HOLY SPIRT, MOTHER AND SAVIOUR

A Reflection on Christ Pneumatology

Besem Oben Etchi

ST-2378: Spirit in the Church
(JST of SCU, Spring 2011)
George E. Griener, S.J., Dr. Theol.

©Besem Oben Etchi, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, 2011. Page 1
INTRODUCTION

Can we use “She” to refer to the Holy Spirit and does the Holy Spirit exercise divine

authority1 to save? What difference would it make to authentic Christian living? Historically, in

Roman Catholic tradition, the Trinity’s second person has the Christological mission of

incarnation and salvation while the Holy Spirit, the third person, has the mission of the

sanctification of the faithful and the fulfilment of the church’s mission on earth, on the pattern of

succession which derives from the progression within the Trinity.2 Thus Roman Catholic

theology largely discusses the Holy Spirit, drawing from scriptural text, in terms of identity and

mission vis-à-vis the Trinity, the created order and the course of salvation and sanctification of

created beings. This paper attempts to explore how a critical fidelity to the Biblical tradition of

imaging the divine, retrieves a divine female symbolisation and the Christological mission of

salvation for the person of the Holy Spirit.

Three issues prompt this project. First, a womanist consciousness, observing the

relationship of the absence of female God-language, imagery and independent authority in

Catholic theological discourse to the subordinated status of women in church and society. A

contemporary issue is the barring of women from priestly ordination in the Catholic Church

based on an exclusively masculine Christ whom women cannot image.3 To make attention to the

issue more pressing, put beside it the Patristic teaching that what Christ has not assumed, has not

1
I adopt Studebaker’s definition in footnote 3: "Authority" in general refers to "that right or power to command
action or compliance, or to determine belief or custom, expecting obedience from those under authority" (Bernard
Ramm, The Pattern of Authority [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1957], 10). It is from Studebaker, John A, Jr. "The
authority of the Holy Spirit: the "missing link" in our contemporary understanding of divine authority?" Trinity
Journal 25, no. 2 (September 1, 2004): 216, ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed
March 24, 2011).
2
Yves Congar, I Believe In The Holy Spirit (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2000)19-22, 25.
3
Cf. The categorical declaration that Christ is a man, with the consequence that a woman cannot image Christ,
as stated in chapter 6 of Inter Insigniores. Declaration on the Question of Admission of Women to the Ministerial
Priesthood Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of October 15, 1976

©Besem Oben Etchi, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, 2011. Page 2
been saved4 and one ends in a conclusion that either women are not saved or were saved by

another; a female Christ.5 Thus is heightened, the search for the Divine feminine for a fuller

acknowledgment of who Godde6 is and to awaken the recognition of the equal humanity and

independent authority of women for the flourishing of both women and men in the church. The

paper thus employs the womanist parameter for theological methodology of a commitment both

to reason and to the validity of female presence, experience, imagery and metaphorical language,

for use in the construction of theological statements in Catholic theological discourse.7

Second, St Basil’s teaching on the distinct personhood (hypostasis) of the Holy Spirit and

the inseparability and co-equalness of the Trinity, as affirmed in the Nicene-Constantinople

creed, coupled with his vision of the Holy Spirit as the Breath of God who always accompanies

the Word gives reason to investigate the relationship of the Holy Spirit to Christ in terms of

ontological identity and not merely function. As well to look at whether biblical references to the

Holy Spirit evidence incarnation and salvation as a Pneumatological mission.

Third, the recent scholarship of the development of Spirit Christology, a post Vatican II

model that reflects on the role of the Holy Spirit in Christology proper. It seeks to understand

who Christ is and what Christ does from the perspective of the third article of the Creed: “I

