Constructing Masculinity: De Utero Patris (From the Womb of the Father)‪.‬

Feminist critique of the male language and patriarchal implications of the classic formulation of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity in terms of a father--son relationship has elicited a variety of responses. This paper is framed within an analysis of the workings of the metaphorical and analogical ascription of language to the divine. What does the metaphorical and analogical description of the divine in terms of Fatherhood-Sonship mean? And how do metaphor and analogy work in this context? I have chosen the phrase de utero Patris (from the womb of the father) as a point of departure to investigate possible constructions of masculinity in relation to a present-day reception of the Father--Son relationship found in the classic formulation of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. In undertaking this investigation I use a cross-disciplinary method in which the disciplines of theology, philosophy, psychology and social, cultural and media studies will be brought together in an analytical critique to address instances of the construction of masculinity in four contemporary representations. Such a method is particularly required for this enquiry, but I also want to defend this kind of method for all forms of contextual theological discourse. I will test an hypothesis which emerges from within the discourse of feminist critique of the doctrine of the Trinity through an analysis of the reception of four contemporary examples of the construction of masculinity. The hypothesis emerges from Luce Irigaray's (1985, 1984) understanding that symbolic changes follow on from psychological changes, and is rooted in Lacan's schema of: the real, the imaginary and the symbolic (Miller, 1988, pp. 73-159), which is often used in the theorization of the media. I will assess the impact and reception of four examples of the construction of masculinity in an attempt to discern if the changes they may instantiate indicate the kind of psychological change which assist a new understanding of the Trinitarian Father--Son relationship. From the outset I want to suggest that reception of understandings of masculinity and the theorization of the intra-divine relations is a "two-way street." That is to say there is a reciprocity in the reception of the theorization of the intra-divine Father--Son relationship and the impact of the construction of representations of masculinity.