Lord or Lady?: The Search for the Divine Gender
In broad-ranging spiritual discussion circles, there tends to be a fair amount of conversation about the Divine “Life Force” which most of the world refers to as God. One of the main issues of contention is whether this “Force” has a gender, and if so, whether it is male or female. I am going to do my best to come at this complex quandary from a Catholic perspective in hopes of clarifying our position on gender in general.
First off, it must be remembered that God is always far above and beyond human attempts to describe or categorize. Also, if there is a Divine Being outside of time and space from which all existence flows, this Being is most certainly spiritual in nature. So like angels, it is reasonable to conclude that God is indeed above and beyond gender.
Since human beings, both male and female, are made in the image and likeness of God, it would also be a logical conclusion that the good attributes found in both men and women are a part of the nature of God.
From God comes both “the strength of man and beauty of woman,” as George MacDonald wrote, fusing the utility and asceticism that defines the world in which we live. I will go further to say that in God, who is singularly responsible for bringing forth the universe from the depths of nothingness, we see elements of both the life-giving seeding of man and the life-nourishing birthing of woman.
In different cultures, the search for the Divine has led to a variety of expressions that emphasize strikingly different, although also occasionally similar, understandings of the ground of reality. In Judaism, the People of Israel received revelation from God in a distinctly male persona. For a patriarchal society such as their own, this made perfect sense to their understanding of the world.
However, other peoples, such as the Druidic Celts, had a strongly held belief that spiritual wisdom was the kith and kin of female intuition. They also identified the land itself as female, which they believed was charged with a magical grandeur that was itself an extension of the Mother Goddess. Indeed, the earth was often called her body, and the rivers her blood. This inspired the Celtics to view underground springs and wells as sacred portals to the spirit world.
Other variations of this belief in the divine feminine included the worship of the Mother Goddess Gaia from Greek mythology, who continues to have quite a following in New Age circles and is often depicted bearing the earth in her belly as a pregnant woman. Returning to Indo-European style Paganism, extending into modern Wicca, there is also a belief in the duality of the Divine, made manifest by “The Forest Lovers” or “The Lord and Lady of Nature”, according to the “Witches’ Rune.”
All this cultural analysis aside, there are two key points which orthodox Christians must be ready to acknowledge and accept: first, that Jesus Christ is God, “I AM”, the Second Person in The Holy Trinity, who took on a human nature and an accompanying male gender; and secondly, that He repeatedly and specifically referred to God in the masculine as His Father, as epitomized in “The Lord’s Prayer.”
However, I believe it is incorrect for men to feel any sense of superiority over women on this account. God is God, outside of our boxes, and if it had been according to Divine plan, the Messiah might have come among us as a female. Of course, it clearly was not within that plan, and I as a Christian woman am fully content with that. While I make no pretense to understand the mind of God, there are some very valid reasons I can think of off the top of my head for why this was not the case.
Firstly, the Jewish patriarchal society would never have accepted it, and the Jews were the Chosen People from whom the Messiah would come forth. All the prophecies spoke of the coming of the Prince of Peace and the Son of David, reestablishing and continuing the royal legacy of their deposed kingship. But secondly, and perhaps more importantly, there is deep theological significance in Christ coming as a man…or should I say the Man.
The story of the Incarnation starts when The Holy Spirit overshadows the Blessed Virgin Mary as the ultimate life-giving force, the Masculine embrace of the Feminine. In this sense, all our souls, that spiritual essence of ourselves, are to some extent feminine in that they are brought new life by the masculinity of the Christ, the New Adam. This is also brought to the fore in the masculine death on behalf of the feminine in Christ’s death to ransom humanity, acting as a lover pouring out his strength to defend his beloved. This is the crux of the chivalric ideal.
But even with all this noted, it must also be remembered that Christ Himself made reference to attributes of God more strongly associated with feminine nurturing: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” (Matthew 23:37)
Also, in Christian art, the symbol of the mother pelican piercing her breast to feed her young has commonly been associated with the sacrifice Jesus made by shedding His blood for humanity. After all, it has been said that a mother’s love is said to be strong enough to carry all the world…surely this also could include bringing that world into being and sacrificing oneself on its behalf?
Returning to the subject of life-giving blood: do not women shed their blood to prepare for new life through their menstrual cycles? While it tends to be a subject less spoken about in western societies, many indigenous cultures celebrate the beginning of a girl’s cycle with various rituals and festivities. It is a sign that the Great Circle of Life shall continue forward into the future. Equally so, the shedding of Christ’s blood enabled us to be reborn and know life in abundance.
Elaborating on the same point, there is a certain feminine element of the Eucharist, the bread and wine Catholics believe is transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Christ during the consecration during mass. Mary is the one who fully gave her flesh and blood to Christ, since He had no human father.
Beyond that, the act of God bestowing on us this flesh, this blood, this food for our nourishment found at the Eucharistic Table, can also be seen as a form of mothering. Indeed, some Bible verses make it sound strikingly similar to breast-feeding, particularly in the injunction, “This is My Body. Take and Eat.”
Another very striking reference to breast-feeding and the spiritual life runs as follows: “Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.” (1 Peter 2:2)
In another sacramental context, Catholic author Solange Hertz makes the point that genders view baptism in different ways. Men tend to view it as waters of cleansing, whereas women view it as birthing waters. Of course, the Bible confirms that it is indeed an act of re-birth: “Unless a man be born again of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (John 3:1,5).
Even the Old Testament tends towards the feminine in describing the goodness of God: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” (Isaiah 49:15).
Also, there is a Jewish tradition of referring to Holy Wisdom in the feminine, just as the Celts did for Divine Inspiration: “She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city, ‘Let all who are simple come to my house!’” (Proverbs 9:2-4)
Perhaps the tension between masculine and feminine attributes is more based on our own rocky gender relations in our fallen society than it is on any substantial theological conflict. Men too often have abused the strength of their bodies and turned their protective instinct into aggression. The life-giving force is transformed into self-gratifying gluttony that can tyrannize and dehumanize the feminine. In this atmosphere, many spiritual seekers find the concept of a female divinity to be a safer and more fulfilling alternative to a male one.
