Женские образы Бога в трудах Отцов Церкви и других христианских писателей до XIX века

Leonid I. Dementyev

doi:10.21638/spbu28.2022.108

Authors

Leonid I. Dementyev Togliatti State University, 14, Belorusskaya ul., Togliatti, 445020, Russian Federation

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu28.2022.108

Abstract

There is a common misconception among some Christians that the idea of God as a feminine principle is strongly influenced by liberal theology and queer studies of the 20th and 21st centuries. In part, this is true: attention to women’s legal awareness in modern Europe raises the question of the relationship between the sexes. However, carefully studying earlier periods of the history of church creativity, we find that saints and heroes of faith of different denominations came to the conviction that God is the Mother and has traditionally female characteristics, not at all in connection with the struggle of the fair sex for their rights, but thanks to personal mystical experience and perception of the Trinity as a prototype of the earthly human family. The article is devoted to the study of the topic of the femininity of God in general and the Holy Spirit in particular. The author suggests looking at the Holy Trinity through the prism of the outstanding writers of the Christian world from the 1st to the 19th centuries, showing that the modern theology of femininity has a long and rich prehistory, rooted in Christian antiquity and closely connected with family archetypes.

Keywords:

Christianity, theology, feminism, femininity, pneumatology, Christology, motherhood of the Holy Spirit

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

References

Anastasius Sinaita (2003) Selected works. Moscow, Sibirskaia blagozvonnitsa Publ. (In Russian)

Anselm of Canterbury (1979) The Prayers and Meditations & The Proslogion. London, Penguin Classics.

Atwood C. (1999) “The Mother of God’s People: The adoration of the Holy Spirit in the eighteenth-century Brüdergemeine”, in Church History, vol. 68, no. 4, pp. 886–909.

Atwood С. (2011) “The Church’s Prayer to the Holy Spirit (1758)”. Zinzendorf. The Ecumenical Pioneer. Available at: http://zinzendorf.com/pages/index.php?id=the-churchs-prayer-tothe-holy-spirit (accessed: 04.07.2021).

Augustine of Hippo (2000) Works. In 2 vols, vol. 2: Literal Interpretation of Genesis. St Petersburg, Aleteiia Publ. (In Russian)

Baird J. L., Ehrmann R. K., eds (1998) The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen. New York, Oxford University Press.

Balthasar H. U. von. (2006) Heart of the world. Moscow, Institut filosofii, teologii i istorii sv. Fomy Publ.

Basil of Caesarea (2008) Works. In 2 vols, vol. 1. Moscow, Sibirskaia blagozvonnitsa Publ. (In Russian)

Bede (2021) “Interpretations on the Books of the Old and New Testaments. Interpretation on the book of Proverbs”, in Azbuka very. Available at: https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Beda_Dostopochtennyj/tolkovanija-na-knigi-vethogo-i-novogo-zaveta/#0_4 (accessed: 04.07.2021). (In Russian)

Bynum C. W. (1984) Jesus as Mother: Studies in the spirituality of the High Middle Ages. Berkeley, University of California Press.

Clement of Alexandria (2006) Who is the rich man who is saved? Rus. ed. St Petersburg, Izdatel’stvo Olega Abyshko Publ. (In Russian)

Davidson R. (2015) Flame of Yahweh: Sexuality and the Old Testament. Rus. ed. Moscow, Eksmo Publ. (In Russian)

Evgen’eva A. P., ed. (1999) Dictionary of the Russian language. In 4 vols, vol. 1. Moscow, Poligrafresursy Publ. (In Russian)

Hall S. G., ed. (1979) Melito of Sardis. On Pascha and Fragments. Oxford, Clarendon Press.

Hirsch E. G., Casanowicz I. M. (1901–1906) “Dove”, in JewishEncyclopedia. Available at: https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14548-turtle-dove (accessed: 04.07.2021).

Jerome of Stridon (1898) Works. In 17 parts, part 14. Kiev, Tipografiia G. T. Korchak-Novitskogo Publ. (In Russian)

Juliana of Norwich (2010) Revelations of Divine Love. Moscow, Russkii fond sodeistviia obrazovaniiu i nauke Publ. (In Russian)

Kostikova I. V., ed. (2005) Introduction to gender studies. Moscow, Aspekt Press Publ. (In Russian)

Kravchenko A. A. (2005) “The female analogue of Christ”: the image of Beatrice in the “Divine Comedy”. Riazan’, Kontseptsiia Publ. (In Russian)

Lattke M., Attridge H. W., eds, M. Ehrhardt, transl. (2009) Odes of Solomon. Minneapolis, Fortress Press.

Leloir L., ed. (1953) S. Éphrem. Commentaire de l’Évangile concordant, version arménienne, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 137. Leuven, Peeters.

Lipsius R. A., Bonnet M., eds. (1903) Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha. In 2 vols, vol. II, 2. Leipzig, Hinrichs [repr. 1972. Hildesheim, Olms].

Macarius of Egypt (2004) Spiritual conversations, messages and words. Moscow, Izdatel’stvo Sretenskogo monastyria Publ. (In Russian)

Meshcherskaia E. N., ed. (1990) Acts of Judas Thomas. Moscow, Nauka Publ. (In Russian)

Noyce J. (2019) “Visions of the Divine Feminine in medieval Europe”, in Academia.edu. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/38116574/Visions_of_the_Divine_Feminine_in_medieval_Europe (accessed: 04.07.2021).

Parisot J., ed. (1894) Aphraatis sapientis Persae Demonstrationes, Patrologia Syriaca. Paris, Firmin-Didot Publ. [repr. 1980. Turnhout, Brepols].

Petrov S. (2017) Behold your g-ds, O Israel! Moscow, Izdatel’skie resheniia Publ. (In Russian)

Preobrazhenskii P., ed. (1865) Theophilus of Antioch and his three books to Autolycus on the Christian faith. Moscow, Katkov i Ko Publ. (In Russian)

Rousseau A., ed. (1965) Irénée de Lyon. Contre les heresies. Livre IV. In 2 vols, vol. 2: Texte et traduction. Paris, Les Éditions du Cerf.

Solov’ev V. S. (2016) The meaning of love. St Petersburg, Azbuka Publ. (In Russian)

Vogt P. (2009). “Honor to the side: The Adoration of the Side Wound of Jesus in eighteenthcentury Moravian Piety”, in Journal of Moravian History, no. 7, pp. 83–106.