The feminist use of inclusive language for the Trinity: A case study in hermeneutical method

Abstract

This thesis explores the relationship between feminists' use of inclusive language for the Trinity and their hermeneutical method in order to determine the viability of their method for theological construction. Chapter 1 describes the theological tradition out of which the feminist critique emerges, noting the intratextual approach that characterizes the hermeneutics of communication and the extratextual approach that distinguishes feminist socio-pragmatic hermeneutics. Chapter 2 elucidates the search for authorial intention and provides a criterion by which to evaluate the feminist hermeneutic. Chapter 3 analyzes feminist socio-pragmatic hermeneutics against the background of a hermeneutics of communication and the normativity of the Scriptures for theological reflection. Chapter 4 demonstrates how the intratextual approach, invariably, yields a truly biblical understanding of the Trinitarian name. Chapter 5 delineates the biblical-theological implications of the study.