4
This classic formulation by church father, Gregory of Nyssa of a principle created by Origen that if Christ did
not assume the whole, the whole would not have been saved, responded to the Apollonarian heresy that taught that
the Human being is body, soul and spirit and the logos took the part of the spirit. Thus Christ taking on the male
body excludes the salvation of the female body. Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction, (London:
John Wiley and Sons, 2010) 207.
5
Can a male be the saviour of women? The Christian feminist Anne Carr in her book Transforming Grace:
Christian Tradition and Women’s Experience, using the method of dialectical retrieval discusses the traditional
understanding of theological anthropology. She sees the retrieval of expressing Christ in human terms (Word made
flesh) rather than in male terms (Word made man) as a way in which Christology is retrievable for contemporary
feminists to affirm equality, mutuality and solidarity in human relationships.
6
Godde (pronounced as God) is a new word used in some feminist circles as a blend of God and Goddess to
identify with the truth that the Divine includes both genders as well as transcends them. The author is not known.
7
Delores Williams outlines four parameters for a womanist methodology outline in Diana L. Hayes and Cyprian
Davis, O.S.B., Taking Down Our Harps: Black Catholics in the United States. (Maryknoll: Orbis books, 1998) 107.

©Besem Oben Etchi, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, 2011. Page 3
believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life”.8 The traditional trend of looking at the

relationship between Christ and the Spirit from a Christological starting point as a post-Pentecost

phenomena9 causes the focus of discerning the Spirit to be placed on mission rather than identity.

As such it is rather necessary to adopt a Pneumatological starting point and observe whether

images and thoughts of the Holy Spirit from the Septuagint to Pentecost make present a

Christological mission of salvation10. Overall, this inquiry is thus not foreign to the Roman

Catholic tradition.

Lonergan's Transcendental method: be attentive, be intelligent, be reasonable and be

responsible will provide the overarching framework for the basic anthropological component

within which the theological component of hermeneutics is worked out11. This method matching

the path of every day conscious human thought-to-action progression allows for an

interdisciplinary approach. The dialogue will circulate around the Nicene-Constantinople creedal

lines on the Holy Spirit and biblical texts together with their theological interpretations, drawing

largely on the biblical exegesis of George Montague’s The Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical

tradition and the theological scholarship of Elizabeth Johnson’s She who is.

BEING ATTENTIVE: WHAT DOES THE CREED TEACH ON THE HOLY SPIRIT?

The portion of the Nicene-Constantinople creed directly mentioning the Holy Spirit reads

thus: “...And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and life-giver, Who proceeds from the Father, Who

with the Father and the Son is together worshiped and together glorified, Who spoke through the

8
Ralph Del Colle, Christ and the Spirit: Spirit-Christology in Trinitarian Perspective. (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1994)3.
9
Looking at the mission of the Holy Spirit from a post- Pentecost standpoint has been rooted in a literal reading
of John 7:39 that says “the spirit had not yet been given”. Considering that the Spirit had been given to Mary,
Elisabeth, and Zechariah, the text requires proper exegesis as to what it intended to convey other than the inactivity
of the Spirit upon believers until Pentecost.
10
This is what I refer to as Christ Pneumatology.
11
Bernard Lonergan, Method in Theology, (New York: The Seabury Press, 1972)13-25.

©Besem Oben Etchi, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, 2011. Page 4
prophets.” Clearly, female language and persons are omitted in the normalizing of theological

beliefs in the 4th Century. The creedal phrase “Lord and life-giver” in reference to the Holy Spirit

highlights the sovereignty of the third person of the Trinity. David Jensen sees in the statement a

principle which is consistent with biblical narratives, to discern the Holy Spirit as an embodied

spirit, in every movement that vivifies the life of women and men12 despite the frequent divorce

of spirit and matter begun by Origen’s Greek categories of spirit versus matter, in Church

theology. As well, the use of “Lord” definitely personifies the Holy Spirit as male to the

obscuring of any thought of female personification by the faithful.

We are then instructed on the consubstantiality and co-equalness of the Trinitarian

persons as divine without subordination, championed by the Cappadocian fathers. Yet, in

praying “proceeds from the Father” to which is later added the Filioque of the Western Church,

the independent action of the Holy Spirit, as in the widely sung line Veni Creator Spiritus,

attested here by “who spoke through the prophets” becomes distant from the consciousness of

the faithful as well as the memory of biblical, spirit-led prophetesses like Sarah, Miriam,

Deborah, Huldah and Hannah.13 The Holy Spirit speaking the Word through prophets and

prophetesses constituted the pattern of the expression of Divine authority in the Old Testament, it

was in fact the actual authority of the believer.14 In addition, the consistent consideration of the

work of Holy Spirit being after that of the Father and the Son, creates a forgetfulness of the

history of salvific acts wrought by the Holy Spirit before the coming of Jesus and the revelation

offered by the presence and action of the Holy Spirit before Pentecost.

