THIS PAPER IS NOT FORMATTED CORRECTLY TO AVOID PLAGIARISM. PLEASE RESPECT MY INTELLECTUAL "PROPERTY". :)
For her [Julian], motherhood is a property of each ‘person’ in the Trinity. God is the ground of motherhood…Christ is also our true mother, the ground of our being…nourishment and redemption of humanity. The Holy Spirit is also a mother, working on the human soul to bring it into fulfillment and bliss. At the same time that I was wrestling with this idea that God could be our Mother, I had discovered The Psalter for the Christian People, which is an inclusive language rendering of the Book of Psalms. All of this led me to ask the question “How has gendered language affected women’s relationship to God?”
While this question has always been simmering in the back of my mind, it did not come to the forefront again until reading Goddess thealogian Carol Christ’s article “Why Women Need the Goddess.” In her 1978 article, Christ posits that “Religious symbol systems focused around exclusively male images of divinity create the impression that female power can never be fully legitimate or wholly beneficent.” She goes further to say that while a woman “may see herself as like God (created in the image of God)…she can never have the experience…of having her full sexual identity affirmed as being in the image and likeness of God.” In response to the traditional male image of God, Christ argues for a reclaiming of the Goddess. She believes that the Goddess serves as an “affirmation of female power, the female body, the female will, and women’s bonds and heritage.”
Since the writing of Christ’s article, feminists have been exploring their own spirituality, theology and religious traditions, trying to reconcile the language and image of God and the Goddess. In her article “The Goddess as Metaphoric Image,” feminist theologian Nelle Morton recounts her experience with the Goddess in contrast to the God of patriarchal religions:
The Goddess ushered in a reality that respects the sacredness of my existence, that gives me self-esteem so I can perceive the universe and its people through my woman-self…The Goddess introduced me to a profound sense of community I had never before experienced…The Goddess has cleared away much of the theological mystification to which I had subjected myself—which kept me from seeing and enjoying the sheer humanness of another…The Goddess shattered the image of myself as a dependent person and cleared my brain so I could come into the power that was mine…. What Morton is saying is that the image of God (or as she refers to the Divine—Goddess) could be an image that empowers her as a woman.
Part of the issue around the language with which we address the Divine is that we have created God in our image, as opposed to our being created in the image of God, and built a system of metaphors that primarily address male characteristics of the Divine. Can women within the Abrahamic traditions continue to use the word “God” without being disempowered?
In an attempt to develop a Jewish-Feminist understanding of a name or metaphor system for the Divine, Jewish feminist theologian Judith Plasko, highlights part of the problem: “Even though we all know that God ‘really’ transcends sexual differentiation, we talk about him in male terms….God is Father, Lord, King, Shepherd, but never Mother, Lady, or Queen.” She goes further to say, “Religious symbols are significant and powerful communications. Through them, a community expresses its sense and experience of the world. The maleness of God is not arbitrary—nor is it simply a matter of pronouns.”
In a similar fashion, Christian feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether posits that the questions around God language are part of the dialogue of feminist theology. As she explains in her article “The emergence of Christian feminist theology,” Christian feminists
Question patterns of theology that justify male dominance and female subordination, such as exclusive male language for God, the view that males are more like God than females, that only males can represent God as leaders in church and society, or that women are created by God to be subordinate to males and thus sin by rejecting this subordination.
I believe that some of the resistance to female God language and the fear of the feminine aspects of the Divine has had an impact on the role of women within the Jewish and Christian traditions and their right to be ordained as clergy. Plaskow notes that male God-language has been used to oppose the ordination of women, citing Bishop C. Kilmer Myers of California as an example:
A priest is a ‘God symbol’ whether he likes it or not. In the imagery of both the Old and New Testament God is represented in masculine imagery….Of course, this does not mean that God is male. The biblical language is the language of analogy. It is imperfect. Nevertheless, it has meaning. The male image about God pertains to the divine initiative in creation. Initiative is in itself a male rather than a female attribute.
To counter this, Paul Jewett stresses that God is both male and female; “if God is a fellowship of Persons…and the human creature a fellowship of persons (male and female), then humanity is like God as man and woman”. Therefore it can be concluded that if God is male and female, then representation of the Divine in the church or synagogue could be male or female.
