Women and the Trinity
For most of us, faith development is a process. We grow in wisdom and stature and favor with God. As a Christian woman I know that my consciousness about the feminist agenda has evolved in stages also.
First, I became aware of the generic language. Words like "mankind", "brotherhood", and the overused pronoun "he" was supposed to describe all of humanity. IT was clear that they contained a masculine bias. Little girls grew up hearing those words literally and scaling down their self-image. I decided that even if I was not personally offended by these terms, inclusive language was a matter of justice. Language both reflects the way we think and informs what we think. That was stage one in my feminist journey.
Secondly, I began to be concerned with the language in which we use to describe God. If Christians insist that God be without gender, why do we call God "he" at every turn? God is personal. The very meaning of incarnation informs us that the God whom we know in Jesus Christ cares about us and loves us like parents, our friends, and our special others. Yet I have never met a "person" who was neither male nor female. It is clear that the understanding of God as objective force or philosophic idea was not an aspect of Christian theology.
From all these thoughts I have come to think about God in the aspect of the Trinity. I am convinced, like many others before me, that Trinitarian theology captures some of the unique message of the gospel and expresses certain understanding of God that are consistent with women's experience.
On one level the Trinitarian formula for God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit is totally unacceptable --an old man, a young man, and a dove. The words are redolent of hiera...
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...hrist came to heal, reconcile, and invite the world to enter freely and fully into the divine life." We are called to be faithful to the dynamic reality of the love of the triune God.
To sum up, Theology seeks one general word for the three, however. It cannot be Father or Son or Spirit, for these words name what is distinctive; there is only one of each. It also would not be right to say there are three essences for that would deliver to us more than one God. In the end it is legitimate to say that there are three person, provided that this be understood as mystery and not in any usual or known sense.
When it is asked three what, then the great poverty form which our language suffers becomes apparent. But the formula three persons was coined not in order to give a complete explanation by mean of it, but in order that we might be obliged to remain silent.
A large wave of pro women centric thinking has arisen in the form of feminist theology. This line of thought draws from Genesis and the idea that men and women were created equally. I think that this effort to open the door to feminist theology is a welcome and necessary change from the historically male dominated ideas of theology. I have not read too many theological works, but I am sure that if I were to read more, my opinions and thoughts of what I currently view as God could be altered. I am interested in learning more about past feminist theology. I would like to know the thoughts of women in Christianity back when they were actively being excluded. It is interesting to see the thoughts of minorities about the majority in order to piece together where changes can be made in order to make a more cohesive functioning
Krostenberger and Swain (2008) from the patristic period until today, John's Gospel has served as a major source of the church's knowledge, doctrine and worship of the triune God. Among all New Testament documents the Fourth Gospel provides not only the most raw material for the doctrine of the Trinity, but also the most highly developed patterns of reflection on this material—particularly patterns that seek to account in some way for the distinct personhood and divinity of Father, Son and Spirit without compromising the unity of God. While there have been recent, fine studies on aspects of John's doctrine of God, it is surprising that none summarises and synthesises what John has to say about God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In order to fill this
Three equals one. Out of all of the statements made by the Christian faith, perhaps none is more confusing. The Doctrine of the Trinity has been questioned for decades and many Christians do not even understand it. Colin E. Gunton argues that this does not have to be so. Instead, he calls the Western Church to learn from Eastern Orthodoxy and allow Trinitarian thinking to permeate every aspect of the church. It is when the Western Church embarrasses “The Forgotten Trinity” (the name of the chapter) in thinking and in worship, that we not only learn the nature of God, but how we should live in light of it.
One of the main principles of Christianity is the belief in both the divinity and humanity of Jesus, that these two natures are combined harmoniously in one being. In general, all modern Christians believe that Jesus was human, he was considered to be “The Word was made flesh” (John, I: 14). However, Jesus was more than just a human, despite being subjected to pain, suffering and death like all other human beings, he was sinless and also possessed the power to heal and to defy death in order to ascend, both body and spirit, into heaven. He was all man and all God, a combination of these two elements, remaining distinct but united in one being. The deity of Jesus is a non-negotiable belief in Christianity, which is referred to in many parts of scripture, “God was revealed in the flesh” (I Timothy, 3:16). The Christian faith does not perceive Jesus as God but rather a reincarnation of God, a mysterious deity who is the second person of the Holy Trinity. Throughout history, controversy has surrounded the issue of the humanity and divinity of Jesus, leading to the formation of Docetism, the belief that Jesus was fully divine but not fully human, Arianism, that Jesus was superior to all of creation, but less divine than God, and Nestorius, that there were two separate persons within Jesus. This the proportion of the divine and human within Je...