12
David H. Jensen, "Discerning the Spirit. A Historical Introduction." in The Lord and Giver of Life:
Perspectives on Constructive Pneumatology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008): 1-23 + Notes.
13
Leila L. Bronner, 1991 "Biblical prophetesses through rabbinic lenses" Judaism 40, no. 2: 171-283. Religion
and Philosophy Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed March 21, 2011).
14
Studebaker, John A, Jr. "The authority of the Holy Spirit: the "missing link" in our contemporary
understanding of divine authority?" Trinity Journal 25, no. 2 (September 1, 2004): 216. ATLA Religion Database
with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed March 24, 2011).

©Besem Oben Etchi, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, 2011. Page 5
BE INTELLIGENT: IS THERE SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE OF A FEMALE

PERSONIFICATION AND A CHRISTLY FIGURE FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT?

Extensive scholarship exists on the images of the Holy Spirit in the Scripture. George T.

Montague presents a succinct review of the major images of the Holy Spirit from the Old to New

Testament as Life-breath, wind, fire, water, cloud, the dove and finally the Paraclete each

contributing an aspect of the Holy Spirit from the material, animal and personal worlds.15 He

identifies that in wisdom tradition, the starting point for the development of images is everyday

human experience and the summit is wisdom identified with the spirit16. It is important to

mention here that the inclusion of and clinging to the Septuagint in the canon of Catholic

scripture despite opposition by Orthodox Jews and its rejection by Martin Luther and subsequent

denominations necessarily attests to the fact that the Catholic church believes that the books

therein are divinely inspired. Thus entertain the following: scriptural images of the Holy Spirit:

a) The Holy Spirit as Divine Wisdom in Scripture

Wis 1:4-7 shows up wisdom as Godde’s spirit and as a breath of the power of Godde (7:25),

and thus correlates wisdom with the Holy Spirit. A significant contribution, is Montague’s

exegetical expansion of the 24 or 3x7 attributes of wisdom in Wis 7:22-8:1,17 a perfect

multiple of a perfect number that makes wisdom the most perfect imaginable, and though he

does not make the link between wisdom and the Holy Spirit, his elaborations point in that

direction. The foundational premise that the Divine is a trinity of persons, co-equal in essence

without subordination, enfleshed in the creedal phrase “I believe in the Holy Spirit...who

15
George T. Montague, "The Fire in the Word: The Holy Spirit in Scripture," in B. Hinze and D. Dabney, Eds.,
Advents of the Spirit: An Introduction to the Current Study of Pneumatology (Milwaukee: Marquette University
Press, 2002) 35.
16
George T. Montague, Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical Tradition (New York, Paulist Press, 1976) 91.
17
George T. Montague, Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical Tradition, 107.

©Besem Oben Etchi, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, 2011. Page 6
 together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified” provides the hermeneutic

key with which to link Wisdom to the Holy Spirit. This is drawn from to her exclusively

divine characteristics such as pre-existence (9:9), omniscience (9:11), unique (In Greek

monogenes) meaning only-begotten and omnipotence (7:27), which of necessity equate her to

a divine person. To establish a consistency of imagery with the Old and New Testament,

wisdom is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and thus is evidence of the Holy Spirit’s

presence as in Deut 34:9, Is 11:2, Dan 5:17, Luke 2:40 and 1 Cor 12:8.

b) The Holy Spirit as a Woman shouting out in the streets.

