Is God Male? Sane Reflections on a Crazy Debate
The Christian internet went TOTES CRAY CRAY with reports that the Church of England was going to consider the use of gender-neutral terms for God. Of course, this isn’t all that new. The use of gender-inclusive language in Bible translations and liturgy has been around since the 1970s. In fact, NPR reported from England, "This is nothing new," a spokesperson for the Church of England said. "Christians have recognized since ancient times that God is neither male nor female."
I won’t endorse everything the Church of England liturgical commission says and does, but the general point is right, God is neither male nor female, some might baulk at that, so let me explain why that is the case
Scripture does refer to God speaking and being described in male/patriarchal categories of Father, Son, king, mighty warrior, jealous husband, and more. If so, does that mean that maleness is a part of God’s essence, his being, or his nature? Does that make men more in the image of God than women because men bear the image of the male deity? Does Christianity have, as one famous preacher said, a masculine feel? The answer is a resounding “No!!!!!!!”
First, we have to remember that all theological language is analogical. That is to say, our finite language can never fully capture the infinite being of God. All language about God, scriptural and theological, is at best an approximation to what God is like, and is not a univocal description of his being. Even the language of divine fatherhood is only an analogy and is not an absolute specification of God’s being. While God reveals himself as Father, and that image has positive meaning, it is not part of God’s essence. Fatherhood is an analogy for God’s operation as the sovereign one and for our relationship with God as his children.
Second, I know some people associate male authority figures with abandonment and abuse, I am intimately familiar with this complaint. However, it should go without saying that father-ness can also be associated with notions of love, closeness, and protection as well. Fatherhood is not all patriarchy and power, anger and abuse, control and coercion. Fathers do love their children and they constitute an important source of joy and strength in a child’s development (I know, I’m a father, and my kids seem to like me). If there is anything good about human fathers then there is something infinitely good about God’s fatherhood. For those of us who had bad fathers, no fathers, or lost our fathers, God the Father is the only father we have might ever have. While God’s fatherhood is a source of derision for some, it is a source of encouragement for others, that should be remembered and respected.
Third, as Elizabeth Achtemeier said: “The Bible uses masculine language for God because that is the language with which God has revealed himself.” Fatherhood is part of God’s revelation of himself even though it does not exhaust everything to be said about God's character. Therefore, it would be inappropriate to replace “Father” with “divine monad without a gonad.” We can no more invent new pronouns for God than we can claim that God’s male pronouns in scripture demand that we only conceive of him as male!
Fourth, it is worth pointing out that, even with the prevalence of paternal language for God, there is also a sizeable number of places where God is described in maternal imagery. As the Creator, God fathers and mothers creation, begetting it and birthing it (Job 38:28-29). God is like a mother who birthed the nation of Israel (Deut 32:18; Isa 42:14) or else a midwife guiding new life into the world (Isa 66:9). The love of God is compared to the love of a mother for her child (Ps 131:2; Isa 49:15; 66:13; Hos 11:3-4). God is compared to a woman searching for a lost coin (Luke 15:8-10). God’s wisdom is considered one of the primary personifications of God’s work in the world (e.g., Prov 8:1–12; Jer 10:12; 51:15) and it is expressed in words that are grammatically feminine in both Hebrew (ḥokmâ) and Greek (sophia). Jesus could even depict himself like a mother hen protecting her chicks from a barnyard fire (Matt 23:37) and Paul can describe his frustration with the Galatians like a mother having to go through the travails of child-birth all over again (Gal 4:19). So rather than replace “Father” with “Mother” as some feminist theologians do, a better option is to appreciate and appropriate biblical presentation of God’s maternality. African theologian Charles Nyamiti says that “motherhood can be ascribed to the three Persons together, to the divine essence, as the source of life, as infinite goodness and love.” I don’t like the appeal to “divine essence” here, but noting that God has a maternal quality is scriptural and orthodox.
Fifth, when the Logos took on human flesh and became human, humanity, even maleness is added to divinity, and the Son even returns to heaven with a risen and glorified male human body. God is thus forever hypostatically united to a human body, a male body, that is the scandal of particularity. But that is true only of the divine Son; not of the Father and the Holy Spirit. God the Father, the uncreated creator, eternal begetter of the Son, is no more male or female than the Holy Spirit.
Sixth, we need to stop addressing God and gender in light of cultural wars on social media and equipped with no more than a naive biblicism. This church ruled out of bounds the identification of God with maleness for good reasons. They understood the analogical nature of Scripture and the danger of reducing God to anthropomorphisms that typified pagan religion. My gosh, the Cappodician Fathers argued that God’s nature, out of which the Son was eternally generated, contained the qualities of motherhood and fatherhood, but without making God essentially male or female.
Seventh, there are big problems if we say God “is” male. (a) If God is male, then how can women be in the image of God; (b) A male God underscores patriarchy, as Mary Daly once complained, “If God is male, then the male is God.”
For those who don’t know, Amy Peeler has a new book out on this very topic, Women and the Gender of God, which is a terrific read. Listen to the discussion between Lynn Cohick and Amy Peeler about God and gender.
Otherwise, read more about this in my book Evangelical Theology.
Outstanding, Dr. Bird. Thanks.