Male pronouns for God
Every time I’m writing about God and I need to use the pronoun “His” referring back to God, I wince a little. It’s not what it stands for that bothers me. I gladly affirm God as Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit. I have very orthodox Christian beliefs. What bothers me is what it implies and therefore what people often think.
When we refer to God as Father, we do not mean that God is male. We actually believe that God is spirit; God is above gender, neither male or female. (1) (Yes, that's a footnote. Scroll to the bottom of the email for more.) We believe that both women and men are made in God’s image so God can’t just be a man. While we might not believe that God is a man, I’m afraid that’s what a lot of people pick up. God and His creation. God and His kingdom. God, a man, who rules so men rule in God’s (his) place. Women get pushed away, held back at a distance because of their gender.
If God’s not a man, why do we call God “Father”?
You should know that, like with everything, people have different ideas on why we call God “Father.” I’m going to walk you through where I land with this right now and you can feel free to dig in further if you’re interested. Marianne Meye Thompson has written a whole book on this, but I’m going to summarize for you in a moment.
The Bible is many writings in one book and each writing is situated in a specific context. Before you roll your eyes and decide I’ve changed the topic, you have to remember that the context forms how the original audience understood a concept. The same is true with what “father” means. We cannot take our modern ideas about a father, try to rid them of imperfections, and then import them to God. That is a poor interpretive method. Instead, we start with their understanding and move forward. According to Thompson, the following three statements summarize the importance of God being a father.
God is Father because fathers give life.
God is Father because fathers give inheritances.
God is Father because fathers are due obedience and honor.
According to Old Testament usage summarized by Thompson, understanding God as Father has less to do with God as creator and more to do with God choosing a people and remaining faithful to them. God being Father implies relationship and identity. Understanding God as “Father” also requires an understanding of Jesus as the Son first and then how all believers are welcomed into God’s family as co-heirs with Jesus.
Some of us want to insist that mothers also fulfill these roles: they give life and inheritances and deserve honor. Of course these things are true now, but that’s not how the ancient world understood it. Whether or not that offends us, we have to grapple with the context of the writing.
Images of God as a woman and/or mother
Many people do not know it but the Bible does compare God to a mother or a woman. We are less comfortable teaching this but it is no excuse for ignoring these incidents. Here is a good description of some of them. Many of the medieval writers also referred to God or Jesus as mother. Julian of Norwich is a famous one, though not the only by a long shot. Many believers are unfamiliar with church history so we are completely unaware that this was a common practice.
Issues with calling God “Father”
There are people who are going to struggle with the idea of God as Father, even once it’s explained. Most often it will be because their own experience with their biological fathers, though that is not the only reason. This calls for compassion on our part, as we walk forward with them. Hard-nosed, dogmatic insistence that this is the correct way will not be helpful in drawing anyone into fellowship with God.
I don’t jump to conclusions when I see people refuse to use male pronouns or continue to grapple with how they address God. I think it’s important to make space for all the questions we have. We don’t have to rush people to arriving at conclusions we agree with. God isn’t scared of questions and we don’t have to be either, of our own or other people’s.
Critiques of calling God by male pronouns
Mary Daly was a radical feminist theologian. She eventually ended up describing herself as “post-Christian” and she wrote a book titled Beyond God as Father. I have not read Daly extensively and I’m guessing that we would disagree on more than what we agree on; however, I want us to pay attention to an objection that she made. She insisted that “if God is male, then male is God” and that this belief in a male God has led to women’s subordination. She’s not entirely wrong, is she? This same reasoning, in whatever form is takes, leads much of the church to hold women at a distance from God.
When people critique the church and its practices, it’s easy to take their radicalism as a reason to dismiss their questions. But often their questions spurred their radicalism. What if the church did not have a history and an active practice of subordinating women and using theology to justify the behavior? Would Daly have described herself as “post-Christian”? Our actions have consequences.
Finale
I’ll continue to speak of God as Father, Son, and Spirit. I’ll use the pronouns “his/him” sometimes. A few professors at Fuller use “Godself” instead of “Himself” and I don’t hate that because it reminds me that God is a Trinity. (2) God isn’t a single being off in eternity alone. God lives in overflowing love and fellowship and from that love God created humanity. That’s important to remember. (3).
I will continue to use orthodox language, but I’m also going to insist that we also teach that God isn’t a man. It has far-reaching implications whether we do or don’t.
Always,
Lisa
Links I Love:
I’m continually digging into some of these topics and adding books to my list. I never assume that I have a final or full answer.
Loved this post by Anne Helen Peterson.
8 Rules for Throwing a Dinner Party.
LaTonya Yvette's farmhouse.
This post about social media is food for thought.
Footnotes:
(1) Jesus was born a male. He was a man and that was an important point, not only because it notes that God deals in particulars. This isn’t a conversation about that. In another letter, we can catalogue the reasons why that matters.
(2) Many people peg this as a progressive move and back away from it. It's my standing practice to not let one issue cause me to declare someone "progressive" or "fundamentalist." I like to let people be nuanced, explain themselves, see things in ways I do not.
(3) In Delighting in the Trinity, Michael Reeves notes on page 41, “Single-person gods, having spent eternity alone, are inevitably self-centered beings, and so it becomes hard to see why they would ever cause anything else to exist.”