It bears repeating that Gender is an arbitrary grammatical category. The same is true in Greek and Hebrew, where illegitimate theological arguments are often made on the basis of the grammatical gender of nouns referring to children, infants, spirit, mind, soul, etc.
As is the case in Greek (e.g. nouns ending in -ma/matos are neuter), certain endings determine the gender of a noun: the ending -ung makes a noun feminine; the diminutive endings -lein, and -chen make nouns neuter.
Thus, die Hoffnung (fem); das mädchen, das Fräulein (neut).
When translating the pronouns er, sie, es, we should remember the rules of English and translate according to the gender of the English referent (noun referred to).
A good illustration is Margarete’s touching description of her dearly departed little sister. She obviously expresses affection, and it would be totally misleading to translate the pronouns ‘es‘ with an impersonal ‘it’ in English.
Mein Schwesterchen ist tot.
. . .
So lieb war mir das Kind.
. . .
Ich Zog es auf, und herzlich liebt’ es mich.
Es war nach meines Vaters Tod geboren.
My little sister is dead
. . .
The child was so dear to me.
. . .
I brought her up, and she loved me with her heart.
She was born after my father’s death.
[Goethe, Faust I, 3121–3126]
Theological German/Theologisches Deutsch 
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