In the use of “She is” the books of the wisdom tradition as well attribute female

personification to the Holy Spirit as Wisdom. This ties in with the Hebrew Bible usage of

Ruah, feminine, for the Holy Spirit.18 While Elizabeth Johnson mentions that the feminine

language of Ruah does not imply female personification, Montague, though attributing little

importance to femaleness, points out that in the wisdom tradition, the Hebrew word hokmah is

feminine hence there is a match of etymology and personification. Specifically, Prov 1:20-33,

4:5-9, 7:4 and 9:1-6 outrightly depict wisdom as a woman shouting out in the streets calling

humans to choose life over death. Montague remarks that she is not presented as a prophetess,

a messenger sent with an oracle; rather she speaks by herself on her own authority like a

Goddess. 19

Wisdom’s quality of unstained (in Greek Amolyton) meaning virgin; who despite her

contact with humans remains undefiled and unstained, calls to mind the overshadowing of the

virgin Mary. This image of the Holy Spirit shows her up as Divine Mother, first in being the

18
David H. Jensen amongst others ascertains that the biblical heritage uses feminine language for the Holy
Spirit and he does like wise. David H. Jensen, "Discerning the Spirit. A Historical Introduction." in The Lord and
Giver of Life: Perspectives on Constructive Pneumatology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008)1.
19
George T. Montague, Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical Tradition (New York, Paulist Press, 1976)94.

©Besem Oben Etchi, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, 2011. Page 7
 lady, the giver of life; then in providing fecund-ability to Mary for the conception of Jesus by

the power of the Father (Luke 1:35)20 and to end by birthing the faithful through baptism. The

latter female action shows up as Jesus declares to Nicodemus that we must be born by water

and the Spirit (John 3:3-6). In Matt 11:19 Jesus makes reference to wisdom as female,

mentioning her deeds. To crown the discussion the book of Baruch written in the last century

before Christ, attests that wisdom who directs all Godde’s ways, incarnated on earth and She

was seen among humankind (Baruch 3:7).

c) The Holy Spirit with a Christological mission of salvation, acting on Her own authority.

The wisdom tradition depicts the Holy Spirit as acting with her own authority for the

salvation of Godde’s people. She transforms people into friends of Godde and prophets from

age to age; this is acknowledged in the New Testament in John 15:15, Rom 5:5 and Acts 2.21

Wisdom 10 recounts the works of salvation wrought by the Spirit as wisdom, given by Godde

the Father. Amongst others, she protects (v.1), delivers (v.2), saves (v.3, 6), chooses persons

(v.5), rescues (v.9), she prospers (v.10), she advocates (v.14) and she gives speech to the

dumb (v.21). Wisdom is the agent who brings about the saving exodus event (v.18). Thus

these traits are legitimately female traits, in addition to the traditional attributions of virginity,

motherhood, receptivity, empathy, suffering and preservation.22 The verses as well detail a

Christological mission of the Holy Spirit to persons, nations and the world.

20
I contend that the preposition ‘by’ used to describe the action of the Holy Spirit signifies “through” as in Matt
1:18 and not “cause”. I justify this in that the verse contains two distinct actions: first the overshadowing of the Holy
Spirit and then the coming down of the Power of God the Father. These two actions are as well preserved in
Tertullian’s 200AD creed. As well Jesus is called the Son of the Father and not the Son of the Spirit. I believe the
conflation of both come from operating in a mindset where the male seed carried all the potency for new life.
However Biology reveals the female must contribute the ovum so is an active participant and not just receptive.
21
George T. Montague, Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical Tradition, 110.
22
Johnson critiques this traditional female stereotyping by patriarchy carried on as well by process theologian
John Cobb who though seeing the Spirit as the feminine aspect of Godde gives to Her this traditional traits. I concur

©Besem Oben Etchi, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, 2011. Page 8
 In the Luke 1, the Holy Spirit not only descends on Zechariah and Elizabeth making them

prophesy, but “processes” Jesus into the world at the Incarnation, and later anoints Jesus to

bring salvation (Luke 4:18). The Holy Spirit leads (Mark uses “drives”) Jesus’ ministry until

he “breathes out” and dies. While the Johannine gospel 20:21-23 has Jesus appearing to give

the Holy Spirit to the disciples by breathing on them, the account in Acts 2:1-4 displays the

Holy Spirit arriving with independent authority; making entrance as a strong rushing wind and

parting into tongues of fire that rest on the disciples. As such, she is rightly and fully a

partaker of the Christological ministry of the Son.

