A question for Mormons: Are women created in the image of God?

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why_me said:
God has always shown himself to be a man. But if you wish to believe that god is also a woman that is fine by me. But I do believe that the catholic church may find it strange. 🙂

When has god spoken in a woman’s voice? Also, Mary when she has appeared is in a woman’s body. Hence, when we die we still keep our bodily characteristics as man and woman.

But god is only ‘spirit’?
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I did not say God was a woman. I said, God the Father is spirit, that has no gender.

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

238 Many religions invoke God as “Father”. The deity is often considered the “father of gods and of men”. In Israel, God is called “Father” inasmuch as he is Creator of the world. Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, “his first-born son”. God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most especially he is “the Father of the poor”, of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under his loving protection.

**239 **By calling God “Father”, the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children. God’s parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood, which emphasizes God’s immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. The language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. **We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. **He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: no one is father as God is Father.

240 Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard-of sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father in relation to his only Son, who is eternally Son only in relation to his Father: “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
 
why_me said:
May I also had that Jesus was the son of god and not a daughter or something in between of god. Jesus was male. No confusion there. Also, it seems that when god speaks as he did to Moses, he was a male, speaking in a male voice.
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It was God the Son who was speaking to Moses.
 
Whatever. But when Jesus (God) was on earth, he manifested himself as a living human male. Not a female.
 
zaffiroborant said:
Again the LDS have a different theology behind Jesus. Since you believe everyone Including Jesus is born a spirit person (male or female) and then takes on a physical body the male human nature of Jesus is inherent to his nature.

In the Catholic view The Son took on a human nature, something not inherent to him. So from this perspective, the question of women “imaging” God makes sense.

RebeccaJ said it as well as I could:
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Where do you get this notion from? It may be tradition, you may believe it, but you cannot support it. Yes I see the passage “God is a spirit”, which by the way is mistranslated. This passage like several other statements by the apostle John is not meant to define God’s material nature or lack thereof. I don’t believe there is anywhere in scripture that defines God as gender neutral.

Paul
 
CHRISTINE77 said:
Whatever. But when Jesus (God) was on earth, he manifested himself as a living human male. Not a female.
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True and the lord’s prayer begins: Our Father who art in heaven…

God presents himself as a male in all cases in the bible. Even Christ addressed God as Father.
 
You Mormons really don’t get it, do you? The reason we call God “Father” and call Jesus his “Son” is not bilogical, as the LDS believes. It is, rather, theological. This is Catholic teaching. Not LDS teaching.

The reason why we use “Father” and “Son”, “He” and “His” etc. for God has already been explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, but it bears repeating:

238 Many religions invoke God as “Father”. The deity is often considered the “father of gods and of men”. In Israel, God is called “Father” inasmuch as he is Creator of the world. Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, “his first-born son”. God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most especially he is “the Father of the poor”, of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under his loving protection.

239 By calling God “Father”, the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children. God’s parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood, which emphasizes God’s immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. The language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: no one is father as God is Father.

240 Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard-of sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father in relation to his only Son, who is eternally Son only in relation to his Father: “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Source: vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P17.HTM

And more from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

PART FOUR: CHRISTIAN PRAYER
SECTION TWO THE LORD’S PRAYER
Article 2 “OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN”
II. Abba - “Father!”

2779 Before we make our own this first exclamation of the Lord’s Prayer, we must humbly cleanse our hearts of certain false images drawn “from this world.” Humility makes us recognize that “no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him,” that is, “to little children.” The purification of our hearts has to do with paternal or maternal images, stemming from our personal and cultural history, and influencing our relationship with God. God our Father transcends the categories of the created world. To impose our own ideas in this area “upon him” would be to fabricate idols to adore or pull down. To pray to the Father is to enter into his mystery as he is and as the Son has revealed him to us.

The expression God the Father had never been revealed to anyone. When Moses himself asked God who he was, he heard another name. the Father’s name has been revealed to us in the Son, for the name “Son” implies the new name “Father.”

Source: vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__PA2.HTM
 
Nickkname said:
You Mormons really don’t get it, do you? The reason we call God “Father” and call Jesus his “Son” is not bilogical, as the LDS believes. It is, rather, theological. This is Catholic teaching. Not LDS teaching.

The reason why we use “Father” and “Son”, “He” and “His” etc. for God has already been explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, but it bears repeating:

238 Many religions invoke God as “Father”. The deity is often considered the “father of gods and of men”. In Israel, God is called “Father” inasmuch as he is Creator of the world. Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, “his first-born son”. God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most especially he is “the Father of the poor”, of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under his loving protection.

239 By calling God “Father”, the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children. God’s parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood, which emphasizes God’s immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. The language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: no one is father as God is Father.

240 Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard-of sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father in relation to his only Son, who is eternally Son only in relation to his Father: “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Source: vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P17.HTM

And more from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

PART FOUR: CHRISTIAN PRAYER
SECTION TWO THE LORD’S PRAYER
Article 2 “OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN”
II. Abba - “Father!”

2779 Before we make our own this first exclamation of the Lord’s Prayer, we must humbly cleanse our hearts of certain false images drawn “from this world.” Humility makes us recognize that “no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him,” that is, “to little children.” The purification of our hearts has to do with paternal or maternal images, stemming from our personal and cultural history, and influencing our relationship with God. God our Father transcends the categories of the created world. To impose our own ideas in this area “upon him” would be to fabricate idols to adore or pull down. To pray to the Father is to enter into his mystery as he is and as the Son has revealed him to us.

The expression God the Father had never been revealed to anyone. When Moses himself asked God who he was, he heard another name. the Father’s name has been revealed to us in the Son, for the name “Son” implies the new name “Father.”

Source: vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__PA2.HTM
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Okay, this is what the Catholic Church teaches; so what? What are we supposed to do about it? We are not bound by what the Catholic Church teaches; therefire whatever it teaches is moot as far as we are concerned.

zerinus
 
When Jesus was spreading his ministry on earth, he was manifestly a man. He was born as a human onto this earth, he suffered, died and was buried as a man. He rose again as God.
But while he was God incarnate on earth he was a male. Not a woman!!!
 
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