Nodeshell rescue!
The image of
God as
Father - as an exclusively
male figure - is one of long standing in the
Western religious tradition. People of many faiths and none routinely use male pronouns when describing the
Creator, and until recently, it seems, this idea has gone unchallenged. But in fact, the idea of God as exclusively male is largely a cultural, not religious,
artefact.
In the
Bible, in
Genesis 2, we are told that
God created people in 'his' own image - male and female. Some scholars claim that the
Hebrew title 'Es Shaddai' - usually translated 'Almighty' - actually means 'Great-Breasted'.
In the book of
Proverbs, we encounter
Wisdom, who, like
Jesus in
John 1, was 'in the beginning with God'. This motif occurs again in the Great
O Antiphons, which commence with
O Sapientia, the invocation of
Sophia, the divine spirit of Wisdom.
Both
Jesus and
St Paul play down the importance of gender differences. 'God is Spirit, and those that worship him must worship him in spirit, and in truth', Jesus tells the woman at the well of
Samaria. 'In
Christ there is no male or female', St Paul writes.
In certain
apocryphal gospels,
Jesus is presented as referring to his '
mother, the
Holy Spirit'. This may be the mother intended by
St John the Divine when, in the
Revelation, he describes a woman robed in the sun, with a
crown of stars.
In
mediaeval times,
Mother Julian of Norwich and other mystics described God, and indeed Jesus, as a mother, and this imagery was given forceful presentation both in mostly-lost wall paintings of the time and in later centuries by the works of artists such as
Stanley Spencer.
In
church circles, the image of God as mother was, by and large, ruthlessly supressed. It is only in recent years that
feminist theology has taken hold, and even this has played a surprisingly small role in the continuing debate about
women priests. And last year there was great outcry when the
Methodist church in
England produced a
prayer book which, in just one place, addressed God as Mother.
But to the
Christian who feels that
God is both male and female, it is natural to respond to
C S Lewis' claim that 'only one wearing the masculine uniform may represent the Lord of the Church' with the assertion that, in God, through the Holy Spirit,
'I've got access to Mother now, and I'll get my own answers, thank you'.