Dear Blog reader friends, I am taking a little detour from the typical work- and-spiritual life discussions we do here at STC, in honor of a little project that some friends of mine are working on.
I read a book recently where the author repeatedly referred to God as “She.” It was kind of weird at first, but then I got used to it. By the time the book was finished, I actually started to enjoy the idea of God as a woman. A heretical thought for such a good Evangelical Protestant boy, I know, but I went so far as to have second thoughts about the scriptures, wondering if it was such a good idea to have portrayed God as exclusively male throughout its entirety. Because, as we all know, God is certainly neither male nor female, nor is he even human, for that matter.
Although the idea of God as a woman may not sit well with some conservatives, all Christians seem to agree on one thing regarding theology and gender: that God created both male and female in His image – therefore God inherently personifies both male and female characteristics. However, the ancient texts of the scriptures, though certainly inspired by God, were all written during eras of cultural history when men were the only creatures that mattered. My understanding is that for many of these ancient male-dominated societies, the women were ranked somewhere slightly above the livestock. So God got to be a man, too.
Not that I have a better idea for how those biblical authors could have depicted God as both male and female at the same time. It’s not easy to think of a loving, all-knowing, omnipresent being as an androgynous persona. We don’t really have a role model for that. (Not yet, anyway.) This presents quite a divine gender-identity dilemma.
Which brings me to Mary. I can totally appreciate why the Catholics lifted up Mary to such a high status in the church. It simply rounds out their view of God. For us Protestants, we are limited in our theological impressions to the guys: we can go to the Big Man, God, who is like the Father/authoritarian figure. And then there’s Jesus, who is like my brother and my savior, the One who really went to the mat for me and who understands all my painful struggles of humanity. And we also have the mysterious Holy Spirit. But not too many of us are inclined to pray specifically to the Holy Spirit, because it/he/she is like an amorphous wisp of undefined invisibility, which we can’t identify with very well. So we’ll prefer to pray to God or Jesus.
But I must admit that it would be nice once in a while to have a female, motherly figure to go to in prayer as well. This is how I see it: Let’s say you have a sensitive problem that you would like to talk through, but you are intimidated by big powerful Dad, and you worry that brother Jesus might think you’re a bone-head (even though you know he loves you). So you decide to run it by your mom first. You know she will love and nurture you no matter what. She will help you think through your problem for a little while, so that later you know how to go back to Dad or to brother Jesus with more confidence. This matches up with our experience in real life, with our real families. Yet we Protestants might cringe at the bad theology of that scenario – we aren’t quite sure how to approach this subject.
How do you feel about Mary? My friend and fellow Blogger L.L. Barkat is in the midst of a little Mary revival, especially (especially!) for the Protestants in the house. Head over to her Blog, where she is giving away Scott McKnight’s book, “The Real Mary: Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus.” All you have to do is comment on her post by 6 pm, October 8, and you might be selected to receive a free copy of this book. The winner will also get to be a guest blogger for another friend, Joan Ball, who has a blog at BeliefNet, where you will be able to write about your reflections on the book.
Sounds like a great chance to revisit an important lady, one who we aren’t very well acquainted with – yet.
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