From: watson@sce.carleton.ca (Stephen Watson)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Is God male, female or neither?
Date: 28 Jan 93 08:35:57 GMT
Organization: Carleton University

I2LY@cornella.cit.cornell.edu (Fiona) writes:
[...]
>God cannot be thought of as either male or female, which I absolutelyu
>agree with.  We know that God is spirit, that God does not have a physical
>body (although of course Jesus came to earth in the flesh).  The very
>concepts of male and female seem to me to be inaliebly linked to the
>existence of a body (can you tell I'm a biologist?).  Thus it seems
>meaningless to me to say God is male.  OF course, the bible talks
>about God as male, but it would be even more incorrect IMHO to talk about
>God as 'it' than 'He', since this would deny the personal nature of God.
[...]
>   I'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts on this.
>         Fiona

Here's mine...

C.S.Lewis interpreted a masculine God in relative terms: we are all
"feminine" (as in "the Bride of Christ") in relation to God.  I'm not
sure how he defined masc. vs. fem. such that this statement becomes
meaningful, but I expect his definition would rely on Classical
philosophy (e.g. Matter vs. Form).  In any case, I have problems with
his view (see below).

I think the first thing to do is define the terms (IMO, a non-trivial
task).  I agree that "male/female" is (or should be used as) strictly
biological labels, clearly inappropriate for a Spirit.  I propose we
use the related terms "masuline" and "feminine".  Just what does it
mean to apply attributes of gender to God?  What are we saying
about God when we use "he" or "she"?  I pose two questions:

1) How do I tell the difference between Masculine and Feminine?  

2) What *kind* of distinction is this?  (psychological, cultural,
metaphysical,...)

Re. 1), A Thought Experiment: Make a list consisting of attributes
ascribed to Masculinity (e.g. virility, strength, power,
aggressiveness,...), and make a similar list for Femininity
(nurturance, tenderness, softness, passivity,...) (Note: these are not
necessarily the lists I would make.)  Now, which list of attributes
better describes your understanding of God?  If, say, the Feminine
list is a better match, then does it still make sense to refer to God
as "he"?

But actually, I think that 2) is the more important question.
Masculine/Feminine are attributes which we associate with the
biological sexes: what real existence do they have apart from this?
Are Masculinity and Femininity, and Male and Female, "projections"
into the cultural and biological realms of some transcendent
metaphysical dichotomy?  Or are Masc/Fem. simply arbitrary cultural
constructs arising out of the consequences of our reproductive
biology?  If the latter, then clearly God is outside of gender
distinctions.  If the former, then, well *maybe* God might have a
gender.

But I have a problem with *any* gender attribution applied to God,
even Lewis' "relative to" idea.  If we believe that God's Character is
our Ideal, then this implies that God's attributes are superior to
other attributes.  So if God is masculine (whether this is defined as
a metaphysical abstraction, or as conformance to a list of concrete
characteristics), then clearly "Masculinity" is superior to
"Femininity".  Such a view gives the lie to the "different but equal"
view held by many Christians (usually advanced against female
ordination, women holding jobs, and other "feminist" ideas).  Since it
is frequently the *same* people who say "different but equal" and who
insist on a masculine God, I'm interested to know how they reconcile
this.

So, even granting that Masculine and Feminine have transcendent
reality (which I don't necessarily), I think that God's own nature has
to be seen as genderless.  An idea I find helpful is that of the
"broken symmetry".  Many physical systems which exhibit two (or more)
phases at low energies, lose this distinction when raised to higher
energy states.  One example is the merging of gravity,
electro-magnetism, and the nuclear forces into a single unified force
at the extreme energies which pertained immediately following the Big
Bang.  Another example is that, in the phase system of water, the
distinction between liquid and vapour ceases to exist at high
pressures.  Using this as an analogy, I suggest that Masculine and
Feminine represent a partitioning of the Divine Nature, seamlessly
unified in the Godhead, but separated in we "lower" created beings.

Just some wild speculations ;-)

I don't even want to get into the thorny issue of "inclusive language" in
liturgy or Scripture...

--
| Steve Watson a.k.a. watson@sce.carleton.ca === Carleton University, Ontario |
|  this->opinion = My.opinion;  assert (this->opinion != CarletonU.opinion);  |
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