Interesting that Faith, Hope, Grace, and Charity are women’s names, not men’s names (at least in English speaking West).
Does this point to the feminization of the church in the West? Perhaps. But I doubt it.
(picture credit: Faith, Hope and Charity, by James Christensen)
Maybe the Work of God is Always A Critique of Worldly, Sinful, Toxic views of the Hero, which are often focused on Masculinity
Whatever our view of masculinity and femininity, it seems Christianity has always implicitly critiqued worldly, sinful, or toxic expressions of masculinity as expressed in the heroic ideals of ancient and contemporary cultures.
And maybe this is the reason theological ideas have become names for women—either as an explicit resistance to typical masculine dominance and patriarchy, or as an implicit acknowledgement that these values (grace, hope, faith, love) don’t fit the heroic ideals of societies formed beyond the transformation offered in Christ.
Nietzsche is a perfect example of this. His neo-pagan exaltation of the Übermensch (the superior human, the super-man) as a return to the ancient heroic ideal runs parallel to his critique of Christianity as weakness (presumably the weakness of womanhood).
But Christianity has never fit this model of heroic victory. Instead, following Christ often looks and feels like defeat, or weakness, or “womanishness” (as defined by the heroic idea, not according to Christianity).
And maybe that is why theological words like Faith, Hope, Charity, and Grace are woman’s names (and are often personified as women).
(For the record, I do know a man named Hesed, after the Hebrew word translated as “enduring love” or “loving-kindness”)