Wider View of God

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Although we know that God has no gender , he is frequently pictured as old man with a beard, and most often referred to as “he.” Although there are female metaphors for God in Scripture, they are frequently passed over. Women can easily feel less important and unequal to man when God is envisioned as a patriarchal lord who requires obedience instead of a figure of mercy and love.

In Scripture there are feminine images of God as mother.  “Shall a mother forget her child, yet even so I will never forget you.” (IS 49:15) Just as mothers give the gift of life, so God gives humans life, nurtures, and cares for each created being.

God is also referred to as Wisdom. Sophia, Holy Wisdom, is a divine image of power and strength. She is the one who blesses the earth, spreads a feast for all to enjoy and protects against evil. She promises, “Whoever finds me, finds life.” (Prov 8:35)

And in the parable of the lost coin, Jesus shows the passion of God who seeks for the lost coin just as the shepherd searches for the lost sheep.  Both call upon their neighbors to rejoice when the lost coin, the lost sheep, is found.  The parable of the lost sheep is better known, but neither shows more about God’s love for the sinner than the other.

As Elizabeth Johnson points out in Abounding in Kindness, “Naming toward God with female metaphors releases divine mystery from its age-old idolatrous cage so that God can be truly God : not a superior elderly man but incomprehensible source, sustaining strength, and goal of the world, holy Wisdom, indwelling Spirit, the ground of being…  Such naming of divine mystery blesses rather than demeans  human persons who are women.”


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