476. That 'male and female' means the marriage of faith and love has been stated and shown already. That is to say, 'male' or man (vir) means the understanding and what belongs to the understanding, and so what belongs to faith, while 'female' means the will, or what belongs to the will, and so what belongs to love. This also is why she was called Eve, from a word meaning life, which belongs to love alone. 'Female' therefore also means the Church, as also shown already, and 'male' the man (vir) of the Church. At present the subject is the state of the Church at the time it was spiritual and shortly to become celestial, which is why the word 'male' comes first, as it does also in 1:26-27. Furthermore the expression 'to create' has regard to the spiritual man. As soon however as that marriage has taken place, that is, the Church has become celestial, it is no longer called 'male and female' but 'Man' (Homo) who by virtue of the marriage means both. Consequently 'and He called their name Man', which means the Church, follows next.

654. This is in keeping with what is well known in the Churches today about faith coming through hearing. But faith is in no sense mere intellectual awareness of the things that constitute faith, that is, of things that demand belief. That amounts to no more than knowledge. Faith is acknowledgement, yet acknowledgement cannot possibly exist with anyone unless the chief thing of faith resides with him, namely charity, or love towards the neighbour, and mercy. When charity is present so is acknowledgement, and so is faith. Anyone who thinks otherwise is as far from being aware of what faith is as land is distant from sky. When charity, which is the goodness constituting faith, is present, then acknowledgement, which is the truth of faith, is present too. When therefore a person is being regenerated in accordance with factual knowledge, rational concepts, and intellectual concepts, the end in view is that the ground, which is his mind, shall be made ready for receiving charity, from which, or rather from the life of which, he afterwards thinks and acts. At that point he has been reformed or regenerated, not before.