Journal: Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Volume: JBMW 06:1 (Spring 2001)
Article: Trinitarian Perspectives on Gender Roles
Author: Peter R. Schemm, Jr.

JBMW 6:1 (Spring 2001) p. 13

Trinitarian Perspectives on Gender Roles1

Peter R. Schemm, Jr.

Instructor of Theology, Southeastern College at Wake Forest, Wake Forest, North Carolina

The purpose of this article is to offer a critique of evangelical feminism. What follows is mainly a theological discussion that concerns the doctrine of the Trinity and the gender role debate. In what way might the triune relationship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit help one to understand how men and women are related? Are there theological foundations for gender relations? The article evaluates the proposals of Gilbert Bilezikian and Stanley J. Grenz.

The Trinity: A Model for Gender Roles

One of the benefits of the twentieth century revival of trinitarian doctrine is that both egalitarians and complementarians have been able to tap into a larger discussion, asking the question, “What, if anything, can be said about the relations within the Godhead that might also explain how men and women relate to each other?” Those familiar with some of the more recent monographs on the Trinity know that the gender role question consistently finds its way to the surface.2 Millard Erickson explains why a person with a feminist bent might see the doctrine of the Trinity as problematic:

Because the Trinity is composed of three persons, at least two of whom are identified as masculine in nature, women have no one to identify with. The spiritual qualities set up as ideals are those of the masculine gender. Furthermore, the Trinity has frequently been used to justify patriarchalism and hierarchicalism. Women have been made to feel that they are inherently less than men. So for many feminists, both women and men, the Trinity seems incompatible with their fundamental experience.3

Consequently, there have been several feminist revisions (some more radical than others) of the doctrine of God in recent years. Rosemary Radford Ruether’s Sexism and God Talk (1983), Virginia Ramey Mollenkott’s The Divine Feminine (1983), Sally McFague’s Models of God (1987), and Denise Carmody’s Christian Feminist Theology (1995) all come to mind. But, this essay is not concerned with the broader picture of feminism, rather, its focus is evangelical feminism.

Gilbert Bilezikian

Gilbert Bilezikian’s article, “Hermeneutical Bungee-Jumping: Subordination in the Godhead,”4 was originally a paper he delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society on November 18, 1994. Bilezikian desc...