Language about God is unrestricted in range October 5, 2009
Posted by Damian in Relating to God.add a comment
Peter Leihart’s post on theological language made me smile:
…all our language is fit to be used of God: “language about God is truly unrestricted in range.” For him, “religious language” is “simply ordinary language stretched to the limit of its significance.” “God is a rock” is not meaningless; it fails because God is so far transcendentally rocklike that our conception of rockliness doesn’t encompass His rockliness. [...] We misconstrue the point of the via negativa if we tear it out of its context of relationship with the via affirmativa and represent it as an independent or even as an alternative theological strategy – or, more paradoxically still, as an independent avenue of knowledge of God.” The silence of theology doesn’t come at the outset; it comes at the end, when language exhausted itself, and fallen short.
The first part made me smile, anyway. The second part reminded me why I think this stuff is important.
J.K. Gayle on uses of feminine language in describing God September 27, 2009
Posted by Damian in Biblical Exegesis and Interpretation, Early Christian Belief and Patristics, Relating to God.Tags: Augustine, Augustine's Confessions, beyond gender, breast, Calvin, Confessions, el maleh rachamim, female God, feminine characteristics, feminine God, femininity, gender, God as mother, God is a mother figure, goddess, Gospel of Luke, Gospel of Matthew, Hebrew, holy spirit, is God male?, Isaiah, Job, julian, julian of norwich, Luke, masculinity, Matthew, mother hen, nooma, odes of solomon, Psalm, psalms, rechem, Rob Bell's She, shadow of your wings, she, shelter, shelter in the shadows of your wings, solomon, the breast of Jesus, womb, wombful, word-play
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J.K Gayle has entered the feminine language conversation, writing a series of posts. The first tackles how Jesus described himself in the gospels with reference to women; the second featured Clarence Jordan’s translations of the same passages, and the third collects some references within the tradition that were new to me, but more importantly, looks at the “de-feminising” effect of translation into Greek from Hebrew of a lot of Jesus imagery. There’s some bits and pieces I want to reproduce here, basically because I’d like to be able to access them easily.
- Leviticus 14:10, Isaiah 53:7 and 2 Samuel 12:2-3 all reference the sacrificial lamb as a ewe-lamb. Christ’s title as ‘Lamb of God’ is a feminine one.
- Links for uses of feminine language in Augustine: Homily 3 on the 1st Letter of John, and from Sermon 369:
Whoso knows that he is born, let him hear that he is an infant; let him eagerly cling to the breasts of his mother, and he grows apace. Now his mother is the Church; and her breasts are the two Testaments of the Divine Scriptures. Hence let him suck the milk of all the things that as signs of spiritual truths were done in time for our eternal salvation, that being nourished and strengthened, he may attain to the eating of solid meat, which is, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 Our milk is Christ in His humility; our meat, the selfsame Christ equal with the Father. With milk He nourishes you, that He may feed you with bread: for with the heart spiritually to touch Christ is to know that He is equal with the Father.
and
Our savior, born of the Father apart from any day…. Go on being filled with wonder; the one who bore him is both mother and virgin; the one she bore is both speechless infant and Word. Rightly did the heavens speak…. Give suck, mother, to our food; five suck to the bread that came down from heaven (Jn 6:58), and was placed in a manger…. Give your breast to the one who made you such that he might be made in you, who both gave you the gift of fertility when he was conceived, and did not deprive you of the honor of virginity when he was born; who before he was born chose for himself both the womb from which he would be born and the day on which he would be born.
- Links to the prayers of St. Anselm and Julian of Norwich.
Thanks for your involvement, J.K.! I really appreciate your input – you’ve taught me a lot in these posts.
Even more evidence of feminine language in description of God September 24, 2009
Posted by Damian in Biblical Exegesis and Interpretation, Church and Christian History, Early Christian Belief and Patristics, Relating to God.Tags: Augustine, Augustine's Confessions, beyond gender, breast, Calvin, Confessions, el maleh rachamim, female God, feminine characteristics, feminine God, femininity, gender, God as mother, God is a mother figure, goddess, Gospel of Luke, Gospel of Matthew, Hebrew, holy spirit, is God male?, Isaiah, Job, julian, julian of norwich, Luke, masculinity, Matthew, mother hen, nooma, odes of solomon, Psalm, psalms, rechem, Rob Bell's She, shadow of your wings, she, shelter, shelter in the shadows of your wings, solomon, the breast of Jesus, womb, wombful, word-play
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The other week I was searching for uses of feminine language to describe God. It turns out I’m not the only one, and I found a few more usages at a few blogs around the ’sphere. Halden started by draw my attention to Melissa’s blog. She quotes Augustine:
My father and mother have abandoned me (Psalm 26:10). The psalmist has made himself a little child in relation to God. He has made God both his father and h is mother. God is our father because he created us, because he calls us, gives orders and rules us; he is our mother because he cherishes us, nourishes us, feeds us with milk, and holds us in his arms (Exposition 2 of Psalm 26, par. 18).
I looked for a way to gain the strength I needed to enjoy you, but did not find it until I embraced the mediator between God and humankind, the man Christ Jesus, who also is God, supreme over all things and blessed forever. Not yet had I embraced him, though he called out, proclaiming, I am the Way and Truth and Life, nor had I known him as the food which, though I was not yet strong enough to eat it, he had mingled with our flesh; the Word became flesh so that your wisdom, through whom you created all things, might become for us the milk adapted for our infancy (Confessions 7.18.24).