This preference may well be grounded in a distorted image of the nature of masculinity. Sometimes I feel that quite a few well-intentioned Christian men fall into this same trap when defining the nature of manhood. There are some stereotypes which are foisted onto us by our culture, and the masculinity is made synonymous with toughness projected through visible gestures such as guzzling down alcoholic beverages, inhaling tobacco smoke, or engaging in blood sports.
But perhaps the real proof of manhood is not so much a tough attitude, or a proclivity towards smoking or drinking, or a tolerance for violence, but rather is grounded in true strength. And the single strongest thing that exists is love. It is the purest form of that which God is, and it is necessary seed from which all other virtues grow, as well as the pinnacle of the mountain which we climb. To be loving in a world of hatred is the true test of our humanity. This loving power is something that comes from within and is not worn on the sleeve with arrogance or for show.
All this brings to mind one of my favorite television heroes, Kwai Chang Caine from Kung Fu. Soft-spoken, humble, and empathetic, he defies many of the stereotypes about proving one’s manhood through vulgar displays of high-handed arrogance and crude mannerisms. Nevertheless he proves to be the pinnacle of physical and mental strength. Not only is he skilled in the martial arts, which he uses for the defense of himself and others in need, but he is also able to bear the brunt of insults and prejudice with amazing resignation.
His strength is most often revealed through gentility, enabling him to tread on rice paper without tearing it and among serpents without rousing them to attack. Also, out of respect for all life forms, he is a vegetarian, and to keep his mind clear, he drinks no alcohol. And yet in all these things, he comes off as profoundly masculine. Indeed, when asked what he is, he often simply responds, “I am a man.” While clearly set apart on many levels in both nature and comportment (e.g. Christ both ate meat and drank alcohol, according His time, place, and heritage), in the way of gentle strength, sacrificial resignation, and pure masculinity, Kwai Chang can be seen as an imperfect type of Christ, the Son of Man.
In this light, it is much easier to embrace the masculine aspects of God. We see them for what they were meant to be, not bent by a warped, misogynistic, power-hungry perspective. Also, in the light of the gender identity of Christ, it is understandable why only men can be ordained as priests in the Catholic Church. In addition to being about bodily constructs, gender shapes the essence of our identity and that which we were created to be. To act in persona Christi, it only makes sense that such an identity should be shared.
This is not to say that women are somehow viewed as being on a lower plane in Church life. According to Catholic doctrine, the only person aside from Christ himself to be conceived free from the inheritance of Original Sin was a woman: the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. We acknowledge her title as Queen of Heaven and Earth, the most powerful and exalted member of our species aside from the God-Man Jesus Christ.
When inferiority has been projected onto women in history, with the symbolic use of Eve’s apple and an excessively priggish attitude towards female sexuality (which, within the proper context of a life-long, sacramentally sealed commitment, is one of the great beauties of life), it has been largely the result of cultural norms and preconceptions, not any infallible declaration of the Church.
While both men and women are called to live the fullness of the Christian life with both strength and love, perhaps we have our own unique ways of revealing it. We share so much, and yet there is still that priceless Ying and Yang factor which enables us to find equilibrium in each other’s company. That’s why it’s aptly said that behind every good man there is a good woman. As biological and emotional nurturers, women have an amazing transformative power. At the same time, good men bring out the best in women and honor their whole person with dignity and encouragement to be the best they can be. In all things, it can be truly said that the opposite of rape culture is nurturance culture.
This brings us full circle in our search for the gender attributes of the Divine, a topic that proves to be highly controversial and even polarizing many religious circles. One such example of said polarization was when actor Leonard Nimoy (aka Star Trek’s Vulcan Science Officer Mr. Spock) mishandled an effort to promote the image of God in the feminine to a predominately Jewish audience by taking a picture shoot of naked female models, some of whom were holding or garbed in sacred Jewish ceremonial pieces. Although perhaps initially well-intended, the project quickly ran amuck.
Predictably, the orthodox Jewish audience that had once felt a certain emotional kinship with him because of his own Judaism (albeit of a much more liberal “universalist” variant…indeed, he had previously made the controversial move of hijacking a rabbinic ceremonial blessing which became famous as the Vulcan salute!) promptly denounced the “heretical” display, which did seem pretty much on a par with girly calendar material, no matter what philosophical intro he may have included. Nevertheless, the whole project had some residual benefits for him…and he proceeded to make one of the models his second wife (which, of course, he must have decided was the logical course to take)!
So yes, these topics can be severely mishandled and transformed into a sometimes sordid, sometimes farcical mess! This is especially the case when the subject at hand becomes less about gender and more about sexuality (ala Nimoy!). But this should not make us any more reticent to approach this important topic and treat it with the fairness it is due. Perhaps the question of “male or female” should best be answered “the best aspects of both, and way beyond either.” Interestingly, this balances the different aspects of human interaction with the divine rather well.
For instance, in the Pagan understanding of the Divine feminine, she is meant to be pursued by a mystically male humanity, exemplified by the Celtic kings who were expected to mystically mate with the land, understood to be an extension of the Goddess. On the other hand, in the Christian understanding of the Divine masculine, He is the one who seeks after and embraces humanity, as the Hound of Heaven and the Christological lover, bringing to the fore the Catholic mystics such as Catherine of Sienna who underwent a spiritual marriage to the Divine.
Perhaps we, as humanity, both seek after and are sought after in turn, being purged by the Fire of the Holy Spirit (which could be seen as more masculine) and nurtured by the fruits of the Holy spirit (which could be seen as more feminine). Using a final Asian analogy, perhaps God is very much like a Samurai’s sword, infused with both strength and beauty, and believed to contain the essence of the soul.
But again, all these attempts at explaining the unexplainable are ultimately exercises in perception about a God who is beyond any labels humanity may be capable of devising. No neatly packaged box is able to take it all in. While revelation, tradition, and mysticism can all lend us glimpses of the Ultimate Reality, the full Truth must wait until we have reached a higher realm. In the end, perhaps it is the mystery of the Divine that is the most poignant reality. If it were not so, God would not be God.