The first issue which feminist scholars face in whether they can be a faithful Christian or Jew is that the Bible states multiple times how women are subordinate to men. This can be seen in 1 Corinthians 11:7-9 where it is said that the man ‘is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man… neither was the man created for the woman but the woman for the man.’ This clearly states that women are inferior to men and belong to them similar to a po...
In scripture it is seen that God’s intention was for equality “…And the man said: This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh! She is to be called Woman.” (Gen.2:23) Woman and Man was given a body, mind and soul. Each had a personality and capable of exercising dominion. (Gen 1: 28-29) (Genderstanding Jesus)
With Mary Daly we discover that in the Christian faith and many other religions, we portray God as male. This shared belief according to Daly is stated to be one of the leading causes of male dominance; also called “feminism, where women are seen as the second sex”. Here we will be breaking down Daly’s arguments and try to understand her ways of possibly fixing this problem. In Daly’s book we notice three main aspects that serve as the root of the majority of her claims. The first one is god as a verb rather than a noun, this concept address how by saying god is only a noun we are limiting the power of him. The second point is god is male and male is god, this part of her book talks about how males have been cast as the superior gender thanks
...hoice of pursuing any field of interest in my studies, as I would have been very limited in my choices as a woman. For these and many other opportunities, I am thankful for the changes that have taken place. Unfortunately, I feel we have lost a great deal in the process. I think we often confuse the desire to have equal rights with the view that gender differentiation is an oppressive concept that should be abolished. The feminists of today do little more than dissolve the family unit, confuse relationships, and weaken a woman's role in society. In reality, men and women are very different and instead of trying to completely erase the differences between us, we should embrace them. By acknowledging our separate identities, rather than ignoring them, we would be better able to work together and improve society as a whole.
In her article, “Feminist Hermeneutics and Biblical Studies”, Phyllis Trible discusses the issues centered toward women in the bible (Trible). She addresses issues not just concerning equality, but also how men viewed women in biblical times. Trible examines the role of women in the bible, and the misconception they carry, that leads many into harms way.
The doctrine of the Trinity, as seen in the Christian bible, is primary to the Christian faith. The word “Trinity” does not actually appear in the bible; it is a theological label meant to summarize certain teachings of certain passages of scripture, and is crucial to properly understand what God is like, how He relates to us, and how we relate to Him. It may also raise many difficult questions including what does it mean that God is a Trinity? While it is difficult for us to fully understand everything about the trinity, it is quite possible to answer questions like this one and come to a solid grasp of what it means for God to be three in one.
Taylor then describes God as soft, gentle, feminine and has an eye for beautiful things and great designs. Taylor imagines that God is both male and female, and that he or she resides in all human endeavors and not only found in heaven, but in all objects of nature and of human construction. This evidence shows of a twofold consciousness. Taylor sees God through the interplay of the masculine and the feminine, the sacred and the profane, the temporal and the eternal, and the conscious and the unconscious
A large wave of pro women thinking has arisen in the form of feminist theology. This line of thought draws from Genesis and the idea that men and women were created equally. I think that this effort to open the door to feminist theology I 'd a welcome and necessary change from the historically male dominated ideas of theology. I have not read too many theological works, but I am sure that if I were to read more, my options and thoughts of what I currently view as God could be altered. I am interested in learning more about past feminist theology. I would like to know the thoughts of women on Christianity back when they were actively being excluded. It is interesting to see the thoughts of minorities about the majority in order to price together where changes can be made in order to make a more cohesive functioning
In Christianity one of their primary beliefs is the idea of a Triune God, which means the belief of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as one entity not three separate beings. This would result in God being indivisible and could not be divided into three different parts for an ...
Women’s rights in the Catholic Church, generally, are a controversial subject. Many people believe the Church is masculine and excludes women in any leadership rules. The Catholic Church has been around for over two thousand years. The modern world believes the Church is outdated. Jesus Christ lived during a time when women were secluded. It is time, in their thoughts, for the Catholics to change their beliefs to adequate with the contemporary society, some Catholics even deliberate with the idea of change. Pope Paul VI portrayed the Catholic Church in three words, tradition (the practices of the faith), magisterium (God’s Plan) and the Gospels (Jesus’ teachings). It is not the Church’s responsibility to change but to follow what they have been given, the Truth. As more go to the advanced society and the feminist movement continues on, the Church stays with their beliefs on who each of the sexes really are.
In Judaism, God is not viewed as a male or female. They believe that God has both masculine and feminine qualities. Some Jewish people refer to God as a man only for convenience, not because they actually believe that he is a male. Both man and woman were created in the image of God. Some even believe that women were created with higher role of importunacy because they were "built" (Gen 2:22) rather then "formed" (Gen 2:7).