by Steve C. Singleton
(First published in Gospel Advocate 120, 10 [March 9, 1978]: 145, 154. Reprinted here with minor changes.)
The Call to Abolish ‘God the Father’
The outcry of Women’s Liberation is great against religion in general and against Christianity in particular. Feminists sometimes point an accusing finger at religion for preserving sexism down through the centuries. They see male-made deities offering privileges to men and keeping the women in the chains of subjection.
Some feminists are more radical than others. The radicals, like Dr. Mary Daly, see no hope for Christianity and advocate its abolition. In an essay entitled, “Theology After the Demise of God the Father: A Call for the Castration of Sexist Religion” (3-19 in J. Plaskow and J. A. Romero, eds., Women and Religion [Decatur, Ga: Scholars, 1974]), Dr. Daley calls useless all attempts to reform Christianity, because it is too corrupt, too far gone.
With reference to Christ, she argues, ”[T]he idea of a unique male Savior may be seen as just one more legitimation of male superiority.” She sees the Christ-image as male, and therefore she calls his worship “Christolatry,” and advocates rejecting Christ and instead substituting the worship of a God free from having a male representation.
Less radical feminists believe that instead of giving up Christianity completely, we should stop calling God “He” and “Him” and try to use some words which will represent all humankind. In the words of Meg Greenfield, in Newsweek’s editorial called, “Women and the Image of God” (9/1/1975), “They are asking the faithful, in a particular way, to alter their whole image of God.” Some of the more radical inclusive-language Bible translations, lectionaries, and hymnals for examples of this.
Does the Bible discriminate against women in its presentation of the divine?
The “Maleness” of the Divine
Male terms and male metaphors are applied to God, Christ, and the Spirit throughout the Bible. The names for God—Yahweh, Elohim, Shaddai, Sebbaoth, Adonai, Kyrios, and Theos—are all masculine gender. Likewise, male metaphors are applied to God. Abraham calls Him “the Judge of all the earth” (Genesis 18:25). The Psalmist cries, “[T]he Lord is King forever and ever” (Psalm 10:16). Nehemiah represents God as a warrior when he says, “Our God will fight for us” (Nehemiah 4:20). Jeremiah portrays God as a spurned husband (Jeremiah 3:1-2). Jesus, in several parables, likens God to a loving father (e.g., Luke 15:11-32).
The names for Jesus, Iēsous and Christos, are masculine, and Jesus is presented in such male roles as Shepherd (Matthew 25:32; John 10:11-18), prophet (Luke 13:33), priest (Matthew 26:28; Hebrews 7:24-28), bridegroom (Matthew 22:1-14), and especially, son (Mark 1:11; John 3:16; Heb. 1:2-3).
Even the Spirit (whose Hebrew moniker is the feminine ruakh and in Greek the neuter pneuma) has masculine roles such as helper (Romans 8:26), advocate (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7), and witness (Romans 9:1).
Thus, it is quite clear that the feminists are right when they say that the divine is presented as male in the Scriptures. And this presentation is significant. As C. S. Lewis has said:
God himself has taught us how to speak to him. To say that it does not matter is to say either that all the masculine imagery is not inspired, is merely human in origin, or else that, though inspired, it is quite arbitrary and unessential. And this is surely intolerable. (God in the Dock [1970], 237)
We must recognize that these things are established:
- God is referred to hundreds of times with masculine names and with masculine pronouns such as ‘he,’ ‘him,’ and ‘his.’
- God is never given a feminine name, or referred to the feminine pronouns such as ‘she,’ ‘her,’ or ‘hers.’
- This does not mean that God is male. Masculine pronouns have always had the second, generic sense, referring to both male and female, just as ‘Man’ has been used for centuries to refer to both men and women. Feminists now insist that all writers go to ridiculous lengths to do away with all the generic meaning of these words to avoid being denounced as sexists.
But, to be fair, we should also note the other side.
The “Femaleness” of the Divine
God is portrayed with female images in some passages. In Isaiah 42:14, God says, “I will cry out like a woman in labor, I will gasp and pant.” In Isaiah 46:3, “Hearken to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from your birth, carried from the womb.” God asks in Isaiah 49:15, “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.” The Psalmist sees the “female” attribute of God when he says, “I have called and quieted my soul, like a child quieted at its mother’s breast” (Psalm 131:2). Jesus portrays God as a woman sweeping her house, looking for a lost coin (Luke 15:8-10).
In at least one passage, Matthew 23:37, Jesus uses a female figure in referring to himself: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”
Jesus presents the Holy Spirit as a mother from whom all who would be children of God must be born (John 3:3, 5).
“I am who I am”
We can, therefore, answer the question, “Is God Female?” with a definite “No!” But neither is He male. Just as there will be no marrying and giving in marriage in heaven, there is no gender with God. Both maleness and femaleness are a part of His nature, since God created humankind, male and female, in his image (Genesis 1:27). Both genders reflect His glory and eternal attributes. Both mirror in their lives divine actions and attitudes.
God is not male or female. God is God. Do you hear the question which God gave to Moses on the mountain, when Moses asked, “Who are you?” God said, “I who I am!”
We should not try to make God in our image, whether male or female. We should not give Him a gender any more than we should try to give His skin a particular tint, or select His clothes from those worn by a particular class, or make His eyes slanted or unslanted. We should let God be God. Only then will we be ready for Him to do what He can and must do for us – save us from Satan, from sin, and from ourselves.