Interpreting 1 Cor 2:10-13, Athanasius pointed out that it reveals the Spirit's divinity; a

passage which as well evidences strong implications for the Spirit’s divine authority,

incorporating divine transcendence, divine access, and personhood.23

BE REASONABLE: HOW VALID ARE SUCH INTERPRETATIONS?

Equating wisdom with the Holy Spirit retrieves an element of patristic theology. Unlike

other Church fathers who saw wisdom as the Word, later incarnated in the male person of Jesus,

the prominent father, Irenaeus, equated wisdom to the Holy Spirit who together with the Word

are the two hands with which Godde created the world and thus he held the Word and the Spirit

together in creation and redemption.24 Scripture, in its use of the same, legitimises the use of

female-language to refer to the Divine, with particular reference to the Holy Spirit. Biblical

with her that it boxes actual women into a stereotypical ideal. Elizabeth Johnson, She Who Is (New York: The
Crossroad Publishing Company, 1999) 51.
23
Athanasius was responding to the Arian heresy of the non-divinity of the Holy Spirit. Studebaker, John A, Jr.
"The authority of the Holy Spirit: the "missing link" in our contemporary understanding of divine authority?" Trinity
Journal 25, no. 2 (September 1, 2004): 219. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed
March 24, 2011).
24
In addition Ambrose of Milan clearly articulated the theology of the Creator Spirit in 381. Thus Godde creates
as Trinity and in not an activity exclusive to the First person of the Trinity. Denis Edwards, Breath of Life: A
Theology of the Creator Spirit. (Maryknoll: Orbis Press, 2004) 40-43.

©Besem Oben Etchi, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, 2011. Page 9
theologians like Sandra Schneider25 retrieve the evidence of feminine and female metaphors for

Godde and important Catholic theologians in Pneumatology and ecclesiology such as Yves

Congar and Donald Gelpi assent to imaging the Holy Spirit as feminine.26

For the salvific Christological mission of the Holy Spirit, the action of the Holy Spirit is a

significant theme in the Luke-Acts work compared to the other gospels, which serves to recount

the good news of salvation27. Montague notes that Luke can rightly be called the “Theologian of

the Holy Spirit” in his show of the action of the Holy Spirit, highlighting her participation in the

economy of salvation and close link to Mary all the while avoiding to depict the Spirit as an

agent over Jesus or independent of him28 Burns and Fagin draw on history to attest that Christian

theologians up to the 4th and 5th Centuries, like Augustine, in proving the divinity of the Holy

Spirit, had advanced evidence to support that no one person of the Trinity has any divine activity

in which the other two are not fully participating.29 Godde is always acting in a Trinitarian model

in creation, salvation and sanctification.

Finally, salvation for non-Christians before and after the coming of Jesus is attributed to the

vivifying presence and activity of the Holy Spirit as life, truth and holiness in all things in the

Vatican II documents of Gaudium et Spes, Nostra Aetate and Ad Gentes. Particularly, John Paul

II’s encyclical Redemptoris Missio not only declares the Holy Spirit as the principal agent

directing the whole of the Church's mission to bring salvation to the ends of the earth (21) but

asserts the Holy Spirit’s presence and activity before Jesus was glorified (29) and as affecting

25
In her book Women and the Word: The Gender of God in the New Testament and the Spirituality of Women
notes that there are a surprising amount of "feminine" metaphors used for God as well, such as in the Song of Songs,
the Psalms, and Hosea.
26
Elizabeth Johnson, She Who Is (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1999) 51.
27
George T. Montague, Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical Tradition (New York, Paulist Press, 1976) 253.
28
Montague, Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical Tradition, 253-288.
29
They note that their proof undercut the traditional method of distinguishing the persons. J. Patout Burns, S.J.
and Gerald M. Fagin, S.J. Message of the Fathers of the Church: The Holy Spirit (Wilmington: Michael Glazier,
Inc., 1984) 226.

