mls@cbnewsm.att.com (michael.l.siemon) (07/23/89)
Prem Subrahmanyam writes:
In other places the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of Christ.
Since Jesus was a man, it is only logical to believe that the Holy Spirit
is somehow male in gender (of course, not in human terms of gender).
So, Mr. Wingate, you are in error to believe that the Holy Spirit is
a She...Scripture stands against you in this, or will you say that
some other "truth" or "tradition" reveals otherwise?
You are trying to have it boths ways -- to deny that human gender is relevant
(you say, "of course, not in human terms") and yet to insist on a distinction
that we only comprehend in human terms, however metaphorical their application.
Biologists can define male/female in a way purely determined by reproductive
function; beyond that all we have is the "human terms" in which we interact
with each other in human society. And both biologically and socially, this is
complex. If one were to make God a subject of biological study, and take
seriously the eternal procreation of the second person of the Trinity by the
first, then biologists would normally conclude that the Godhead is either
asexual or female, not male. I take this as a _reductio ad absurdum_ saying
that our only justification for gender-language about God is as metaphorical
extension of human interpersonal language. There may be theological meaning
in our being created male and female "in the image of God," but we apprehend
that meaning dimly, in the mirror of our own human understanding (or all too
likely, *mis*understanding) of gender.
I, for one, see no reason the Spirit of Christ (an expression that seems to me
slightly prejudicial; for Eastern Orthodoxy, the Spirit procedes only from the
Father, not from the Son) has to be "male." I assume your "only logical" is a
manner of speaking, since you give no argument for it, logical or otherwise.
The one scriptural reference you give does indeed have Jesus comparing himself
to a mother hen (Matt.23:37 || Luke 13:34). It is worth noting that this is
one of a number of passages scholars take to be drawing on the rich Wisdom
tradition of Judaism contemporary with Jesus. What is even more interesting
is that in such cases Matthew has a tendency to *identify* Wisdom with Christ.
For example, Luke 11:49-50 has
"Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send them prophets
and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,' that the
blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world,
may be required of this generation."
while Matthew's parallel, in 23:34, clearly adapting this same tradition to
the early Christian mission, has Jesus speak:
"Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of
whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your
synagogues and persecute from town to town."
Now, the Wisdom figure (in Proverbs, Ecclesiasticus and elsewhere in the
apocrypha and pseudepigrapha) is *always* personified as feminine. If we
take this seriously and we adopt a Trinitarian position, we need to identify
feminine Wisdom with one of the persons of the Trinity.
We can follow Matthew and make the identification with Christ, who thereby
becomes feminine (especially in the pre-existent Christ before Incarnation)
or we can follow up the association with sending/inspiring the prophets and
make Wisdom another, somewhat poetic, way of speaking of the Spirit. Take
your choice; either Christ is feminine or the Spirit is. Both of these
identifications have been made -- Hagia Sophia in the Greek tradition is
normally assimilated to Christ; insofar as modern spirituality deals with
the matter at all (versus trying to ridicule or ignore it) there is some
tendency to say Wisdom == Spirit. I follow this latter course, and so you
will find me, at times when I decide to make a point of it, calling God
the Holy Spirit She.
--
Michael L. Siemon The Son of Man has come eating and drinking;
cucard!dasys1!mls and you say "Behold, a glutton and a drunkard,
att!sfbat!mls a friend of tax collectors and sinners." And
standard disclaimer yet, Wisdom is justified by all her children.