—
By Rosaria Marie
(Also published on the St. Austin Review)
Thanks for an interesting blog post, Rosaria. We grapple with simlar issues. I’ve haven’t gone into such depth as yourself in my recent article on the same subject, but here it is anyway, from my perspective as both a Druid and a Liberal Catholic. In our tradition we leave the question of the gender of the Trinity alone but make up for it to some extent by further exaltation of Our Lady : http://templarpriests.weebly.com/the-world-mother.html
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One small point so far: Being a Jew depends on the mother being a Jew, not the father. I was told this by a Jewish friend in regard to her half sister who had the same father.
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Depends on which Jewish movement. Reform acknowledges Jewish-ness through the paternal line. Conservative and Orthodox are matrilineal only.
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The divine do not have genders…it is a biological thing which the divine have no need of.
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As a non-theistic animist I probably have little to add to any thoughts about the gender of someone else’s god, other than to say that my concept of gender (a cultural construct closely tied to an individual’s understanding of themself) is non-binary and fluid, unlike sex (a function of biology) (although not always so readily binary either). Many human cultures seem, as far as I know, to adopt a more or less primarily binary model of gender, roughly in line with sex, but there are many that recognise genders (third, fourth and more) outside of that… some a mixture of the usual binary distinction and some simply ‘other’. In some of these cultures, the variant genders can be associated with shamanic/priestly/spiritual intermediary roles and spiritual action.
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Remember though, God is not the highest being in the world, but “Ipsum esse subsistens”; the subsistent act of “to be” itself. That is according to Thomas Aquinas. Being does not have a gender.
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If I remember the bible bits correctly then: “God” made man in his image and then made woman from a rib bone of man. I did find it interesting how this article talked every point but that one. Happily I am polytheistic so I get gods and goddesses.
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I think if you asked most Christians, the answer to that would be that “man” simply is a stand-in for all humanity. As a Catholic, I do not take the Genesis story of Creation to be scientifically literal, but rather metaphorical for various spiritual realities. That God is portrayed making man out of dust and woman from man is symbolic to be of our interconnectedness to nature and our interconnectedness to one another.
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Heirophant.
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Why would a spirit possess gender? The point of gender is sexual reproduction, strictly a biological function. That is not true in the spirit world.
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A very thoughtful article. And it fits in with much of what I learned as a Catholic. As for the Leonard Nimoy part, most people I know regarded the Full Body Project as beautiful and affirming (wonder why the author didn’t like it). I cannot limit God(dess) to one gender. We ARE made in His/Her image and as the Divine has no actual gender, I believe the Divine manifests in ALL genders, male, female and everything in between. We believe what makes sense to us according to our cosmologies. Not believing the same as another person does NOT make you a heretic. (yes, someone actually called me that recently!)
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With regards to the Leonard Nimoy project, I guess it does kind of depends on perspective, but I felt it could have been taken the wrong way. As in, a bit pornographic. A lot of people took it that way at the time, it seems. I think he could have tried to make the same point through other means, to be honest…
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Interesting!!! *thumbs up*
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I think to limit God to a gender is suggestive of limited thinking on our part, and in part has been responsible for an awful lot of sexism within organised faiths and society, something we ought to be ashamed of really. I prefer these days to consider God as Lord. God surely can contain that which we would refer in our dualistic nature as Mother and Father??
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Jesus calling God Father was to do with his social and cultural surroundings, but not because women were lesser beings. In the Jewish family the Father was responsible for the spiritual well being of the family (an aspect set up in Torah). Jesus called God ‘Father’ because God needed to be seen as the one responsible for the spiritual well being of his people. Just as an aside, there were numerous female Rabbis around before, during and after the time of Jesus. There is one particular female Rabbi from the time just before Jesus who is still deeply respected and is quoted in the Talmud. It was not so much of a male dominated society as the Western church has made out over the past 1,500 years. The Apostle Paul also used women to preach.
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And yet Jesus called God “Father’….
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Because he lived in a patriarchal society where women were considered possessions. To address God as female simply wouldn’t have been done in that culture. Doesn’t mean we can’t grow and change our understanding of God, just as we no longer consider women in that light – at least most Christians don’t.
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We can never change our understanding of God, as God never changes. We can’t say that God set things up in a certain way, and then make a ‘man mad assumption’ that God changed his mind. Avellina’s articles is extremely adept at making accurate and factual theological points about the nature of God’s divinity.
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I begin by rejecting the idea that the divine can realistically be understood in any number of persons fewer than infinity. There is no One God, no Two Gods, but an uncounted (if not uncountable) number of beings.
Within that host there are a somewhat smaller number of beings who have become the real and immediate allies of mortals. These, I think, are beings that like humans, that may have shaped or sparked us in material nature, and who don’t mind appearing in human forms. Lore tells us that these beings appear as both male and female, in their variety.
Since I hold that there’s no such thing as “creator god” I don’t worry about its gender. I address the gods and goddesses as I find them.
I assume that the material world is a machine built on a plan that exists in the spiritual world. Likewise I assume that one can know what the spiritual world is like by extrapolating by metaphor from the material world. Thus I think that, gender, being so prevalent in matter, there must be an equivalence in the spirits.
On another level I think that spirits who like humans like to appear as humans, and humans have gender.
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If your family has a spirit that you have encountered, you will discover that it includes all manner of being(s) within it that manifests in all manner of ways. In a sense, that spirit is the deity for your family and it represents a first conscious awareness for its members. Is it a creator deity for virus and other organisms? Probably not, but there seems to be a sort of mathematical theory of limits as one approaches creation that implies there is a first spark lurking in there somewhere that is to be found within everything and every time. I recommend asking your family spirit about this origin of things when you are next in communion with it.
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As far as I know there are no pregnant spirits. Biology is the study of LIFE. Spirits are not living beings and do not possess organs, blood or bodily systems. I suppose they can appear however they want to appear, but that isn’t what they are.
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Spirits may not “be” anything in particular like meat beings.
I see no reason to be literal. If a spirit finds the metaphor of pregnancy and birth valuable, it will be pregnant and bear forth.
We’d be hard-pressed to describe what a chair “really” is, much less a spirit.
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I’ve never seen a pregnant spirit… or a pregnant chair, for that matter.
