The fatherhood of God

Issues in religion, ethics, and the philosophy of language

I. One feminist critique of New Testament language for God

• • To call God "our Father" is to use a metaphor.

  • To use a metaphor is to take a term whose primary meaning derives from one context and to project that meaning into a context where it does not literally apply.

  • There are many metaphors that may be used to speak expressively of the mysterious and transcendent Reality that is beyond human conception.

  • To refer to God primarily or exclusively as "our Father" is to perpetuate the sexism of patriarchal tradition.

  • Therefore, Jesus' religious language (and that of the NT generally ) was sexist (or is by our standards today).

II. Shared affirmations

• • Women and men are equal.

  • Persons have the right to choose the names they find best express their relationship with the God they have discovered.

  • It is worthwhile to inquire what truth may be found in the concept of the motherhood of God as well as in the concept of the fatherhood of God.

III. A response to metaphor theory

• • Metaphor theory tends to presuppose the psychological insight that the father is the child's first image of God.

  • Maturity involves growing beyond that first image--either by abandoning the father concept of God or by supplanting an infantile concept with a mature concept of God as father.

  • Since whatever science truly discovers can be interpreted by philosophy as serving the purposes of God, it is an option to regard the psychological tendency as part of the Creator's plan of progressive self-revelation.

Some symbols for God use language metaphorically: "God is ‘the Rock.’"

Religious metaphor takes language referring to something from daily experience and projects it onto God. "Rock," here, might be a symbol of strength or reliability.

Some symbols for God use language analogically: "God is good."

For example, God is the supreme example of goodness, and the creature shares ("participates in") divine goodness.

In like manner, God is the prime example of parental love.

Ultimately, it is not so much that we project the image of God on the basis of our experience of the human parent; rather, human parents are created reflections of God.

In other words, as Ali Shari'ati put it, we do not have an anthropomorphic conception of God but a theomorphic conception of man.

If analogy theory is correct here, then metaphor theory tells part of the story but not the heart of the story.

It tells of the human origin of the father concept, but not its divine origin.

Jesus' teaching of the fatherhood of God was not merely a metaphor, but a revelation of relationship. God is our loving and merciful Father, whose spirit dwells within each one of us.

Are feminist critics projecting social and political issues onto the concept of God?

If God is our Father, then to attack that concept in the name of social and political equality for women amounts to projecting social and political struggles into the God concept. This projection may create an extra burden for an ethically sensitive person. find an extra burden. in a way that can be unfortunate. A person who chooses to pray to, or worship, God as our Father may need to move through a zone in the mind where subtle thoughts and feelings arising from these social debates can derail that experience. Only then can one move beyond the debate into the realm of spiritual relationship and communion.

There is much more to be said on this topic than a brief exposition can include. Because of the suffering caused by abusive fathers, some persons find the father concept of God impossible to embrace. Even if the soul craves an open and loving relationship with a real and true spirit Father, the mind can make it wise to delay that experience.

Spirituality does not shun debate, but uses the topic as an occasion to learn, to understand the other, to accept the fact of the other's freedom and the facts of difference. Debate can lead to deepening our bonds of kinship in the human family.

Perhaps we all have some humility to endure on this topic--as well as more joy and love to experience on the other side of the debate.