Jesus -- vår syster och broder

The fact that Jesus was a man is claimed to be problematic from a feministic standpoint. One aspect of what is problematic is that the conception of Jesus as the Christ, representing God, makes the connection between men and God closer that that between women and God. In terms of religious proximity men are given a higher degree of religious proximity and therefore also religious authority by means of their sex than women. It is suggested in the article, based on a pragmatic theory of reference, that Jesus’ maleness need not enter into the reference to Jesus in an imitation-Christi-context of reference. Therefore it is possible to talk about Jesus functionally, as in the children’s game “follow John”, where in neither case the sex of the person is important for the function being carried out. At the same time it is suggested that we use also female terms for referring to Christ, such as e.g. Sophia, the divine Wisdom, in order to prevent any undesired associations between men and the divine