This is one section of my Master of Arts Thesis: "Assertive Equality, In Domestic, Religious, Social Spaces and Globally, Speaking out for Gender Equality as God’s Design," March 30th, 2023, at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC).
God as Abba and Amma
This section asserts the eternal Spiritual nature of God and affirms gender equality within divinity, humanity, and creation. The divine Being is eternal and above gender. In the Bible, along with other images, God self-describes Godself in both masculine and feminine terms. God is Abba and Amma (Father and Mother)! A music leader once mentioned God having a fierce baritone voice. Furthermore, when a clergy used Michael Angelo's famous Creation of Adam painting and emphasized the muscular physique of God, I felt compelled to explore this topic. In this section, I point to the accepted images and likeness of divinity and put the biblically balanced Fatherly and Motherly images of God in their proper perspective.
Interestingly, in the Bible, God also identifies with animals and other elements. Most people are comfortable addressing God as Lion, Lamb, Dove, and Greek Alphabet letters, as Consuming Fire, and even a "Rock" but they consider it a heresy to think of God as a caring Mother. Church history demonstrates that the feminine representations of God are minimized to the disadvantage of humanity. However, Patriarchal proponents continue to enforce only Abba, the Father form of God. Phyllis Bird points out:
Historically, the model of essential humanity in its God-likeness has been an idealized adult male, a model based on notions of divine protections, equated with cultural ideals. Attempts to correct this distortion by adding a female model do not address the fundamental problem of this reasoning, but they do serve to highlight the inadequacy of traditional identifications.[1]
Along with rectifying the distortion and showing the flaws of the
male-only picture of God, it is time to elevate the mother image of God. In Discovering Biblical Equality, Ronald
Pierce and Erin Heim dedicate an entire 19th chapter to this topic
titled "Biblical Images of God as Mother and Spiritual Formation." They
affirm that YHWH carries births, nurses and nurtures Israel...Motherly language
in the Scriptures is true of the whole of the Trinity, not just the Holy
Spirit, as many erroneously believe.[2] Pierce
and Heim further clarify that God is not a gendered being but "God is the
Spirit," as Jesus affirmed (Jn.4: 24 NIV). Julian of Norwich also bravely
declared that God is our Mother as truly as he is our Father, combining the
power and goodness of fatherhood and the wisdom of motherhood."[3]
First,
while there is grandiose to God's voice, there are verses that express the
compassion-filled, "Gentle whisper" of a comforting God (1 Kings 19:12
NIV). Matthew 11:29 mentions Jesus as "gentle and humble in heart."
Moreover, although the Holy Spirit convicts as an advocate, and helper, John
16:7 KJV mentions the Holy Spirit as a "Comforter." These verses
challenge the notion of divinity's voice being merely a forceful, deeper tone
type. Second, the Creation of Adam artwork depicts God as an elderly
grandfather, a patriarchal image of God. This painting poses two problems. One,
making and worshiping the images of God violates the scriptural command (Ex.20:
4; Deu.5:8), as "God is Spirit," eternal, and indescribable. Second,
it shows a fractional image, amplifying an already existent power imbalance.
On the first issue, some creatures do not believe in making any images of the Creator in their image, as that is a reversal of humans made in God's image. However, since we are made in God's image, as visual beings, others feel at ease making images if they do not worship or venerate them. But, some do worship and venerate them.
This old grandpa painting has been popularized worldwide. Most people are ignorant of the power disparity that this picture contributes to patronizing the patriarchal doctrine that denigrates women and controls their speech, clothes, and manner of life in general, as well as eternity. Male primacy is upheld at both the divine and human levels. Even within Egalitarian communities, some people are at ease with this painted image. Some women state that they have no problems with God being portrayed as grandpa because "Jesus called God the Father, daddy, and "He" is old, meaning eternal!" Then they complain of being marginalized at home or in churches based on gender. They do not connect the factors contributing to the worldwide patriarchy assuming sole leadership.
