b'it is lived in community. As many contemporary theologians argue, such an insightinclusive, either by supplementation cuts at the heart of modern individualism. The human person is a thoroughly porouswith feminine imagery and pronouns creature, one born out of and for participation in a broad array of interpersonal andor, alternatively, through avoidance of social relationships. Though living in relationship makes Christians vulnerable togender-specification when possible. one another, the vocation of the Christian is to heal damaged relationships, to bringThere are, as one might suspect, many reconciliation where there is hurt, and to bring justice and wholeness where there ispossible stances to take on this highly suffering and alienation. To be so engaged is, in fact, to draw creation more richly intocomplex and sensitive issue, which goes the heart of the triune God. By stressing this point, contemporary theology seeks toto show just how important social and recover the practical, social, and even political implications of Trinitarian theology. cultural change is in how we imagine and talk about God. No doubt the question has arisen, and even become urgent, as a result of rapid and profound changes in gender relations over the last century or 3 The awareness of metaphor inso. The issue is particularly challenging for Christians since Jesus himself, gendered language about God. obviously a man living in a patriarchal society, used the term Abba (Father) to Recent decades have witnessed significantaddress Godthough, as is also pointed reflection and debate among theologiansout by numerous feminist theologians, regarding gender-specificity in languageJesus challenged many patriarchal about God. For many centuries masculine- sensibilities in his day, not least through based metaphors and pronouns werehis close association with women in his dominant, even normative when speaking ofministry. In any case, no matter where God, as is obviously true for the use of Fatherone finally stands on this issue of and Son in Trinitarian discourse, althoughongoing debate, the problems it raises the Holy Spirit has sometimes been thoughtrequire discernment about the limits of of as gender-neutral or even feminine. Buthuman imagination and language when since the latter half of the twentieth century,it comes to the mystery of God. increasing numbers of men and women haveIf, on the one hand, the ultimate vocation questioned the normativity of masculine God- of language is to speak out of and to language since it seems to imply that men arethe reality of God, on the other hand, more representative of God than women.one must always do so knowing that no Citing the social inequality this allocation oflanguage, whether masculine, feminine, language seems to reflect and underwrite, aor gender neutral, manages to capture growing number of Christian theologiansthe transcendence of God. argue that God language must become more 10 AspireVolume 2//Fall 2020 Subscribe today! smp.org/aspire ARTICLE 11'