This is a short theological excursus which is relevant to my current research project, written as a commentary on one of yesterday’s news items. Always eager for a new slant on stories about the Church, preferably those which have a Frankie Howerd “oooh, you are naughty” spin on them,
I recently read - and of course have lost track of where - that the proper pronoun for God is God. For most of a decade now, I have consciously and conscientiously, used only feminine pronouns for God and typically refer to God in my prayers as Lady Wisdom. I figure after millennia of imbalance towards the masculine, my personal imbalance towards the feminine is forgivable. However, in my morning meditation time today, the thought came to me that the Divine Masculine is in dire need of rescue from millennia of patriarchal overlay. This morning I am grateful that the Divine Feminine was ignored in my religious upbringing. It is far easier for me to feel my unique and deeply personal relationship to God when I use the feminine imagery, because the masculine imagery is so completely highjacked by early images and teachings. How, I wonder, might the Divine Masculine enrich my relationship with God? What would the Divine Masculine even be? Different from the Divine Feminine? And so my mind begins to weave through multiple associations. Thank you, Tina.
So, may I make a superficial point. In the Anglophone world 'thou' has completely inverted it's meaning. From a word of intimacy it is now a word that is only used for God - and not, in my experience, of meaning 'even closer than my parents and family'. When one prays in French 'tu' places God close - not a stranger but an intimate.
We may need to explore a range of other (exotic?) languages to get anywhere near words we can use of, and to, god to take us anywhere near the effect the gospel writers were trying to unlock.
I recently read - and of course have lost track of where - that the proper pronoun for God is God. For most of a decade now, I have consciously and conscientiously, used only feminine pronouns for God and typically refer to God in my prayers as Lady Wisdom. I figure after millennia of imbalance towards the masculine, my personal imbalance towards the feminine is forgivable. However, in my morning meditation time today, the thought came to me that the Divine Masculine is in dire need of rescue from millennia of patriarchal overlay. This morning I am grateful that the Divine Feminine was ignored in my religious upbringing. It is far easier for me to feel my unique and deeply personal relationship to God when I use the feminine imagery, because the masculine imagery is so completely highjacked by early images and teachings. How, I wonder, might the Divine Masculine enrich my relationship with God? What would the Divine Masculine even be? Different from the Divine Feminine? And so my mind begins to weave through multiple associations. Thank you, Tina.
There is a profundity of exploration here.
So, may I make a superficial point. In the Anglophone world 'thou' has completely inverted it's meaning. From a word of intimacy it is now a word that is only used for God - and not, in my experience, of meaning 'even closer than my parents and family'. When one prays in French 'tu' places God close - not a stranger but an intimate.
We may need to explore a range of other (exotic?) languages to get anywhere near words we can use of, and to, god to take us anywhere near the effect the gospel writers were trying to unlock.
Paul Flaherty