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I understand that within most Pagan pantheons, there are both overtly male and female deities. However, broadly speaking, many Pagans also acknowlege some type of “ground of reality” or “universal essence” which either is manifested for brings forth the pantheon. This usually is considered to be a more impersonal life force, and therefore naturally has not gender. However, for Christians, since we do believe that the “Life Force” is personal, and took up a human nature and walked among us in the person of Jesus Christ, the subject of gender becomes more complex. Hence, my reason for writing hte article.
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Ladies sleeves hung long like this to show their station of husband in length. Men’s sleeves were usually more square n straight down. Besides the chain coming down the back of the circlet…not crown. Is a female design..
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This article gave no defining boundries outside of cultural distinctions so I am left with the same answer I started with and that is follow your heart. This exploration didn’t lean one way or another or give an argument for one or the other still leaving the reader with a personal choice to make. What makes YOU feel comfortable when worshipping deity?
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My point more or less was that I believe the divine to be above and beyond gender, and yet that the best aspects of both men and women make up the attributes of that being.
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if Love does not know gender, why should other aspects of life?
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And yes, while I do agree Love transcends gender (as does our common humanity), I think our gender differneces can be a really beautiful thing in the way we interact with one another. They are a gift, adding to the diversity of the world.
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The one who first entered our relm so to speak was Sophia goddess of Wisdom, who alone kinda begat the god who was the archetect of our universe through his mothers will, & then said I made thisall, have no other gods before me. Then th christians made it easier by eliminating the begining.
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I think Source is beyond gender, but just as humans emanate from Source and take gendered forms, so do the deities. I don’t think of gender as limited to masculine and feminine, though, either in humans or in deities. I’m nonbinary myself, and there are several deities who can also be seen in that way. I think it’s important to honour deities of all genders so that people of all genders can see themselves reflected as fully as possible in the Divine.
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My view is, we will never know the truth. We have to choose our own path. This reading was a synopsis of beliefs and stealths and movements. Hormones and body structure dictate our necessities. Praying, Gods and Goddesses are not born with us, we are taught that. Care for the hungry, the hurt and the old. Nurture the earth so it will nurture you. If you watch nature, it shows you what is right. If there is something greater than us, why do we need to exploit it?
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It is my view that our bodies, our needs, our promptings to do good, the world of nature, all point to that infinite reality – the groundwork of reality itself – in question. While we might not know all the answers, contemplating the myseries of divine is a matter of entering into a relationship of that Great Fire. We are like sparks that came forth from that fire. Surely it is natural to see our own nature, and look beyond. That is not exploitation; it is a love story.
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Beautiful. A love story.
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With all due respect, I think you are flirting with the occult with this article, and the website that’s posting it. If you want truth read the thousands of texts passed down for thousands of years. God created Adam in His likeness. God is our Father. No further discussion needed. 😉
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For the record, this article was approved and accepted by the St. Austin Review as acceptable by Catholic standards.
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That doesn’t always mean it’s solid Catholicism… at the “fellowshipoftheking” site, there’s a link to something called “ink and fairydust” and the article uses pagan references to explain how people have come to think that God could be considered “feminine”… referencing druids, “Mother Goddess” and “Gaia”. I agree with Cruze Lee – we have enough of our Catholic tradition and texts to reference for our search for the “Divine Gender” (and really, does it matter whether God is male or female? He’s God). There are “Catholic retreat centers” who teach yoga, and have people walk labyrinths… all new age things we should not be promoting especially at a “Catholic” retreat place. Just because something says it’s Catholic doesn’t mean it’s following the Magesterium or the Catechism, or in line with Truth.
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Jennifer, please feel free to explore “Ink and Fairydust” (www.inkandfairydustmag.com) and you will find that it is a lovely e-zine put together by a delightful bunch of young Christians who love fantasy. As for the references to Gaia, etc., they were merely meant to show the broad spectrum of belief within different cultures. I made no comment as to their validity whatsoever. I also included a hefty amount of scriptural quotations etc. to make my point that Catholics are welcome to acknowlege attributes of God that are more commonly associated with the feminine. As for Yoga and Labrynths, they are complex practices which many Catholics have different opinions on. The same applies to martial arts, etc. Some feel that used within a Catholic worldview, they can be acceptable and even helpful to Catholic life (e.g.. some people do find that walking in a circle is helpful when praying their rosary, etc.) These practices have not been condemned by the Church outright, and should be viewed judiciously with suitable caution but also with a realization that the subject is still an open one for Catholics and people are bound to have different opinions, experiences, etc.
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GREAT article, and so well written! Well done, Rosaria Marie!
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Good article explaining that God is above and beyond our binary definitions of gender because of his divine nature. I don’t tend to think about it too much because at the end of the day, God is God in whatever form. However, this was a well-considered analysis. 🙂
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An interesting article. As it said at the start the Divine (God) has no gender. The article had some good points, but was, as is often the case, slightly ill informed when it comes to the Jewish understanding, as it seems to have the Christian view of Judaism, like much of Western thought.
I will try here to make some points which might help clarify:
In the article it says “In Judaism, the People of Israel received revelation from God in a distinctly male persona”, and “The Holy Spirit overshadows the Blessed Virgin Mary as the ultimate life-giving force, the Masculine embrace of the Feminine”. These two points seem fair when you only know the English translation of the Christian bible from a Christian perspective. I, however, have also studied Judaism and understanding what we call the ‘Old Testament’ from a Jewish perspective.
Firstly, and most importantly Hebrew is a gendered language. Meaning that each word has a gender, just like French. The gender determines in what way the thing related to the word is understood. Why is this important? Because the word in Hebrew for the Holy Spirit, Ruach, is a female word. From a Jewish perspective, the Spirit of God, The Holy Spirit (in Christian terms) is female. Jesus and Mary would have understood this. So rather than the Male embracing the female at the conception, it is the Female of the Trinity bringing the life of the womb and placing it within Mary.
There are also other aspects of the feminine of God in the Hebrew language, to show that the Jews understood that God was able to be seen as both male and female, but I won’t go into them here.
Jesus calling God Father was to do with his social and cultural surroundings, but not because women were lesser beings.
In the Jewish family the Father was responsible for the spiritual well being of the family (an aspect set op in Torah). Jesus called God ‘Father’ because God needed to be seen as the one responsible for the spiritual well being of his people.
