“Every Christian is a Theologian” — Letty M. Russell

I'm just finishing The Liberating Word: A Guide to Nonsexist Interpretation of the Bible, edited by Letty M. Russell (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster, 1976), which can be freely borrowed on archive.org. This is vintage feminist theology, and it provides feminist reading strategies that are still used today. For example, Joanna Dewey writes, "Whenever there is a …

Hook and Kimel on God and pronouns #8: pronoun avoidance, depersonalisation, and other reformist proposals

Pixabay. This post is part eight in a series looking at Donald Hook and Alvin Kimel’s 1993 article, “The Pronouns of Deity: A Theolinguistic Critique of Feminist Proposals,” published in Scottish Journal of Theology and currently freely accessible through Alvin Kimel’s academia.edu page. In this post I explore the claim that avoiding third-person pronouns for God leads to depersonalisation, …

Hook and Kimel on God and pronouns #7: Godself

This post is part seven in a series looking at Donald Hook and Alvin Kimel’s 1993 article, “The Pronouns of Deity: A Theolinguistic Critique of Feminist Proposals,” published in Scottish Journal of Theology and currently freely accessible through Alvin Kimel’s academia.edu page. In this post I address the criticism of the neologism Godself. This was first used in the …

Hook and Kimel on God and pronouns #6: pronoun avoidance and the issue of clarity

Image by Sarah Richter, Pixabay This post is part six in a series looking at Donald Hook and Alvin Kimel’s 1993 article, “The Pronouns of Deity: A Theolinguistic Critique of Feminist Proposals,” published in Scottish Journal of Theology and currently freely accessible through Alvin Kimel’s academia.edu page. In a new section, the authors proceed to critique proposals for alternatives …

Hook and Kimel on God and pronouns #5: the gender of the Holy Spirit

14th C. fresco of the Trinity in St. James Church, Urschalling (Germany). Note the feminine depiction of the Holy Spirit and the robes of the Father and the Son forming a vulva. This post is part five in a series looking at Donald Hook and Alvin Kimel’s 1993 article, “The Pronouns of Deity: A Theolinguistic …

Hook and Kimel on God and pronouns #4: the masculine God in Scripture and English

God the Father and angels (early 16th C), Pietro Perugino, Vatican City This post is part four in a series looking at Donald Hook and Alvin Kimel’s 1993 article, “The Pronouns of Deity: A Theolinguistic Critique of Feminist Proposals,” published in Scottish Journal of Theology and currently freely accessible through Alvin Kimel’s academia.edu page. In their next section, the …

Hook and Kimel on God and pronouns #3: gender and pronouns in English

Photo by AWang, available on Wikimedia. This post is part three in a series looking at Donald Hook and Alvin Kimel’s 1993 article, “The Pronouns of Deity: A Theolinguistic Critique of Feminist Proposals,” published in Scottish Journal of Theology and currently freely accessible through Alvin Kimel’s academia.edu page. In this post, I continue with the authors' discussion of gender …

Hook and Kimel on God and pronouns #2: grammatical gender

English learners of languages like German, where the sun is referred to as sie (she), or French as il (he), might initially mistake these for anthropomorphisms. Jaroš Griemiller's image (1578) is from Wikimedia. This post is part two in a series looking at Donald Hook and Alvin Kimel's 1993 article, “The Pronouns of Deity: A …

Hook and Kimel on God and pronouns #1: feminist proposals

Photo (of graffiti?) taken in 2011 at the East Side Gallery in Berlin In 1993, at the height of the debate over God's gender and pronouns in English, initiated by feminist theology in the seventies, linguist Donald Hook and theologian Alvin Kimel teamed up to write an article engaging feminist (and other) proposals. They concluded …

Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: A Historical Perspective, by Martti Nissinen #9: 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10

Nissinen treats 1 Cor 6:9 and 1 Tim 1:10 under the same heading. The texts read: "Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes (malakos), sodomites (arsenokoitēs), thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God" (1 …