Remarkably,
while there may be innuendos of motherly form in the worship of goddesses in
many cultures, this belief has not softened the patriarchal image of the
ultimate God, nor does it treat women equally. The male predominance over women
in such settings is startling. "Classical societies like Assyria
and Athens show a much greater degree of domination of women. The worship of
Ishtar in Assyria and Athena in Athens did not lessen male control over real
women."[4] Alka Mudgal states that in India, Pandita Ramabai tirelessly
advocated for gender reforms. Her words of God being neither male nor female
resonate.
[Ramabai]
disagreed with Christian authorities on two fronts - religious and social. On
the religious front, Ramabai questioned the Christian doctrine of the Trinity* as
she believed in one God. The social issue over which she disagreed with Church
authorities was over her teaching men, which she defended. "It was against her
understanding of God, who she believed was neither male nor female. This
understanding has been central to her acceptance of Christ.[5] Additionally, in Women and
the Gender of God, Amy Peeler claims:
God the Father is not male and God the Son is male like no other...With each fresh recovery of a misogynistic statement from Christian history, with each new revelation of misconduct in the contemporary church, Christians may wonder why a faith that affirms the divinely created goodness of all humans has so often failed women...The deeper, often hidden, and therefore more insidious cause of Christianity's failure to value women is that Christianity often gets God wrong...an underlying belief that God is male.[6]
Patriarchy's mirror image is of a militant male God, but the Bible inverses and shows God as a comforting father (2 Cor. 1:3-4) as well as a fierce Mama bear protecting her cubs (Hos.13:8). In Luke 13:34, Jesus self-identifies as a protective mama "hen wanting to gather her chicks under her wings." In Luke 15:8-10 God is depicted as a woman seeking her lost coin. Concerning discipleship and imitating God's mothering work, Apostle Paul mentions being in Childbirth/labor pain (Gal. 4:19) and as a nursing mother caring for her children (2 Thess.2:7-8). Additionally, wisdom is personified in feminine terms, present at creation with God (Prov. 8), similarly John's Gospel Chapter 1 talks about Jesus being present with God at creation. "Jesus represents the best of masculine and feminine strengths."[7]
Moreover, members of the Women's Ordination Conference have compiled ten more verses on the "female images of God in the Bible" on their website.[8] Dismantling the made-up patriarchal all-male image of the ultimate God is necessary to end gender inequality. One way to achieve this mutual recognition equilibrium is to include variations of phrases like God our Amma and Abba, Amma God, and God our Mother in our prayers, songs, and speeches.
[1] Phyllis A. Bird, “Bone of My Bone and Flesh
of My Flesh.” Theology Today
(Ephrata, Pa.) 50, no. 4 (1994): 530, accessed Jan. 7, 2023. https://i-share-jkm.primo. exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/
01CARLI_JKM/ 18brdij/cdi_proquest_journals_208079304.
[2] Ronald Pierce, et.al. Discovering Biblical Equality: Biblical: Theological, Cultural &
Practical Perspectives. Third ed. (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press,
2021) Chapter 19, 372, Kindle.
[3] Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, Short
Text and Long Text, trans. Elizabeth Spearing (London: Penguin Books, 1998),
section 59, 139. Cited by Pierce, et. Al. DBE,
375, Kindle.
[4] Frymer-Kensky, Reading the Women of the Bible, ixv.
[5] Pandita Ramabai, 1977, The Letters and Correspondence of Pandita
Ramabai, Corp Sis. Geraldine, ed., A.B. Shah, (Bombay: Maharashtra State Board
for Literature and Culture) 60), Cited in Gail Omvedt, op.cit. 218, Cited by
Alka Mudgal, 347-356; 354, accessed Oct.
6, 2022, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24701120.
[6] Amy L B Peeler, Women and the Gender of God, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 2022), 1-2, 4.
[7] Ronald Pierce, et al., Discovering Biblical Equality, 383, Kindle.
[8] Women Ordination Organization, accessed
Jan. 31, 2023. https://www.womensordination.org/resources-old/female-images-of-god-in-the-bible/.
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