This means, just a little p.s. that the Christian Trinity is Father, Son and Feminine – more like a family unity that a bunch of men in charge!
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That’s how I’ve come to see it – Spirit as Sophia, guardian, protector, emotive and empathic, nurturer and comforter…feminine, not female. In the same way, God the Father is creator, sustainer, powerful, provider…masculine but not male.
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Thank you for such an interesting insight which happens to fit with my thoughts about the Holy Spirit and which I think brings real value to our understanding of the relationships within the Trinity, albeit probably limited understanding. I think there is a real value in seeking to look beyond a stereotypical gender association to God, and perceiving both that which we would call Male and Female within the Godhead I believe to be very helpful.
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Hi, David. With regards to the Holy Spirit, I do see the point you are making about the feminine aspects of “Holy Wisdom” and the Spirit of God being referred to in the feminine. However, simply because a language has certain gender classifications for words, that would not necessarily mean the thing in question is of that (or any) gender. For example, even if a word like “house” or “ship” were a gendered word…it wouldn’t make the house or ship have a gender. Certainly, I would agree the Holy Spirit has female attributes, but I also see masculine attributes present as well, thus when the Holy Spirit “overshadowed” Mary, she was not a mere vessel something was imiplanted inside. She fully participated as mother, with God acting as father. Also, since both the Father and the Holy Spirit have no bodies, no genders can be strictly applied to them. Jesus, because of His human nature, is the only one to whom a gender can strictly and logically apply.
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I agree, God transcends all gender rules. They were just invented so humans could connect with the divine more easily.
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In the Greek of the New Testament, the term used for Spirit (πνεuμα) in gender neutral – neither masculine nor feminine.
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True, though the original wording in Hebrew and Aramaic are feminine.
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Interesting. I believe gender is a social construct & for that reason it shouldn’t be taken that seriously. There’s people with no gender or people who lives in the body of the wrong gender & even people with two genders. It’s a construct & we shouldn’t be asking which one is more divine than the other. They’re just labels!
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Hi, Venise. Thanks for reading and commenting. I believe that gender is a blessing, and is a very special part of our identity as human beings. As for sexual attractions/feelings, things get rather complicated, needless to say. However, it is natural for male and female to be drawn to one another for complimentarity, both physicially and spiritually, as it were. Hence, even though I believe God is spiritual and therefore does not have a gender, so to speak, there are attributes of both male and female within the divine nature. And needless to say, all people, no matter their gender or sexual feelings, are called to Love both their Divine Source and their fellow living beings as their highest calling.
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Transgender humans were considered as divine because being one. Christians have separated the world into two parts, male and female, which is a non sense. They see angels as no having gender but humans as being male or female and that’s it. So they don’t consider humans as possibly divine. And that is a non sense.
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The reason why we see angels as having no genders is because they are spirits without bodies. However, humans do have bodies, and except in extremely rare cases, these bodies do mark us out as male or female.
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Interesting piece from a Catholic,though it still indulges in gender stereotypes.Whereas most men and women are not two polar opposites but rather to borrow a word from behavioural analysis on a spectrum. I can think logically read a map, understand the offside rule.
But I don’t see a Supreme Deity as male, not even neuter nor yet as a Duo.We say as above so below.What happens in Nature?It is only a Female that can reproduce from herself,without a partner,not a male. As life evolved, sexual reproduction led to genetic variety, avoided mistakes occuring in all those genetic copies.But older species even now reproduce of themselves.As as Jurassic Park reminds us in an exaggerated way,even change sex to create young.So when asked about my Deity,I always say ,the Mother, all others proceed from her.I think too,that the Abrahamic God (Allah,Yhwh )got somewhat above himself rather than any Satan, but that’s an idea for another day.
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Hi, Jacqueline. Thanks for reading and commenting. I too agree, and did mention in the article, that men and women share many things in common, and are both called to strength and love. However, I still do treasure the Ying and Yang factor that is also a part of men and women that enables us to contrast and compliment one another. These are not hardline descriptions, but fluid ones depending on circumstances and personalities, but that very special difference is, to my mind, a great gift. As for a Supreme Deity, I think complimentarity again comes into play here. Except in rare instances, most nature does reveal this complimentarity between elements that enables balance and wholeness. Feminity without masculinity would be somewhat incomplete, just as masculinity without feminity. With regards to God, I believe it is more a matter of attributes (spiritual realities) than actual gender (a physical, human reality). As for Yhwh, I do not believe Him to be simply another desert god among others, but ultimately the way in the Jewish people experienced the Supreme Being above all others. Hence, I believe He was the same Source of which we are speaking. That they experienced this Being in a distinctly male persona should not discredit the experience. Perhaps this Being realized that a male persona was the only way they could culturally accept this very special divine/human interaction.
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Yes, I agree the Mother appears in many different forms that are appropriate to the time/place.I doubt a female incarnation would have gone down sell with nomadic middle Eastern Tribes in the 7 century! Although earlier incarnations in Iraq include Inanna and Ishtar. And Jesus by the same extension was sent to the gentiles.
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I have always wondered why we have ‘Mother’ Nature? There does seem to be a lean towards a partnership throughout history. Whether this is physical, metaphysical is another question.
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Maybe because nature nurtures us and provides life-sustaining nourishment in her (or its) bounty, like mothers do by bearing and then breastfeeding their children? Men nurture and nourish too of course, but in a less direct way, at least during the most critical stage of life. There are many wonderful fathers in the world but none of them can nourish or sustain human beings in the womb.
Mind you every culture has its own interpretation. Ancient Greeks split nature into the land as female and the sky as male, Ancient Egyptians had it the other way around. We have Father Time, and Pan and the Green Man and things like that.
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These are really interesting points, as it is true that nature seems to be more a mix of the male and the female elements. Again, we have these elements of seeding and birthing, protecting and nourishing, etc. I personally do see nature as something shot through with both elements of the Divine creativity, a magic set in place by the Great Magician who is able to infuse it with both the masculine and feminine attributes we recognize. Of course, in mythology, there is the idea of the Green Man as well as Elen, the female variant. Perhaps these are whispers of this understanding found in the old myths and legends.
