Is God Masculine?
I'm currently proofing a book for a friend (many of you know him), and I'm finding it a very interesting read. I haven't asked for permission to post on the book, so I'm just going to address one point from one chapter.The argument that I'm going to address regards the masculinity of God. I don't know if you were taught this or not, but I can remember being taught in college ("Christian" college, that is) that while Jesus was a male and masculine, God is neither male nor masculine (the reason for the masculine pronoun "He" used for God has nothing to do with sex, and is simply a grammatical issue that gets misunderstood when translated into English).
The following is an outline taken directly from the book, intended to promote thoughtful discussion in the comments section.
AN OUTLINE OF EVIDENCE FOR WHY GOD IS MASCULINE
I. How We Know God Is Masculine
A. He is always called He in the Bible. He is never called "She."II. Objections to the Masculinity of God
B. God identifies Himself in masculine roles and offices.
C. Jesus is male and masculine.
D. Jesus unites many "polarities" in Himself, but never masculinity and femininity.
E. The masculinity of God and Christ have always been confessed by Jews or Christians in history.
A. God is compared to a woman.III. Why God's Masculinity Matters
B. God is a genderless spirit.
C. The Bible shows a patriarchal bias.
D. When men are compared to women...
A. The Bible reveals a masculine God. If He is not masculine then the Bible is wrong.
B. The Bible reveals a male and masculine Jesus.
C. The real issue is the trustworthiness of the Bible.
Thoughts?
posted by DrewDog at 1:58 PM
8 Comments:
Hi, Andrew,
One thing that makes this discussion terribly confused, or straightforward, is a distinction that was best drawn by C. S. Lewis in his book That Hideous Strength, in which "gender themes" form a large part of the plot motives.
Lewis's Christ-character -- Ransom -- points out to another character that "male" is simply the biological expression of "masculinity," which is itself a far broader concept than mere biology.
We can see this most easily when we recognize that "masculine" (leaving aside what it entails) is something that may be sensibly asserted about a female, and "feminine" is an idea that can apply just as much to a male as to a female. It would be nonesense, of course, to speak of a male female or vice versa, unless English were our second language and weere still fairly amateur in using it!
The Old Testament portrait of God is tnoroughly and robustly masculine, but not male, as God is bodiless. When God the Son becomes human, however, things change and get ever so much more complicated. Now we must carefully nuance our statements, since one person of the Holy Trinity became a human male and He remains one to this very hour.
bq
Thanks, Charlie; but I can't take credit. This outline is straight from the book. I'll let everyone know as soon as it's published.
Cheers
I am uncomfortable with section 3 of the argument for the following reason:
THere is a book on a friend of mine's shelf called "Is the BIble from Heaven is the Earth a Globe?" published in the 1890's. In it the author argues that becuase the Bible assumes flatearth cosmology, then either the earth is flat or the bible is a pack of lies.
Most people get around that by arguing something to the effect that God speaks to people in the language of the prevalent worldview.
What would prevent someone from using a similar worldview argument in regards to God's masculinity?
Just thoughts.
PS ANdrew, are you happy? I had to get a profile to comment on your blog. Just dont expect me to post on the Bird and Baby anytime soon.
You won't be able to resist for long!
I'm curious - what are examples of flat earth cosmology in the Bible?
Very busy and can't comment on Steve's concerns until later this week [crossing fingers].
However, I join Vijay in asking where the Bible assumes a flat-earth cosmology. There are statements in the Book of Job that pretty well require what we know as a Copernican view of the universe.
bq
I guess the point of my post wasnt to argue for or against flat earth cosmology in the bible but rather to express my uncomfortableness with "If you believe that then you dont believe the BIble" type arguements.
My question was about the room for worldview arguments and other nuanced interpretive scenes. Flatearth stuff was simply as exemplum.
Personally, I know Jesus was a dude :P and there is both typology and symbolism of Christ being married to the church and God having been married to Israel, which was the Bride.
God has chosen to at least put off the appearance of being masculine in the majority of scripture for one reason or another. If He's not a dude, He wants me to picture Him that way.
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