Expansive language presses against the limits of the worst habits of our theological imaginations, especially, for instance, assuming we know what a word like “father” means.
It is possible to pray with, to, and within the Trinity using biblical language and yet without words that have masculine and patriarchal overtones in common English usage. Pray, I suggest, in the name of the one God: Abba, Christ, and Holy Spirit.
We have the word of Jesus to rely upon: he and the Father are one, that the Holy Spirit will come among us, that we now have the glorious gift of calling God Our Father.