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Wow. Lots I could say on this. I don’t have an opinion. I believe in masculine and feminine energy. not all are conscious and have woken up. there is both masculine and feminine in all. good/bad, light/dark. I believe in Christ consciousness. Spirit lives in and thru me. I came from religion and 12 step recovery. there can be abuse in religion. a lot come to recovery with issues of God. We call it in there Higher Power and some see God as female. I think the best partners have both masculine and feminine. loving and kind and yet a man to be a man and attracted to women. this is what is coming up. i am spiritual and energetic due to tons of healing. i don’t fit in a box. So many terms for God in the Bible. Creator, I am. I believe I am of God and God is in me. I don’t put a gender on it. I have left recovery. Christ consciousness is loving, humble, genuine, meek. I went to catholic school-have my opinions. won’t share. My views have evolved over time due to healing and being weaned into things. No pain, no gain.
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Both. I talk to them everynight & ask for things for my children.
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Indeed, I find it comforting to acknowlege both the masculine and feminine attributes of the Divine and the way that effects my own spiritual life.
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The Divine is laughing at our stupidity! God/ The Divine is male and female in equal measure and neither in much greater measure…
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Definitely: The Both.
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From the article: “the People of Israel received revelation from God in a distinctly male persona. For a patriarchal society such as their own, this made perfect sense to their understanding of the world.” If God wanted to be known as anything other than male, He would do so. Jesus who is also God, is also male. When you attempt to blur the lines, and talk in a “spirit” sense, it can lead down heretical paths. The early Church fathers covered this – I don’t time to do a search right now. Also, I’d like to mention – and this is just personal – this site seems to be like an ad. A website can be covered in beautiful images and yet once you scratch the surface there are foundation issues. It is good for young adults & homeschoolers to have a media writing outlet, but they need to also look deeper before publishing. I understand their draw to Tolkien and his parallels with Catholicism. I will let our Admin decide if she wishes this page to be almost daily promoted. I will now step away from this discussion because I can see it getting very heated very quickly. Pray before posting all. 🙂
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Elizabeth Myers: Whether or not you agree with what I said, none of it crossed lines with Church teaching. I have had this article reviewed by mutliple individuals of good Catholic standing, all of whom concurred upon this point. I repeatedly acknowleged Christ’s masculine nature, etc. and further explained the Catholic reasons for the male priesthood associated with it. I do my best to share posts from our website that have appropriate application to Catholic life, spirituality, practice, etc. and do not share random spam. As for “scratching the surface” of our site beneath our graphics work, you will find that we do not permit ANYTHING that directly conflicts with Catholic doctrine. Clearly this has been acknowleged by the fact that we have received enddorsements and contributions from high-ranking Catholic authors, including Dr. Peter Kreeft, Joseph Pearce, John C. Wright, Joanna Bogle, Bradley J. Birzer and the late Jef Murray. We take our work seriously as a Catholic magazine to remain orthodox, but we also welcome new forms of expression and serve as open forum for dialogue with all sorts of people who may be encountering Catholicism for the first time in a long time through our magazine.
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First of all thank you for sharing your ideas. As you are writing about your interpretation of Catholic ideas, these are of course your own, and you are as entitled to them as I am my own views on any notion of divinity.
I would say though that I found your comment about the Pagan understanding of the Divine Feminine somewhat simplistic, and somewhat limited, being merely one tiny facet (and not entirely accurate either) of a much larger whole. I appreciate however that you might not want to dwell on the various approaches that pagans, to use the word in it’s umbrella meaning, have towards the divine.
In my opinion, humanity creates gods and goddesses, and, for me, that includes the deity of the Abrahamic faith systems. Deities rise and fall over centuries or millennia in line with cultures, customs, and people. In a few thousand years, if humanity is still around, the religious and spiritual landscape of this planet will look very different once again. I don’t see anything wrong with that, each culture, each civilisation responds to the demands on it and creates their deities with those demands and needs in mind either consciously, or sub-consciously.
I will, if pushed, use the definition pantheist for myself, though tend not to worry about labels, and even pantheists isn’t quite right.
I don’t believe in a single Creator god, though I do work with and honour certain deities as representations and archetypes (though not those from Abrahamic faiths, nor from cultures with which I am unfamiliar). A sense of positive belonging to, and very much being part of the universe and the web of life on this mudball.
I choose to regard the universe with awe, reverence, feelings of belonging and a recognition of tremendous power, beauty and mystery. I do not need collections of tribal myths, preachers or gurus to interpert these feelings and experiences to me
I think that many pagans are basically pantheists, using the god/essess and spirits of paganism as a metaphoric way of expressing their reverence for the universe and nature. I enjoy the use of symbols and archetypes to work with in order to make sense of the universe and, if you like, nature.
Others are polytheists, others, as Adam said above, non-theistic animists, I’ve come across panentheists and agnostic pagans, it doesn’t matter, these are all labels to define using mere language, what makes our souls and spirits soar and engender a feeling of rightness.
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Greetings, Red, and thank you for commenting. Since there are so many variants of Paganism, I mostly was focusing on a very specific Celtic type in which the land was viewed as the body of the mother goddess, as well as briefly mentioning the worship of Gaia. I certainly do not claim to be an expert on the many forms of Paganism, and am learning something new every day, but I believe that the specific elements I referenced were accurate within their specific context. What I have noitced among quite a few Pagans (certainly not all) is that there tends to be some type of undercurrent and/or overarching “ground of reality” which the pantheon either springs forth from or manifests in different forms. Some would simply refer to that as “The Universe” or “The Web of Life” or “The Song of Creation” or “They Wyld Hunt” or “The Chasm” or “The Life Force”, or what have you, but I suppose it could be called the glue that holds together all things. Perhaps, as in Asian tradition, it could be referred to as “all that is and all that is not.” In that, I find some similarity to my own understanding of the Divine in a variety of ways. More often than not, such things seem to lay in the distant background of various forms of Paganism, and yet are still there holding up the whole.
