God, Incarnation in the Feminine, and the Third Presence (original) (raw)
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The feminine in the making of God: Highlighting the sensible topography of divinity
2011
What does it mean to talk of the power of God in relation to the human self? The discourses generated by the Jewish and Christian tradition about the capacity for divinity have been mainly promulgated by men, and have more often than not served to exclude women cognitively, practically, and spiritually. As a result they have been made powerless in the face of God's presence. It is possible to look to ideas developed in Hindu Tantra for comparative notions of power (śakti) which can redeem the place of God for women. The path of divine consciousness is effectively illustrated by an imaginary and somatic awareness, by a devout attention to the play of light in the soul. In this paper I propose to read the assignment of energy and force within conceptions of divinity through the lens of a poststructuralist realization, using the work of Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, and Luce Irigaray. Women take part in the divine becoming, in the engendering of 'God'. But that mediation is often forgotten. Women serve the apparition of god but do not appear themselves as divine, As mothers of God, as servants of the Lord, yes. As consorts of the god, as incarnations of the divinity, no. 1
A Clash of Symbolisms: an Iconic Reading of the Meaning of Gender
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This study examines the various images of human existence as they relate to gender. Anthropos exists ontologically as the image of God. Also, gender itself has an iconic character, revealed by God to Adam by instructing him of his need for communion with woman, yet this communion was changed into subjection in the fall when mankind became subject to the flesh. While biology is part of mankind’s ontology, the gendered hierarchy of origins and its fallen state of rule and subjection are not ontological images, but images of the divine economy. The divine monarchy of the Father is a hierarchy of union without subordination that defines the divine persons by their origins, but the hierarchy between human genders does not constitute personhood but is iconic of the divine life in communion. St. Paul builds on the image of hierarchy by presenting marriage as a type of Christ and the Church, in which all are called to subject themselves. With this groundwork, the icon of Christ the Bridegroom provides a more satisfactory and theologically precise answer as to why we have a male priesthood within Orthodox Christianity rather than a claim of the ontological subjection of woman. Finally, the relationship between male and female, including mutual subjection, is not an end in itself, but becomes a means of movement toward the divine life in communion with God.
Constructions of Gender in Religious Traditions of Late Antiquity, 2024
The Messiah appears in Midrashic and Kabbalistic traditions as a “dead baby” or a hero that almost was not born. Yet, at the same time, the redeemer symbolizes renewal, hope for a better future, and everything that is yet to emerge and be revealed. The paper discusses these paradoxical ideas, alongside feminine and masculine characterizations of the messianic hero, interfaith polemics and motifs of birth and rebirth. I also claim that the Messiah, both the Son of Joseph and the Son of David, is a figure drawing inspiration from the narratives of the biblical Joseph and David.
The Divine Feminine… and Masculine: A Brief Theological Study of God's Gender
2023
It is not imperceptible within Western society that the current cultural conversation surrounding gender identity has found its way into many different facets of life. This is true even for conversations within the Christian theological sphere. Radical feminism and feminist theology have made clear their positions concerning the traditional use of the male-gendered language of God. Such language, according to them, contributes to the oppression of women everywhere. Because of this, attempts have been made to discontinue the use of male-gendered language for God; and the cry for the idea of the "Divine Feminine" has heightened. A response to such thinking has been the call for Christians to double down on the use of male-gendered language for God, which in its extreme, completely dismisses the biblical use of both the male and female language attributed to God. This paper's objective is to briefly explore current theological research concerning the gender of God, determine the implications of the biblical use of gendered language for God, and provide a balanced understanding of God and His transcendent non-gendered nature. keywords: God, gender, Divine Feminine, male, female.
Gender as Trinitarian and Eschatological Representation
God has made us in his image, directing our contemplations concerning ourselves back to him by “many bonds” of representation. He is an equally ultimate unity and diversity. The three persons exist as the one essence distinguished from one another by incommunicable personal properties and an order of unfolding, with corresponding missions which terminate in time. We represent the paradox of the trinity as one image-bearing mankind, male and female. We are distinguished from one another as male and female in Genesis 1, and we are seen in an order of processions in Genesis 2, with corresponding missions. He has also made us signs and symbols of the earth and heavens. Man represents earth in its heavenward press toward consummation. Woman represents heaven, the goal of Sabbath rest. Man represents the first order, the order of innocence under probation, and woman represents the second order of confirmed blessedness. As each other’s bone and flesh, man and woman represent the confluence of heaven and earth on the last day. It is that convergence that holds our highest joy as the bridal people of the Lamb. Our differences as male and female bring us to worship our thrice holy God, who has revealed himself to us and written upon us his plans for us.
Schizoid Coitus: Christ and the Feminine
Marxist Feminist Criticism of the Bible, ed. by Roland Boer and Joprunn Okland, Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2008
Wherever the religious neurosis has appeared on the earth so far, we find it connected with three dangerous prescriptions as to regimen: solitude, fasting, and sexual abstinence—but without its being possible to determine with certainty which is cause and which is effect or IF any relation at all of cause and effect exists there.—Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil. Interest in the treatment and role of women within Christianity seems to be increasing exponentially. The scope of that interest is very diverse, ranging from serious analytical studies to those that belong more to the sphere of the popular, artistic and obscure. It is enough just to mention the recent mega-success of the popular crime novel, The Da Vinci Code which, because of its accent on the feminine and the role women might have played in the life of Jesus, stirred up so much dust that even the Vatican found it necessary to comment on it. There is no doubt that this wide interest in the role of women in establishing one of the cornerstones of Western civilization, Christianity, owes its emergence mainly to the development of feminism and feminist thought in the twentieth century. On the other hand, if we take into consideration that feminism made its historical debut as an offshoot of Marxism, it can be stated that in its core feminist discourse revolves around two ideas: one is alienation, the process of objectification of biological sex differences and the ways that objectification reflects on the socio-cultural position of women; another concerns the methods of overcoming the consequences of that objectification. Like The Da Vinci Code, this essay is also built around Jesus, women and sex, but rather than chasing blood lines it attempts to interpret the myth of Jesus from the perspective of sexual and gender emancipation. Like other feminist writings, this essay is also concerned with alienation, but unlike the majority of feminist texts which concentrate on the socioeconomic sphere, its focus is mainly on biological and sexual alienation and the missed/suppressed historical potentiality of the Jesus Christ myth to become—at least in these terms—a truly liberating myth.
New Blackfriars, 2005
The Trinity and Gender: Theological Reflections on the Differences of Divine and Human Persons
Priscilla Papers, 2008
Author: Gary W. Deddo Publisher: CBE International Does the doctrine of the Trinity shed any light on why God created us as human beings with gender? Any consideration of the relationship of men and women must fall, first, under the more universal constraints of all Christian discipleship. The ethic of love must undergird any and every other ethical obligation of men and women together. Second, we are biblically obligated to recognize that God’s own love revealed in Christ provides the norm for our loving of one another even as men and women. Third, we are biblically warranted to compare the relationship of men and women analogically to God’s relationship to us in Christ, and that relationship may be analogically compared to the relationship of the triune persons. In theological terms, Scripture encourages us to discern an analogy of relations, but not an analogy of being, between God and humanity.