K.C. has been duly chastised for going out on a limb on this topic...but I am not alone. Here is the latest from 'Unam Sanctam' from a worthy adversary.....lest I respond and get myself in trouble, I leave it for my readership to do the heavy lifting. All two of you!...
----from the ruteger......>>>Nothing wrong with referring to God n the feminine, Pope John Paul I did it in the month of his papacy, the Syrian Church Fathers did it in following rabbinical tradition (as Hahn mentioned ST Ephrem as one), ST Aphraates does too, saying the mother and father of Genesis 2 that a man leaves are God the Father and the Holy Spirit. And even the bible seems to do it in Proverbs 8, Sirach 24, and a couple other places. In the Aramaic version of the New Testament the Holy Spirit is explicitly called "she". One of the earliest orthodox writings of the Early Church, the Odes of Solomon calls the Holy Spirit a She, and it sort of feminizes the Father. Fr Robert Murray addresses this issue in his book "On Symbols of Church and Kingdom" and quotes a few instances where the Syrian Fathers refer to the Holy Spirit in the feminine. ----
<<<< advocates for this position only mention the early Syriac Church because the late Syriac Church stopped saying such things over 1,000 years ago.. what I keep wondering is, if it is indeed true "Nothing wrong with referring to God in the feminine"
then why don't we pray that way? Why didn't our Lord teach us?
>>>the Holy Spirit is explicitly called "she". <<<
There is another half-formed criticism K. C. has with regards to 'the Holy Spirit is the Feminine Person of the Trinity'. That has to do with us English speakers making a big deal about masculine and feminine nouns from other languages... e.g. in Spanish 'Mi hermano es muy buena gente!' 'hermano'=masculine, 'buena'= feminine, therefore 'my bro', besides being good people, must be a little 'feminine'! right?!
right???
K.C.
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