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The god of the bible has no gender. For a deity to have the power that christians claim (all-powerful, all knowing, eternally existing) a gender is not logical or possible. I don’t know of any pagans who claim their gods have always and will always exist. None claim their god holds supreme power over everything. Not a big deal for them to have a gender. We’re not trying to claim they have supreme power.
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Why either/ or…why not both/and? I use both terms for God interchangeably (all the while knowing that God is bigger than either term.) God is both Mother and Father. I wish the Church at large could see that. It irks me to be told that God has no gender…only for the person who just told me that, to turn around and use exclusively male languages and images for God. Female imagery for God is found repeatedly in Scripture and is every bit as valid and (Scriptural) as Male imagery….
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Any attempt to give a gender to The Divine is to shrink down it into a manifest form that our wee little brains can understand. We have a hard time comprehending infinity so make it fit the pattern of Mommie or Daddy i.e. force it into a psychological familiarity of our own species binary parental forms. Whether God or Goddess, this kind of anthropomorphism reduces the mystery to a fixed nature that is vastly limited compared to a concept such as the Tao. The Divine needs no gender but can assume either at will, we should see it as gender-fluid at least.
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To me it does not matter; God just is…
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Indeed, to me it is also of more importance that God is the essence of reality than any gender box that might be used for categorical purposes. That having been said, I appreciate the multi-faceted attributes of the divine, which both men and women can find commonality with.
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Exactly…my feelings precisely!
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This is a very interesting and thought provoking piece. The whole blog is worth following.
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Amen.
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I call God “Michelle” 🙂
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The Divine is ” THAT which births itself”. It is beyond gender but has a latent ” female” energy. It is the womb – all encompassing. One of the most limiting aspects orthodox Christian belief is the attribution of maleness to the Divine. It just IS. If we called IT -” great Mother’ does it reduce it or diminish it? No. If we get hung up on words we lose sight of the power of it. remember the story of Moses on the mountain. “I Am that I Am”. The Divine is not a thing that can be named, but a process that we can only hope to describe. To name it…is to kill it. To name it is to create division and separation. Yes – if we trace our Celtic Christian understanding back to the Jewish Wisdom tradition, we can adopt this same concept. Unknowable, without name.
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Good stuff. Worthy of pondering. See also, “… the two primary changes that I’m suggesting are the inclusion of “and Mother” (which many congregations are already doing) and “and Earth.” Those two changes alone would help billions of people realize that our faith is seeking to remain viable and relevant. Over half of the people on the planet are female and any Christian leader today jolly well better acknowledge that. If there’s an Abba, there’s an Amma. Long gone are the days when one could say “but male words such as he and his are ‘gender neutral in English’ and therefore women (and men) shouldn’t have a problem with seeing the Divine only referred to with male terminology.”
From “Let’s Change the Lord’s Prayer – Again” http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogerwolsey/2015/05/lets-change-the-lords-prayer/
Roger Wolsey, author, “Kissing Fish: christianity for people who don’t like christianity”
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Greetings, Roger, and I appreciate your reading and commenting on the post. However, I do not think women (and I speak as one) should have any problem with the way the Lord’s Prayer stands as it is. This is the way Christ addressed God, as His Father; altering Christ’s words to be “inclusive” is not, in my opinion, going to be conducive to the situation. As for any gender inclusive additional terms for God, I would leave that in the hands of the Church to decide and clarify upon. Again, it is already an accepted point that God is beyond our gender boxes, while still acknowledging that the masculine and feminine attributes the Divine Being posseses. Much of this has to be do with the fact that human being are looking back at God in the reverse; God gave us genders, but He is not us. Even so, referring to God as “He/Him”, the gender neutral, does not bother me in the least. Again, I would be interested in seeing what the Church might do with regards to adding any new forms of address, but in the end, I believe such things are in the hands of the magisterium.
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I hope that no one really consider s it a good idea to change the words of Jesus. Whilst we are at it,then let’s change the Gettysburg address and the speeches of Winston Churchill.
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We can never change our understanding of God, as God never changes. We can’t say that God set things up in a certain way, and then make a ‘man mad assumption’ that God changed his mind. Rosaria’s articles is extremely adept at making accurate and factual theological points about the nature of God’s divinity. The article is excellent. This could be used as apologetic evidence time and time again 🙂 Excellent.
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Keith, the Gospels are the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ, as guided by the Holy Spirit. Christians believe the entire Bible to be inerrant, i.e. free of error in the scriptures original versions. However, the entire Bible was written by a group of very human authors. The only way in which fallible humans could have written so much inerrant text would have been for them to have been inspired by God (or more accurately, inspired by the Holy Spirit). This is certainly the understanding of the Roman Catholic Church which is founded on Peter (to whom the keys were given to bind and loose on Earth). This is also the belief of all Western and Eastern Rites. Beyond this, it is extremely rare for any Christian denomination to state otherwise. Just for reference the Catholic Church does not use ‘copies of copies of copies’ when the Gospels and Epistles are read at The Divine Sacrifice of the Mass. The Bible (or Cannon of Scripture) was compiled under the authority of Pope Damasus I in 397AD. In the Roman Catholic Church the texts have been translated into the vernacular, but have hardly changed since the original Cannon was compiled. I can’t comment on denominational churches who have their own translations, and I have heard often differ greatly in some cases.
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But we don’t have the actual words of Jesus. We have copies of copies of copies of variant recollections written down years after the fact in a language Jesus never spoke. At best, we have the gist of what he said, as understood by the community of faith 30 or more years after his death and resurrection. When it comes to scripture, it pays to be modest in our claims and humble in our interpretations.
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Enyore, FYI, the Lord’s Prayer(s) that are said in churches today are not the same as the words that Jesus said in the Gospels. Look it up for yourself. They’ve already been changed.
