, the father-son relationship is the fundamental axis of the universe. Without this vertical relationship, there is no expansion, multiplication or development of either human beings or the universe. Rev. Moon teaches:

In other words, God is our Heavenly Father who established the father-child relationship as the axis of the universe.

Why do I insist that Unification Thought would do well to emphasize the view of God as the masculine subject partner? I do so because the essence of Rev. Moon's teaching is true love, which comes from God. However, Rev. Moon teaches that to realize true love, we must first inherit God's blood lineage. Indeed, the issue of how to inherit God's lineage has priority, since without true lineage people cannot maintain true love relationships. The critical problem of blood lineage can be correctly understood only from the starting-point that God is masculine. Thus, since Unification Thought seeks to be applicable in practice, and not just a theory, it should be updated to take into account these themes of Reverend Moon's thought."

Accompanying these issues of God's masculinity and lineage, several important points of Reverend Moon's teachings have been clarified. The first is the vertical and horizontal process by which God, as a masculine Being, created man and woman. The second is God's motivation to create-to seek for a love partner. God created Eve with love as His motivation. The third is the circumstance by which there can be oneness between God and human beings, centering on true love. God created Adam in His image and likeness. Then God enters into Adam to love Eve. The fourth is the process by which God establishes His fatherhood throughout the universe. Adam's vertical relationship with God, centering on lineage, expands throughout the universe as children multiply through the horizontal love relationship between Adam and Eve. This explains why Rev. Moon says that the father-son relationship is the fundamental axis of the universe.

In conclusion, there is deep significance to the statement in Exposition of the Divine Principle, "God is the masculine subject partner." According to Rev. Moon, "The essential teaching of Christianity is the Fatherhood of God..." 41

1. Exposition of the Divine Principle (New York: HSA- UWC, 1996), p. 15.

2. Young Oon Kim, Unification Theology (New York: HSA-UWC, 1980), p. 53.

3. Exposition of Divine Principle, p. 19.

4. Sun Myung Moon, "God's Hope for Man," Washington, DC, Oct. 20, 1973, in God's Will and the World, p. 262 (Japanese version).

5. Exposition of Divine Principle, p. 19.

6. Sun Myung Moon, "In Search of the Origin of the Universe" Seoul, Sept. 15, 1996, Sermons 279, p. 113. All translations from Korean are the author's.

7. Sun Myung Moon, "True Parents and the Value of Conscience," Seoul, Oct. 4, 1994, Sermons 263, p. 232.

8. Sun Myung Moon, "Sermon at the World Leaders' Conference," Washington DC, Aug. 2, 1996, The Blessed Family, Winter 1996, p. 48 (tr. from Japanese).

9. Sun Myung Moon, "Sermon on True God's Day" Jan. 1, 1997, Sao Paulo, Family, Feb. 1997, p. 9 (tr. from Japanese).

10. Sun Myung Moon, "In Search of True Value," Belvedere, Dec. 4, 1994, Sermons 266, p. 33.

11. Exposition of the Divine Principle, p. 19.

12. Sun Myung Moon, "Focus and Harmony," Seoul, Nov. 21,1991, Sermons 223, p. 268.

13. Sun Myung Moon, "The Path of Religion," Seoul, Oct. 14, 1988, Sermons 182, p. 61.

14. Sun Myung Moon, "Love God More Than Anybody Else," Taejon, Mar. 13, 1986, Sermons 142, p. 266.

15. Essentials of Unification Thought (Tokyo: Unification Thought Institute, 1992), p. 6.

16. Sun Myung Moon, "Words at the World Leaders' Conference," Washington, DC, Aug. 2, 1996, The Blessed Family, Winter 1996, p. 48 (Japanese).

17. Sun Myung Moon, "Searching for My True Self," Cheju, Jan. 5, 1993, Sermons 252, p. 312.

18. Sun Myung Moon, "The Path of Religion," Seoul, Oct. 14, 1988, Sermons 182, p. 61.

19. Sun Myung Moon, "The Original Place Human Beings Have to Go," Chunchon, May 13, 1988, Sermons 176, p. 304.

20. Sun Myung Moon, "Let's Live for Others," Su Taek Ri Central Training Center, Kuri, Nov. 24, 1991, Sermons 224, p. 143. (In the traditional Korean wedding, the bride holds out her skirt and catches in its folds fruit that the groom's parents throw at her.)

21. Sun Myung Moon, "Let's Become Filial Sons and Daughters Who Unite Mind and Body," Montevideo, Nov. 11, 1996, Sermons 280, p. 112.

22. Sun Myung Moon, "The Whole Body Desires Unification," Montevideo, Jan. 1, 1999, Sermons 298, p. 150.

23. Sun Myung Moon, "To Believe Absolutely Is for Searching for Absolute Love," Seoul, Feb. 1, 1999, Sermons 299, p. 9.

24. Sun Myung Moon, "In Search of the Origin of the Universe," Seoul, Sept. 15, 1996, Sermons 279, p. 250.

25. Sun Myung Moon, "Semon at the 40-day Workshop," Jardim, Aug. 21, 1998, unpublished (Japanese).

26. Sun Myung Moon, "Let's Go Back to the Homeland for Official Registration," Seoul, May 22, 1988, Sermons 177, p. 324.

27. Sun Myung Moon, "View of the Principle of the Providential History of Salvation," Washington, DC, Apr. 16, 1996, in Family, June 1996, p. 74 (Japanese).

28. Sun Myung Moon, "True Parents and the Value of Conscience," Seoul, Oct. 4, 1994, Sermons 263, p. 232.

29. Sun Myung Moon, "Sermon on the Day of God's Eternal Blessing," Salobra, Brazil, July 1, 1997, Sermons 286, p. 16.

30. Sun Myung Moon, "The Desire of All Things is True Love," Seoul, Jun. 9, 1994, Sermons 261, p. 140.

31. Sun Myung Moon, "The Settlement of True Love Begins from the Top Central Position," Tarrytown, Apr. 17, 1994, Sermons 259, p. 292.

32. Sun Myung Moon, "True Parents and the Value of Conscience," Seoul, Oct. 4, 1994, Sermons 263, p. 232.

33. Sun Myung Moon, "The Way to Organize the Unified Kingdom of Heaven," Seoul, May 3, 1988, Sermons 176, p. 124.

34. Sun Myung Moon, "Reflection on the Providence of Restoration," Seoul, May 1, 1983, Sermons 127, p. 14.

35. Sun Myung Moon, "Sermon at the World Leaders' Conference," Washington, DC, Aug. 2, 1996, The Blessed Family, Winter, 1996, p. 48 (Japanese).

36. Sun Myung Moon, "The Completion of the Providence of Restoration and the Age of the Providence of Support with Love," Tarrytown, Aug. 20, 1989, Sermons 193, p. 57.

37. Sun Myung Moon, "Sermon on the 30th Children's Day" Seoul, Apr. 10, 1994, Sermons 259, p. 226.

38. Sun Myung Moon, "Total Providential Conclusion," Tarrytown, Sept. 20, 1998, Family, Nov. 1998, p. 8 (Japanese).

39. Sun Myung Moon, "Sermon on the Day of God's Eternal Blessing," Salobra, Jul. 1, 1997, Sermons 286, p. 16.

40. Much of this content was revealed and has assumed paramount importance in the last decade, long after Dr. Lee completed his main work on Unification Thought.

41. Sun Myung Moon, The Way of God's Will, in Blessed Family and The Ideal Kingdom 1, p. 76.

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