©Besem Oben Etchi, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, 2011. Page 10
society and history, peoples, cultures and religions(28). Thus tracing a Christological mission of

salvation for the Holy spirit from age to age as well as

BE RESPONSIBLE: WHAT CAN BE DONE IN ACCORD WITH THIS RETRIEVAL?30

The meaning that Johnson gives the embracing of the female (sex) rather than feminine

(gender trait) divine, is the expression of the fullness of divine power and care in a female image.

She privileges assenting to the truth that though Godde creates both woman and man in Godde’s

image and is the source of the perfection of both, Godde is neither exclusively male nor female

and transcends gender. She as well argues that female symbolisation continues the tradition of

the appropriateness of language about Godde as person and in extending the predominantly male

symbolisation used to know Godde, it breaks any idolatrous fixation on the latter.

Furthermore she sees that female symbolisation of Godde validates the church’s teaching,

stressed in chapter 1 of Guadium et Spes and in Dignitatis Humanae, of women and men as

being in the image of Godde and it depicts at the outset that women enjoy the said dignity and

are therefore capable, as women, of representing Godde. Her conclusions base off of Paul

Tillich’s function of divine symbol to elevate its originating reality to the holy and sociologist of

religion Clifford Geertz’s function of divine symbol to sustain or critique structures, values and

manner of acting in the world; thus male and female symbolisation will promote equal and

mutual relationships in society and in the church. Her conclusions are critical to this paper as it

attends to the observations that sparked the research; gives concrete direction to consequential

actions for the retrieval in order to achieve the salvation and flourishing of women and men in

society as well as every church vocation and ministry; a womanist goal.

30
Much of the material in this section is summarised from Johnson, She Who Is, 36-57.

©Besem Oben Etchi, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, 2011. Page 11
 That said, it is valid to make the proposal for inclusive human and divine language, and

symbol that highlights both sexes, gendered language and gendered authority in the creed,

liturgy, catechesis, church documents and prayers among others. The liturgy and catechetical

documents are in particular need for this restoration as focal points for the experience of

salvation, for salvation is borne of faith and faith comes from hearing (Rom 1:17). In addition, a

recognition of the female symbolisation and the Christological mission of salvation for the Holy

Spirit could serve to heighten women’s self esteem and vocational/professional authority;

promote discussions for discerning and integrating the ordination of women in the Roman

Catholic church; strengthen interreligious dialogue, especially with Goddess-centered religions

and broadening the understanding of who Christ is for cosmic salvation. Granted, a proposal like

adjusting the creed will need the convening of a new council.

CONCLUSION

The openness to retrieving a female symbolisation and a Christological mission for the

Holy Spirit in the Catholic Church will come easily when theologians and authorities who

oppose it give up the insistence on distinguishing the persons of the Trinity by identifying roles

exclusive to each person. A reflection that often gives rise to language, symbols and metaphors

that subordinate one person to the other rather than showing their communal action when the

relate to humankind. With this openness, the concern for people and the knowledge of truth gets

elevated over patterns of thought that have ceased to give life. Thus since scripture holds it,

tradition evidences assent to it and lived reality is nourished and vivified by it, it is expedient to

retrieve the female symbolisation and the Christological mission of salvation for the Holy Spirit

in church life and theological discourse.

©Besem Oben Etchi, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, 2011. Page 12
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bronner, Leila L. "Biblical prophetesses through rabbinic lenses." Judaism 40, no. 2 (Spring 91)
171-183. Religion and Philosophy Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed March 21, 2011).

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Spirit. Wilmington: Michael Glazier, Inc., 1984.

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Hayes, Diana L., and Cyprian Davis. Taking Down Our Harps: Black Catholics in the United
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McGrath, Alister E. Christian Theology: An Introduction. London: John Wiley and Sons, 2010.

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________ Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical Tradition. New York: Paulist Press, 1976.

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understanding of divine authority?”. Trinity Journal 25, no. 2 (September 1, 2004): 215-
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©Besem Oben Etchi, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, 2011. Page 13