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Making the argument for expressing the divine as female seems old hat to me, even in the Catholic circles that are the blog’s intended audience. (BTW she seems to miss one of the premier “God as mother” biblcal passages out in her article). From this pagan’s POV, she stereotypes pagan beliefs with a heavy hand. She is also stuck in the old polarity of male/female that many (?most) modern pagans, of all religions, are shedding in favour of a recognition that gender goes well beyond that simplistic concept. 🙂
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Hi, Alexa. Actually, the magazine has a pretty diverse audience at this point from across the religious specturm, as evidenced by the sheer amount of comments from the Pagan community. Further, juding from all the controversy and conflicting opinions, I really don’t think the subject has become “old hat” by any means, and is certainly worth discussing. I do not believe I ever indicated it was my intent to go into depth about the wide diversity of Neo-Pagan beliefs, but rather focused modestly upon the Celtic Pagan tradition of seeing the land as the body of the Goddess, and mentioning Gaia and The Lord and Lady of Nature in passing as examples of the divine feminine worshipped in different cultures. As far as gender goes, the concepts of male and female, as grounded in biology and identity, still have a long shelf-life, and in my opinion, always will . I would be most grateful to have the Bible verse you mention indicating God as mother brought to my attention.
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I have to admit that any focus on the (Irish) Celtic Pagan tradition of the land as the body of a goddess (is it not a specific goddess rather than any goddess?) was lost to me, as it was only one among a few referrals to pagan concepts. I don’t think the concept arises in other Celtic pagan cultures, does it? The duothistic God/Goddess concept is 20th century, of course, and so (I think) is the heavy concentration on Gaia. Most pre-Christian pagan religions – including the Irish Celtic variety – tended to reflect a number of views of the feminine.
Even if one concentrates on a direct with the land (which does not exist for many gods) then there’s a whole muliplicity of expression, many of which are very exciting. For example, within Heathenry there is the hint of Freyja expressing the hidden things of the land, through jewellery (wealth from mining) and magic. In the Classical religions there is the female as that which connects with/cleanses the underworld via the Persephone myth. And as the rescuer (Hekate, the heavenly maiden) in the same myth.
Much of the discourse in paganism is now beginning to swing around to non-binary expression of gender and how they are reflected in modern pagan rituals and religions. Of course, many people will prefer binary to diversity. And, where monotheism is the paradigm being pushed against, it’s porbably a good deal easier to begin with a simple binary then the whole spectrum.
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Two comments with different but complimentary content, so two posts. A person might like one but not the other (or think dead wrong twice in a row – feel free!)
The verse that informs me about this is the question put to Jesus about the woman married and widowed many times. When asked whose wife she would be in heaven, Jesus replies “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.” It’s just one of several examples relating that gender is a physical thing for physical reproduction in a physical world – it simple doesn’t exist in Heaven. By extension, I would argue, that gender exists only for physical purposes and not for ay divine ones – for example, for Pastors. So, I see no barrier to women as Pastors because the physical distinctions of our temporary bodies have no relevance at all on spiritual matters. Gender distinctions are for making babies – and that’s all they are for.
Which brings us to the question of the Father. First, we need to start by abandoning any physical meaning: Jesus was not born of Mary and God the Father but of Mary and God the Holy Spirit. On that point, the Bible is pretty clear and plain.
So: what is all this “Father” thing, if it’s not physical? We need to understand God the Father in a spiritual sense. “What does this mean?”, as Martin Luther might say. Curiously, my own father is a really good example. You see, he wasn’t my father in any physical – he was my step-father. And yet, he was the only father I ever knew in this world.
Now, I am not saying I was too young when I lost my earthly “father” to remember him. I was 16 when that person died but only a few months old when my mother left after being beaten. This later person, technically a “Step-father”, was the only father I ever knew. “Step-father”! How alien, how utterly untrue that word is to me! He was the person who loved me, brought me up, taught me to love the Lord, encouraged and supported me many years. He was the person who prayed for me and over me. No – the blood of Robert Corliss does not flow through my veins: his love does. That is what being a father is about. That is what our heavenly Father is to all of us – and each of us! – today.
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David is right. The whole point of God the father is that we ‘actually have a father’. The other faiths do not have a father figure. They may have a male figurehead, but not a father figurehead. Islam forinstance is sometimes considered a ‘hard’ religion by some theologists, because Ishmael was disinherited and ended up not having a father. The character of the Ishmaelites (who eventually became Islam) was hard and harsh in character, because of the eventual lack of a father figure. This unique character has permeated in to the Islam religion. The very fact that Christianity is unique and has a father figure, is what gives it its character. We have a father to guide us. In this case we have a father to guide us to Christ, His son.
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Your article is quite good. From my own perspective, God encompasses everything, so I think that he runs the whole Gambit of gender. I think that he is both male, female, androgynous, gender-fluid… whatever Expressions that are , he/she/it/they contain. I love your points about how Jesus was male because of the time period that he was in. It would be interesting if hypothetically he was a woman next time. That would confuse a lot of people XD
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Wow, there have been a lot of interesting comments on this! I’m sorry I haven’t been able to weigh in on the conversation more completely, but I have been reading through the comments with interest With regards to my own position: I would like to just make clear that I do not consider myself to be a “progressive Christian”, but rather, to paraphrase Pope Francis, “a faithful daughter of the Chruch”, and I would identify myself to be an orthodox Catholic, without leaning too far left or right in perspective. As such, I am not a “Celtic Christian”, in the sense of that being something “other” than Catholic, but rather I am a Christian in union with the Holy Father in Rome who appreciates Celtic mysticism in the same tradition as the Celtic saints.
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Thank you!
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To me God obviously has no gender being not of this world. No one I know considers this very controversial except those who seem to want to make some kind of political point. There are much more controversial and relevant issues to deal with.
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I agree God does not have a gender as in male and female. However, he has related to us exclusively as a male, and we need to respect HIS wish to do so.
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I think these questions will fall away when we meet him. But as Mr. Bryan Keith Hardee noted, I am reluctant to treat God’s previous expression of himself as entirely accidental. There were goddesses on the market in the Middle-East. It’s not as if the idea was impossible to Semitic peoples.
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We are so finite in our thinking…we act like gender is something that belongs to us and we can do whatever we please with it i.e., change it into something that is other than male or female. But we need to remember God is the possessor of all things and that includes gender…On the other hand, I think about Jesus who will be glorified as a Man forever…what will that make me a glorified women? I don’t know, but It doesn’t matter to me…what matters to me is that I will be with Him forever…in the light of eternity gender is such a small matter…
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Excellent. And the Church is the Bride of Christ, which includes all us guys, so….
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He has preferred to be known to us in our relationship through Jesus as Father.
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