As a female priest, I have often been asked by my feminist peers how I can stay involved and engaged in a tradition that has historically made women “second class”. Sharon Ringe explains that the “sociological term for a North American, Caucasian, middle-class clergywoman is ‘status inconsistency’.” Similarly, Plaskow notes that Jewish women are “Other” since men define Jewish humanity; “Men are the actors in religious and communal life because they are the normative Jews. Women are ‘other than’ the norm; we are less than fully human.” So again the question is raised, how do women in the Abrahamic traditions engage God? How can women and men begin moving towards a more inclusive theology of the Divine given the challenges and limitations of our language and metaphors?
In chapter five of Christ’s Rebirth of the Goddess, she explores traditional theology and process theology as a way of better knowing the unknowable. By examining the thealogy around the body of the Goddess, Christ understands the Goddess as “Creatress”…one who has the “power to make, to create, to transform”. The importance of understanding the creative aspects of the Divine, I believe, is central to the task of re-imagining the metaphors and language of the Holy One.
Essential to this chapter in Christ’s book is her unpacking of traditional theology’s dualisms. She states, “If the earth is the body of the Goddess, then the Goddess is not transcendent of change, for change is the nature of life on earth”. This thealogy is in stark contrast to Plato’s view that “the highest good is unchanging,” which became the model for the Christian understanding of God as transcendent. She goes further to say that in order to change these dualisms there must be alternative ways of thinking, and that the work of Goddess thealogy is to create a metaphor that shatters false understandings and dualistic thinking. I believe this is also the work of Christian and Jewish feminists who are seeking to re-image the Divine. Christ suggested that the path for such work might be found in process theology.
Process theology is a non-dualistic approach to theology; “For process theology, God as the ground of all being and the earth as the body of God are appropriate metaphors”. Christ highlights some of the theological underpinnings of process theology and how they relate/inform Goddess thealogy (and possibly Jewish and Christian feminist theology): God is internally related to everything in the world…the Goddess is embodied in the finite, changing world; she can “speak” to us and we can “speak” to her; God’s power to affect the world is a power of persuasion, rather than coercion…the Goddess’ power is persuasive, but not coercive; The Gaia theory which understands the earth as a self-regulating organism.
Christ concludes the chapter with a brief discussion of the duality of monotheism and polytheism as it relates to the Goddess. Using Marcia Falk as a guide for a yet unrealized hope for redefining monotheism, Christ concludes that at this point in time, monotheism still carries too much “negative baggage” to be applied to Goddess thealogy. She determined that, “we need a multiplicity of ‘Goddesses’ (and Gods) to fully reflect our differences and to remind us of the limitations of any single image”. If we are to understand that the Divine is understood through metaphor, then according to Christ, Jewish and Christian feminists need multiple images/metaphors for re-imaging the Holy.
An example of Christ’s suggestion that Jewish and Christian feminist re-imagine the Divine is found in Womanspirit Rising. Jewish feminists Naomi Janowitz and Maggie Wenig wrestle with how to embrace the feminine Divine while maintaining liturgical integrity within Sabbath prayers. In the introductory material to their prayers, they state, “In writing prayers, we struggle with the meaning of our relationship with God…we have arrived at concepts and interpretation in which we can believe…ideas that have the power to shape our world view and give meaning to our experience.” They also state, “…when women are reminded that they too are created in the image of God, they can bring forth what they carry inside—the beauty, wisdom, and strength gained as the bearers of 4,000 years of tradition.” Among the prayers by Janowitz and Wenig is “Baruch-She-Amar” which is a reworking of the traditional “Blessed is he who spoke”:
Blessed is She who spoke and the world became. Blessed is She.
Blessed is She who in the beginning, gave birth.
Blessed is She who says and performs.
Blessed is She who declares and fulfills.
Blessed is She whose womb covers the earth.
Blessed is She whose womb protects all creatures.
Blessed is She who nourished those who are in awe of Her.
Blessed is She who lives forever, and exists eternally.
Blessed is She who redeems and saves. Blessed is Her Name.
While much of my research has engaged Christian and Jewish feminist scholars and theologians/thealogians, I have wondered about my Muslim sisters; what role do they have within the religious institution of Islam and how has male God-language affected their religious experience?
