Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
Image credit: Young Woman, Juarez, Mexico, 2009. CAC archives.
"God as Us: Week 1"
"Mother God"
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Image credit: Young Woman, Juarez, Mexico, 2009. CAC archives.
"God as Us: Week 1"
"Mother God"
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
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Why does it matter whether our image of God is masculine or feminine or even a non-binary gender? One reason is that it makes it easier for us to recognize the divine in us, whatever our gender. When we over-emphasize masculine traits of the divine, many women, transgender, and intersex persons feel less-than, that their voices and bodies don’t matter as much as men’s, that God’s image is not in them.
Marcus Borg points out many other good reasons to identify and honor the female (as well as non-gendered) images of God throughout the Bible:
It is also important to realize that male and female metaphors for God are not intrinsically incompatible. God as “father” can be compassionate. This is the point of the parable of The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). So also in both Old and New Testaments, “the Lord” whom we are to love with all our heart, strength, and mind is also compassionate—a word whose semantic associations in Hebrew mean “womb-like.”
Moreover, just as God as Lord is demanding, so is God as Wisdom/Sophia. Both images of God combine imperative and compassionate. It’s not that one issues an imperative and the other one doesn’t. The difference between “the strict parent” and “the nurturing parent” is not that the latter doesn’t care about what happens. The nurturing parent—“Wisdom/Sophia”—teaches a way, indeed the way.
“The way”—the way of wisdom—is also what “the father” at his best teaches. The issue is not that mothers are better than fathers, but that a particular way of imaging “father” can produce a distorted form of Christianity—as if Christianity is about meeting the requirements of an authority figure who will punish us if we don’t get it right.
Christianity is not about avoiding punishment or gaining reward. It is about loving God and loving what God loves. And what God loves is the whole of creation.
To love well, it seems to me (Richard), that one usually needs both feminine and masculine qualities.
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Why does it matter whether our image of God is masculine or feminine or even a non-binary gender? One reason is that it makes it easier for us to recognize the divine in us, whatever our gender. When we over-emphasize masculine traits of the divine, many women, transgender, and intersex persons feel less-than, that their voices and bodies don’t matter as much as men’s, that God’s image is not in them.
Marcus Borg points out many other good reasons to identify and honor the female (as well as non-gendered) images of God throughout the Bible:
- Male images for God are often associated with power, authority, and judgment. When used exclusively, they most often create an image of a punitive God. God must be appeased or else.
- Male images for God most often go with patriarchy—with male primacy and domination in society and the family.
- Male images of God most often go with domination over nature. Nature is often imaged as female (“mother earth”) and domination over women extends to a rapacious use of nature.
It is also important to realize that male and female metaphors for God are not intrinsically incompatible. God as “father” can be compassionate. This is the point of the parable of The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). So also in both Old and New Testaments, “the Lord” whom we are to love with all our heart, strength, and mind is also compassionate—a word whose semantic associations in Hebrew mean “womb-like.”
Moreover, just as God as Lord is demanding, so is God as Wisdom/Sophia. Both images of God combine imperative and compassionate. It’s not that one issues an imperative and the other one doesn’t. The difference between “the strict parent” and “the nurturing parent” is not that the latter doesn’t care about what happens. The nurturing parent—“Wisdom/Sophia”—teaches a way, indeed the way.
“The way”—the way of wisdom—is also what “the father” at his best teaches. The issue is not that mothers are better than fathers, but that a particular way of imaging “father” can produce a distorted form of Christianity—as if Christianity is about meeting the requirements of an authority figure who will punish us if we don’t get it right.
Christianity is not about avoiding punishment or gaining reward. It is about loving God and loving what God loves. And what God loves is the whole of creation.
To love well, it seems to me (Richard), that one usually needs both feminine and masculine qualities.
Gateway to Silence: I am created in God's image.
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References:
Taken from Marcus Borg, “Female Images of God in the Bible,” Radical Grace, vol. 24, no. 1 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2011), 4.---
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References:
Taken from Marcus Borg, “Female Images of God in the Bible,” Radical Grace, vol. 24, no. 1 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2011), 4.---
James Finley:
Standing Against Sexual Harassment
and the Abuse of Power
In this two-week series of meditations—God as Us—Father Richard explores the sacred nature of human embodiment and the need for healing and the inclusion of those who have been marginalized. Many people have experienced sexual harassment and abuse in the church, at work, and in their families and it can be challenging to understand or to know how to respond. Watch or listen to a reflection by James Finley, a clinical psychologist and CAC core faculty member.
During CAC’s anniversary month,
we’re sharing a few of our favorite things!
we’re sharing a few of our favorite things!
Enjoy the “Emancipation” issue of CAC’s journal Oneing. Download the free PDF and read articles on radical, authentic liberation by Richard Rohr, Rabbi Kenneth Chelst, Ilia Delio, Simone Campbell, Mirabai Starr, and others.
Click here to download “Emancipation.”
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The Center for Action and Contemplation
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