It was a powerful image: a well designed graphic of Jesus astride a lithe and well-muscled battle horse. In his gauntleted fist was wielded a slender longsword, and his body was clothed in the beaten and worn raiments of a medieval knight. The caption was inspiring, and deceptively simple. It merely read, “Our God is a warrior. Man was created in His image.”
I enjoyed the picture. For a moment, I even indulged in puffing out my chest as I replayed scenes from Braveheart and The Last Of The Mohicans starring myself as the battle-hardened lead. There is something within the heart of men that yearns for a cause worthy of fighting for, a deep purpose compelling us to mount up on our metaphorical war steeds and pound at the walls of the enemy. There is adventure within the human spirit. There is adventure within God.
I suppose it is only natural, then, that we project much of our masculine imagery upon this God we serve. We relate to these attributes particularly well. It is far easier for us to conceive of God as King, Father, or Provider than it is to imagine our Lord as Nurturer, Lover, or Mother. In our own heavily masculinized culture, we understandably emphasize the masculinity of our faith. But this is only a partial image.
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It struck me as somewhat strange that the aforementioned graphic only made reference to men being fashioned in the image of God. People today may skip over the reference to men and women given in Genesis 1:27, but the ancient readers to whom the book was written would certainly have stopped short. After all, amidst the cultures of the Ancient Near East, wealth and power were typically measured by your ownership of three key metrics: your flocks, your cattle, and your women. Women were viewed as little more than property. Therefore, for the writer of Genesis to suddenly emblazon his scrolls with such a declaration was, to put it simply, powerfully counter-cultural. The single statement not only placed women on an equal tier as men but also makes them a reflection of the divine If men, who were fashioned in the image of God, bear attributes reflective of the God we serve… then women must as well.
Which means that God must also bear feminine attributes.
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In fact, as the pages of scripture continue to unfold, we begin to see that God is not solely a masculine entity. Often, he is vibrantly portrayed in the feminine as well.
Take Proverbs, for instance. There in the first chapter we encounter a woman named Wisdom crying out in the streets that the people might change their ways and return to God (Proverbs 1:20). A few verses later, we come to discover that this woman is God herself, who then begins to announce judgment upon Israel because “…I have called and you refused” (Proverbs 1:26). Wisdom, here and throughout the rest of the Wisdom Literature, not only portrays a feminine aspect to God, she portrays God in the feminine completely.
The more we dig in, the more we continue to discover feminine traits. We often hear about God as Father, but the idea of God as Mother strikes many as borderline blasphemy. Despite this, we see God portrayed as a mother giving birth to her children (Deuteronomy 32:18), a comforting mother for Jerusalem (Isaiah 66:13), and a mother raising her children (Hosea 11). In fact, the early church merged these images. It is among the early apostolic writings from the likes of Clement, Justin, and Theophilus that we read of the paradoxical “womb of the Father.”
Of course, some might point to Jesus as proof of God’s masculinity. In this case, let us remember that even Jesus portrays God in the feminine. In the Gospel of Luke, he describes the Father as a woman looking for a lost coin (Luke 15:8). In referring to his own love for Jerusalem, he describes himself as a mother hen, yearning to gather her children under wing (Matthew 23:37).
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None of this minimizes the masculine attributes of God, of course. The God we serve is still King, Savior, Lord, and Father. It does, however, expand the horizons and reveal the jagged edges of the theological box we have locked ourselves within. In our overemphasis of God’s masculine traits, we have lost our connection with so many of the foundational attributes which sculpt the heart of the Christian faith. God is wisdom personified, the mother who imbues us with life and raises us up, the woman that seeks us out no matter where we may be hiding, and the mother hen that gathers us together.
The day will come when Jesus returns, the great Warrior-King astride his stallion with a Revelation 19 tattoo on his thigh and a sword in His hand. In our eagerness for His return, however, let us not forget that God is here, among us, wooing and drawing us back into His heart. Let us not forget the broad attributes of this God that encounters and seeks us out: God is love. God is nurturing. God is merciful. God is gracious. God is wise.
God is also feminine.
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Image via flickr/ Teahouse of Danger
it boggles my mind that people (who are apparently as a species SOOO evolved) don’t see religion simply as social politics. While paganism was honored and the religion of the day, women were highly respected and revered for beign the creators of life and world. Christianity came along and turned woman being creator into man as creator. Now, it is the woman who simply “carries” the man’s seed. Man gives life and women just carry that life (completely illogical and scientifically blasphemous). Those who create life hold power over that life. It was nothigng more than politics being used to… Read more »
If you haven’t come across the theology of Heavenly Father + Heavenly Mother in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (mormons) in your studies, it might be an interesting different perspective to look into.
Look at the eastern traditions and all of this is put into perspective. The major eastern traditions merge gender in god. Most gods keep shifting genders. In fact, god is not the cornerstone of any religion. You don’t have to BELIEVE to belong to a certain way of life. I say way of life because most eastern traditions do not even have a word that translates directly into religion. The Hindu word ‘Dharma’ for instance, translates to Duty. Hence, atheism does not become a big deal in the eastern traditions because you never need to believe in god to be… Read more »
Most of the Christian tradition has presented God as being beyond sex and gender (in most senses of the word). While there are examples of God employing female metaphors to describe his activity and character (just as the Apostle Paul refers to his own activity and character using female metaphors—Galatians 4:19; 1 Thessalonians 2:7), God identifies himself as grammatically masculine and as ‘Father’. The metaphors that we encounter in biblical texts must be assessed on their own terms, recognizing the basis on which they were made and where the key comparison is being made. For instance, when the Apostle Paul… Read more »
You are right to point out that historical theology has always considered God to be beyond gender. In the article, my case was not that God was any particular gender, but that God bears feminine attributes as well as masculine. The problem is that in a male-dominated Christian subculture, we emphasize the masculine and downplay the feminine. I would be hesitant to apply gender dynamics on the basis of grammatical masculinity. These are simply linguistic markers that apply to the terms, not necessarily the objects those terms point to. If, however, we wish to push the grammatical markers as evidence… Read more »
The problem is that you are reading gender back into God. It is one thing to say that both male and female truly represent and symbolize God’s creative rule within the world. It is another thing entirely to say that that this implies that God has both ‘masculine and feminine attributes.’ One could even observe that male and female relate differently to key aspects of God’s creative rule, while still resisting the claim that God has masculine and feminine attributes. By ‘grammatical gender’, I am referring to the personal pronouns used of God, which are masculine. Ruach and pneuma aren’t… Read more »