Moroccan feminist writer and sociologist, Fatima Mernissi explores the role of women in the early years of Islam in her book The Veil and the Male Elite. Her explorations lead her through the teachings of the Hadith and its impact on women in Islam, as well as its contradictions to the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. According to historians, Muhammad had strong intellectual relationships with ‘A’isha and Umm Salama, and he listened to and respected their advice when dealing with sensitive negotiations. Yet according to the Hadith of Abu Hurayra, “The Prophet said that the dog, the ass, and the woman interrupt prayer if they pass in front of the believer, interposing themselves between him and the qibla [orientation towards Mecca, spiritual objective of meditation].” Mernissi understands this Hadith as a contradiction to the life and teaching of Muhammad because it excludes women from the sacred dimensions of life, and that by “labeling her a disturbance…there is a fundamental contradiction between her essence and that of the divine….Like the dog and the ass, she destroys the symbolic relation with the divine by her presence.” Furthermore, Mernissi believes that unlike the Hadith of Abu Hurayra which likened women to dogs and asses, Muhammad, when questioned about the lack of mention of women in the Koran by Umm Salama, taught that Allah: Spoke of the two sexes in terms of total equality as believers, that is, as members of the community….And it is not sex that determines who earns his grace; it is faith and the desire to serve and obey him.
Riffat Hassan has stayed within the Muslim faith tradition, while also engaging in interreligious dialogues. In “Jihad Fi Sabil Allah,” Hassan recalls being sustained through the challenges of her life by her “unwavering belief in a just and loving God”. Hassan, “learned to talk to my Creator and Preserver, who at all times seemed very close…[and when she] first experienced the presence of God…[she understood her life] as a trust that must be spent in jihad fi sabil Allah.” It was this experience of the presence of God that empowered her to seek out a community of faith that was “committed to creating a new world in which human beings will not brutalize or victimize one another in the name of God, but will affirm, through word and action, that as God is just and loving…”.
While Mernissi and Hassan do not speak directly about male God-language, they do speak to male interpretations of the sacred teachings of their tradition. I would suggest these interpretations are linked to the use of male God-language to subordinate women and continue to break the bridge between women and their relationship to God. However, instead of maintaining a sense of “otherness”, these women are working towards empowering themselves and other women who want to remain in the tradition. For Mernissi the task is for Islamic women to study and reclaim their voice in the sacred teachings of Muhammad, and for Hassan, it is in the collaborative work of interreligious dialogue.
I began my inquiry with this question “How has gendered language affected women’s relationship to God?” For me, the answer is found not only in the shared experiences of Jewish, Christian and Muslim women, but also in the Biblical text. In the Genesis 2:27 account of creation, the text reads that God “created them, male and female”. This idea of being created in the image of God, or the Imago Dei, has been the cornerstone of my theology; it means that I am a part of the divine creation. It also means that I have a responsibility to participate in the stewardship and care of this creation, part of which I do through ordained ministry. Furthermore, an examination of the lists of spiritual gifts, found in 1 Corinthians 12-14 and Ephesians 4:11-13 (prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher), reveals that no gender distinctions are made; rather there is a commissioning to build up the community of God. If women are understood beyond the ideas of traditional female roles, sexual objects, or distractions from qibla, then they can be seen as channels for God’s work. As a woman in the church, I feel called to empower other women and men in their various leadership roles, and to work towards equality, justice and peace.
References
Christ, Carol. “Why Women Need the Goddess.” In Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion, edited by Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow, 273-287. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1979.
____________. Rebirth of the Goddess: Finding Meaning in Feminist Spirituality. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Hassan, Riffat. “’Jihad Fi Sabil Allah’: A Muslim Woman’s Faith Journey from Struggle to Struggle to Struggle.” In Women’s Studies in Religion: A Multicultural Reader, edited by Kate Bagley and Kathleen McIntosh, 149-163. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007.
Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version.
Janowitz, Naomi and Maggie Wenig. “Sabbath Prayers for Women.” In Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion, edited by Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow, 174-178. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1979.
Jewett, Paul K. The Ordination of Women. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980.
Manton, Karen. The Gift of Julian of Norwich. Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 2005.
Mernissi, Fatima. The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam. Reading, MA: Perseus Books, 1987.
Morton, Nelle. “The Goddess as Metaphoric Image.” In Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality, edited by Judith Plaskow and Carol P. Christ, 111-118. San Francisco:
Harper Collins, 1989.
Plaskow, Judith. “Jewish Memory from a Feminist Perspective.” In Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality, edited by Judith Plaskow and Carol P. Christ, 39-50. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1989.
Ringe, Sharon H. “Reading from Context to Context: Contributions of a Feminist Hermeneutic to Theologies of Liberation.” In Lift Every Voice: Constructing Christian Theologies from the Underside, edited by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite and Mary Potter Engel, 289- 302. New York: Orbis Books, 1998.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford. “The emergence of Christian feminist theology.” In The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology, edited by Susan Frank Parsons, 3-22. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.