un<\/em>natural to them than to introduce the female and the feminine into their descriptions of the divine\u201d (110).<\/p>\nThis is theologically objectionable, insofar as it ignores some texts of Scripture and, in general, takes Scripture not as authoritative but as an expression of the surrounding culture. But forget for a moment that I\u2019m a fundamentalist. Mollenkott\u2019s argument makes no sense on historical grounds. After all, many of the surrounding \u201cpatriarchal\u201d societies of the ancient world worshiped goddesses as well as gods, and thus were quite at home with introducing \u201cthe female and the feminine into their descriptions of the divine.\u201d If anything, what stands out in the Bible is the absence <\/em>of feminine deities. If a masculine God is a sign of patriarchalism, the Bible is hyper<\/em>-patriarchal. Which is odd, since biblical religion has been the single most potent force for the liberation of women in the history of humanity. And that means we may be mistaken in making straight-line connections between masculinity in religion and patriarchalism in society.<\/p>\nThat Mollenkott ends with a contradiction is unfortunate, because her little book is a fine, often stunning, exploration of the feminine imagery that is, as she shows, quite common in Scripture. She explores the obvious passages, like Psalm 123, Hosea 13:8 (Yahweh pounces like a \u201cbear robbed of her cubs\u201d!), Isaiah 42:14 (perhaps <\/em>Yahweh is the laboring woman), Jesus\u2019s reference to Himself as a hen wishing to bring the chicks under his wings. There is occasionally an odd bit of sexism in her interpretations. Hosea 11:3\u20134 must be referring to Yahweh as mother when it speaks of Him taking Israel in His arms and leading them with love, since it describes Yahweh showing \u201cpatient, yearning tenderness of material love\u201d (27). Maybe, though, Yahweh is setting an example for men <\/em>to hold their sons by the hand.<\/p>\nBut she also notices feminine overtones in unexpected places. Psalm 22:9\u201310\u2019s \u201cyou drew me out of the womb\u201d puts Yahweh in the position of midwife (33; no male gynecologists in ancient Israel). Terms describing the glory are feminine, suggesting that the \u201cShekinah\u201d has feminine overtones (the Shekinah corresponds to the woman who is the glory of the man). Like a medieval mystic, she suggests that the Song of Songs is about God\u2019s love for the Other who is one with Himself (she, of course, uses the barbaric \u201cGodself\u201d).\u00a0Mollenkott connects Jesus\u2019s statement about a woman entering her \u201chour\u201d of travail with the \u201chouse\u201d that Jesus Himself enters on the cross (John 16:21; 17:1). On the cross, Jesus suffers the birth-pangs of the new creation.<\/p>\n
T<\/span>wo passages were especially striking. She raises the question of whether Paul\u2019s \u201cin Him we live, move, and have our being\u201d suggests a \u201ccosmic womb.\u201d Sounds like a stretch, but she points out that it is only in the womb that \u201cwe exist within <\/em>another person\u201d (16). She points to the fact that the Hebrew word for compassion is racham<\/em>, linked to the word for \u201cwomb,\u201d and suggests that Paul is claiming that \u201call human beings exist not only within the womb, but within the yearning womb-love, of God the Mother\u201d (16). The \u201cmother\u201d is misleading here; Paul, after all, attributes this cosmic wombliness, if wombliness it is, to \u201cHim\u201d in whom we live. If there\u2019s a cosmic womb, it\u2019s the compassion of God our Father<\/em>. (The paradoxically mixed imagery is more strictly biblical than Mollenkott\u2019s feminist revision.)<\/p>\nA second passage: It\u2019s common to point out that calling a woman a \u201chelper\u201d (ezer<\/em>) is not demeaning, since Yahweh Himself is called a helper. Mollenkott reverses that logic: \u201cthe Bible applies the word ezer <\/em>to only two specifically named entities: God and Eve.\u201d From that she concludes that \u201cwoman is in some unique sense the channel of God\u2019s ezer <\/em>to the world; and conversely, God also is the ezer <\/em>of humankind\u201d (75). Woman is the channel of help specifically in her specifically female capacity to give birth: She helps by bringing Yahweh\u2019s redeemer into the world. And the second part of Mollenkott\u2019s comment is equally arresting: The Husband of Israel assumes the position of helper in order to deliver His people\u2014a humiliation that comes to a climax but doesn\u2019t begin with the incarnation.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Virginia Ramey Mollenkott is mistaken in her general conclusion to\u00a0The Divine Feminine, recently reprinted by Wipf & Stock. She writes, \u201cit is perfectly natural for the Bible to contain a vast predominance of masculine God-language, springing as it does out of a deeply patriarchal culture. . . . Nothing would seem more natural to them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1016],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feminism"],"yoast_head":"\n
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