Ask a Question - or - Return to the Faith and Spirituality Forum Index

Question Title Posted By Question Date
God as She Mark Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Question:

Brother,

Just a quick comment on God as 'She'. God did reveal herself to us as Lady Wisdom as well as Father. I find that this is one of the blessings of the mystery of the Trinity that God revealed Him/Herself to us in ways that we may best relate back to Him/Herself. If some people relate better to the female image, is there really a problem?



Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM

Dear Mark:

God did not reveal Himself in the feminine. God revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

How dare we refer to God differently than how He revealed Himself to us. It is patent arrogance as well as a blasphemy to refer to God as "her".

In addition, there are theological reasons for the masculine reference. For example, the male is the progenitor. God the Father is the creator/progenitor of all the universe.

To refer to God as she, when God Himself does not do so and when theology demands otherwise is to form a kind of idolatry -- to make God in our image, to bring Him down to our understanding and preferences. This we cannot do and dare not do. We simply do not have the authority or the right to refer to God differently than He refers to Himself and it is arrogance of the worst kind to try.

Whatever this movement is to call God "she", it is not Christianity. C.S. Lewis, in an essay on women’s ordination in Anglicanism, put the matter thus:

But Christians think that God himself has taught us how to speak of 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: or, if tolerable, it is an argument not in favor of Christian priestesses but against Christianity.

Cardinal Ratzinger made a similar point in The Ratzinger Report:

Christianity is not a philosophical speculation; it is not a construction of our mind. Christianity is not ‘our’ work; it is a Revelation; it is a message that has been consigned to us, and we have no right to reconstruct it as we like or choose. Consequently, we are not authorized to change the Our Father into an Our Mother: the symbolism employed by Jesus is irreversible; it is based on the same Man-God relationship he came to reveal to us.

For more detailed discussion of this issue see the following two articles:

Why God is Father and Not Mother by Mark Brumley

God Has No Daughters: Masculine Imagery in the Liturgy by Leon J. Podles

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary


Footer Notes: This forum is for general questions on the faith. See specific Topic Forums below:
Spiritual Warfare, demons, the occult go to our Spiritul Warfare Q&S Forum.
Liturgy Questions go to our Liturgy and Liturgical Law Q&A Forum
Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) Questions go to our Divine Office Q&A Forum
Defenfing the Faith Questions go to our Defending the Faith Q&A Forum
Church History Questions go to our Church History Q&A Forum