God and the Femine

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kariba
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
K

Kariba

Guest
What is the traditional Church teaching regarding the “sex” of God? Old Testament passages use femine images of God and it is not unusual to see the femine pronoun used in reference to the Holy Spirit. My understanding is that God/Trinity really has no sex and the masculine/femine pronouns are language restrictions we have to deal with. Does the Church have anything “official” about this and if so where is it?
Thanks for your help.
 
From my understanding, the Church teaches that although God (The Father) is essentially genderless, Scripture (God’s infused Words) in it’s literal translation uses the male. As far as Jesus Christ - He was born, lived and died male. The Holy Spirit, although sometimes likened to what our society believes are feminine qualities, needs to be either genderless or male (or the Incarnation would have been a homosexual act). I don’t have the official documentation at my fingertips and unfortunately don’t have the time to find it right now. I do know that I knew of them during my classes toward catechist certification. Googling document sources and then paying attention to orthodox sources (ie. the Vatican, EWTN, the Catholic Encyclopedia - on CA website or New Advent website, Jimmy Akin, et al) should get you plenty of official Church teaching.
 
From my understanding, the Church teaches that although God (The Father) is essentially genderless, Scripture, in it’s literal translation, uses the male in the New Testament. As far as Jesus Christ - He was born, lived and died male. The Holy Spirit, although sometimes likened to what our society believes are feminine qualities, needs to be either genderless or male (or the Incarnation would have been a homosexual act). I don’t have the official documentation at my fingertips and unfortunately don’t have the time to find it right now. I do know that I knew of them during my classes toward catechist certification. Googling document sources and then paying attention to orthodox sources (ie. the Vatican, EWTN, the Catholic Encyclopedia - on CA website or New Advent website, Jimmy Akin, et al) should get you plenty of official Church teaching.
 
God is genderless, but chose to reveal his son in the flesh as a man. In protestant denominations, there seems to be a major focus on the masculine, and in the catholic faith more on the feminine, using Mary as the model disciple to pattern from.

Thats all I know.🙂
 
From my understanding, the Church teaches that although God (The Father) is essentially genderless, Scripture (God’s infused Words) in it’s literal translation uses the male. As far as Jesus Christ - He was born, lived and died male. The Holy Spirit, although sometimes likened to what our society believes are feminine qualities, needs to be either genderless or male (or the Incarnation would have been a homosexual act). I don’t have the official documentation at my fingertips and unfortunately don’t have the time to find it right now. I do know that I knew of them during my classes toward catechist certification. Googling document sources and then paying attention to orthodox sources (ie. the Vatican, EWTN, the Catholic Encyclopedia - on CA website or New Advent website, Jimmy Akin, et al) should get you plenty of official Church teaching.
I don’t think attributing feminine qualities to the Holy Spirit would make the Incarnation a homosexual act because there was no sex involved. Jesus was conceived in Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit in a way we have no understanding of. Jesus refers to God the Father as His Father, not the Holy Spirit.

God has no gender, but the Scriptures (and Jesus) refer to Him in the masculine gender and there is no good reason for us to change that.
 
God has no sex, as Saint Paul teaches (I forget the Epistle, but I think it was like Romans or Corinthians?). He created sex but He Himself has no sex. That is the constant and traditional teaching of the Church.

The gender given to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is not so much restrictional as it is theological - the same reason why we call the Father the Father. It’s understand best in the light of sex, but I forget exactly what it is, something about how God is the Father and the universe is the mother. If anyone knows what I mean, please explain, and forgive my poor memory.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top