Suzanne McCarthy started Peter Kirk off on the gender of the Word. At roughly the same time Graham Kings started John Richardson off on the gender of the Spirit, though Richardson later graced his “walk out” with some reasons. Peter Kirk has taken this on here and here. There is further discussion on the Fulcrum forum. At one level clayboy has no intention of getting involved in this particular intra-evangelical spat, but he expects Peter Kirk to win, firstly because Peter understands how language works, and secondly because, like some kind of argumentative Terminator, Peter will always be back with one more post.
On Father’s day, it seems appropriate to offer one related reflection. St Thomas (ST 1.1.13 art 6) uses Ephesians 3:14-15 to affirm that certain words are primarily used of God and secondarily of creatures.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.
Τούτου χάριν κάμπτω τὰ γόνατά μου πρὸς τὸν πατέρα, ἐξ οὗ πᾶσα πατριὰ ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς ὀνομάζεται
The point Aquinas wants to make from this is that there is some language (and what we mean by fatherhood is for him a clear biblical example and warrant for what he wants to say) which only finds its real meaning when applied to God. He acknowledges that in practice, it is our human use which gives us the necessary linguistic skill to apply the word to God, nonetheless he sees it as properly describing God, not the human fathers about whom the language was developed.
So, at the level of language, “Father” is applied metaphorically to God, at the level of reality, “father” is applied metaphorically to human beings.
It seems reasonable to suggest, therefore, (still noting the development of this language is rooted in patriarchal culture) that “fatherhood” is fundamentally about generative and creative love long before it is about gender. (This is perhaps more obvious in the Greek –and the NRSV – than it was in Aquinas’ Latin Vulgate paternitas)
Just as Jesus can compare himself to a mother hen (and St Anselm can happily address Jesus his mother) and men can do mothering, so we can celebrate today all those who father us, from whose creative and generative love we spring, whatever their gender.
And yes, it’s still appropriate and right that we focus on real women and mothers on Mothering Sunday and real men and fathers on Fathers’ day, but let’s be thankful that both fathering and mothering can also be shared by all, and transcend gender.
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Thanks. Actually I am already “back with one more post“. And after that, yet again, at least until there’s one more theological argument based on a linguistic fallacy to terminate, “I’ll be back”.
Yup. I have discovered how often the KJV referred to the spirit as “it” and how this was changed to “he” at some later date. Post reformation regendering of the spirit. It mirrors the way rukha, was regendered in the Old Syriac from feminine to masculine.
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