James K. A. Smith also mentioned in the comments a further reference in Augustine to ’suckling on the Breast of Jesus’ in his sermons on John or 1 John, but I couldn’t find evidence of it.
Charis drew my attention to Tim Bulkely’s e-book on the subject (Suzanne recently linked to it here), which ferreted out some scriptural language:
But I’ve calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul with me is like a weaned child. (Psalm 131)
But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a woman forget the infant at her breast, or a loving mother the child of her womb? Though these can forget, I will not forget you! (Isaiah 49:14-15)
From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who gave birth to heaven’s hoarfrost? (Job 38:29)
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! (Luke 13:34 and similarly Matthew 23:37)
The Old Testament references to ‘Shelter in the Shadows of your wings’ may also be a similar reference, although it is less clear. Psalm17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 61:4; 63:7; and 91:4), and she goes into a lot of detail on how here.
And Dave Belcher in the comments to Halden’s post, mentioned mentioned Julian of Norwich (also mentioned by Doug Chaplin):
God chose to be our mother in all things
and so made the foundation of his work,
most humble and most pure,
in the Virgin’s womb.God, the perfect wisdom of all,
arrayed himself in this humble place.Christ came in our poor flesh
to share a mother’s care.Our mothers bear us for pain and for death;
our true mother, Jesus, bears us for joy and endless life.
And he also mentions the Odes of Solomon (which I was heretofore unaware of):
A cup of milk was offered to me, and I drank it in the sweetness of the Lord’s kindness.
The Son is the cup, and the Father is He who was milked; and the Holy Spirit is She who milked Him;
Because His breasts were full, and it was undesirable that His milk should be ineffectually released.
The Holy Spirit opened Her bosom, and mixed the milk of the two breasts of the Father.
Then She gave the mixture to the generation without their knowing, and those who have received it are in the perfection of the right hand.
The womb of the Virgin took it, and she received conception and gave birth.
So the Virgin became a mother with great mercies.
And she labored and bore the Son but without pain, because it did not occur without purpose.
And she did not require a midwife, because He caused her to give life.
She brought forth like a strong man with desire, and she bore according to the manifestation, and she acquired according to the Great Power.
And she loved with redemption, and guarded with kindness, and declared with grandeur.
Hallelujah.
Yet another commenter, Brad, mentions Calvin making references to God as mother as well – I’m not familiar with Calvin, but I’m sure there are readers who are, if you’re interested in ferreting out these references.
All in all, a good haul for the cause of feminine language in the Christian tradition to describe God!
More on feminine language in describing God September 16, 2009
Posted by Damian in Biblical Exegesis and Interpretation, Church and Christian History, Early Christian Belief and Patristics, Relating to God.Tags: beyond gender, el maleh rachamim, female God, feminine characteristics, feminine God, femininity, gender, God is a mother figure, goddess, Hebrew, holy spirit, is God male?, Isaiah, masculinity, nooma, psalms, rechem, Rob Bell's She, she, womb, wombful, word-play
4 comments
Just to update on the conversation that’s going on concerning feminine language (that I’ve been taking part in here, here and here): Peter Lopez piped in, wondering why anyone would choose to describe a human male in female language? The conversation going on there is interesting. Suzanne linked to Rachel Barenblat’s poem that uses feminine language in worship, and to Doug’s songs featuring feminine language. Suzanne also posts on how the ‘Judge of Widows’ is not a solely masculine name, based on allusions to the Song of Deborah, in addition to her ongoing discussion about use of ‘mother’ imagery in describing God.
I’m enjoying this conversation (and hope that more people choose to take part in it), because there some more uses of feminine language coming to light in the comments around the web. hiscrivener mentions research into the roots of the Hebrew ‘Shaddai’ in the ugaritic for ‘Womb’ (I’d love to hear more about that, if you’re reading this, hiscrivener).
However, one major issue that continues coming up is the concept of ‘Who cares?’, or more astutely, ‘Surely we’re talking about physical attributes applied to a non-physical being (an anthropomorphism), so why the big deal?’. I think it is important for two reasons.
Firstly, because I fear (in the words of Rachel Barenblat in a comment on an earlier post) that our image of God might calcify, resulting in a mis-characterisation of God, or worse, injustice done in that mis-characterisations name. I think that if feminine language describing God were more prevalent, much argument regarding sexist, feminism, or male chauvinism in the church would be in turn less prevalent. I also think that at a personal level, feminine language describing God opens up avenues of relationship that otherwise would not be open (not limited by God, but by me).
Secondly, I think that publicising making it acceptable to use feminine language to describe God might minister in a new way to many women who otherwise miss out on an intimacy of association that they thus far miss out on. That intimacy should be there – it’s not new – women are made in God’s image. But they’re not encouraged to think of the parts of God that image is based on. I think that’s important.
But, I feel that tradition is important, so rather than simply create language to describe God, I’d prefer to search out existing language; people like Doug and Sue have shown that it exists. I hope I’ve clarified any confusion on why I’m interested in the topic.
