Does God have a feminine aspect?

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Ok, so I just finished “The Da Vinci Code,” and the book puts forth the concept of God’s “feminine” aspect. It got me curious. So, I did a little research on the hebrew word “shenikah” that appears in the book and came up with an interesting set of passages from the Catholic version of the bible.

In the book, “The Wisdom of Solomon”, also known as “The Book of Wisdom”, we find that Wisdom as a femininely divine aspect, but is it seperate from or a part of God?

The New Advent website states:

newadvent.org/cathen/15666a.htm

“In direct relation to God, Wisdom is personified, and her nature, attributes, and operation are no less than Divine. She is with God from eternity, the partner of His throne, and the sharer of His thoughts (viii, 3; ix, 4, 9). She is an emanation from His glory (vii, 25), the brightness of His everlasting light and the mirror of His power and goodness (vii, 26). Wisdom is one, and yet can do everything; although immutable, she makes all things new (vii, 27), with an activity greater than any motion (vii, 23). When God formed the world, Wisdom was present (ix, 9), and she gives to men all the virtues which they need in every station and condition of life (vii, 27; viii, 21; x, 1, 21; xi). Wisdom is also identified with the “Word” of God (ix, 1; etc.), and is represented as immanent with the “Holy Spirit”, to whom a Divine nature and Divine operations are likewise ascribed (i, 5-7; vii, 22, 23; ix, 17).”

We see here that many of these aspects are directly attributable to Christ.

So, what do you think, does God have a feminine side? Is Wisdom a part of God or a seperate entity?

Subrosa
 
It’s possible, and I think even likely.

But I will admit that I have a hard time relating to God as “Mother”. But I don’t let that let me get all worked up if someone else wants to do it.

I do object to people trying to turn Jesus female. That’s just crazy.
 
Sure, I can see God having feminine aspects just as every one does in one way or another.

That does not change the fact that God revealed Himself as Father and that Jesus was born a man.

Also, Jesus taught us to pray, Our Father…

The Da Vinci Code is s work of fiction, yes the author may claim that it is based off of fact, but then many authors make such claims. I would not take any thing from that book. Heck, I won’t even read it.
 
Those advocating the “Our Father/Mother” ideas are trying to sexualize the Holy Spirit as female. JESUS is the human incarnation of the Trinity. We don’t have two human incarnations.

This is part of a very old heresy known as Gnosticism. You can read more about this modern form of Gnosticism (a.k.a. “New Age mysticism”):

gracethrufaith.com/selah/tough-questions-answered/when-god-was-a-woman

I think most of these ideas in recent times came from Gwen Shaw:

watch.pair.com/eth-s.html

Wiccan feminists (predominantly lesbians, I’ve met quite a few), are very keen on this. In fact, in recent fake “female-priest” ordinations, the words of ordination are “The shalom of the holy; the disclosure of the gracious shekinah; divine wisdom; the empowering matrix; she in whom we live and move and have our being–she comes; she is here!”. That just doesn’t have a Christian feel for me.

There’s a lot of outright fake history and sloppy biblical scholarship involved in feminizing God. For the sake of your soul, please stay away from anyone preaching this. These aren’t new ideas, just old heresies.

God the Father has no sex, nor does the Holy Spirit. Both can have feminine and masculine aspects, but neither is truly male or female. However, Jesus taught us to address him as “Abba”, Father… and I’m not going to correct my savior.
 
I heard once that it is a heresy to express God in terms of gender male or female.
 
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contemplative:
I heard once that it is a heresy to express God in terms of gender male or female.
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You make a good point. God is pure spirit. Non-genderized at that. God has no need of gender.

I once spoke with a couple of fundimentalists from the Calvary Bible Church. They were trying to convince me that since God made man in His own image, God must have arms, legs, eyes, ears, etc. I didn’t buy it.

But considering that God is pure spirit, God can be any gender He -or She -wishes!
 
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contemplative:
I heard once that it is a heresy to express God in terms of gender male or female.
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Since he reveals himself to us as “Father,” I find it hard to swallow the idea that it would be heresy to “express God” in terms of gender – although we know that he does not have “gender” in the way we understand it as biological creatures. However, he created everything that is. He created man in his own image, “male **and **female created he them.”

So, of course, God has a “feminine” aspect. That is not the same thing as calling him a “goddess.” I believe most efforts to emphasize the feminine aspect of God are driven by a political rather than a spiritual agenda. Julian of Norwich could eulogize the “motherhood of God” with impunity in her day because male-bashing had not yet been developed as a popular sporting event.
 
If I could make one suggestion, not just to you mercygate, but to any person able to read. Don’t read the Davinci Code. Why open yourself up to all of these questions. We have the Truth. we don’t need a fiction book to reveal any more to us.

It’s like watching a horror movie, and then not understanding why you can’t get to sleep afterwards. Don’t watch the movie, don’t read the book…
 
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contemplative:
I heard once that it is a heresy to express God in terms of gender male or female.
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God initally is NEITHER male OR female.
However to express the way we should direct ourselves TO God, Jesus tells God IS Our Father.
 
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Edwin1961:
God initally is NEITHER male OR female.
However to express the way we should direct ourselves TO God, Jesus tells God IS Our Father.
Click to expand...
God always was and always will be. I have never associated a gender quality to Him. Even though I say ‘Him’ I have know sense of sexuality the way humans measure sexuality.

To try and equate a human sexual measure or quality to God is beyond any of us to do.

Who dares to do this? I try not to. I feel like a fool when I catch myself trying to adhere sexual qualities to God.

And I don’t hesitate to pray ‘Our Father who art in heaven’ because Jesus said so.
 
i don’t think the original intentions of this thread were to assert that God may be a woman.
Personally, i’ve as I learn more about women, i find several of these traits in God.
God is beautiful.
God deeply desires our love.
God is wise.
None of these take away from the masculinity of God, they simply add to his mystery. He is still our heavenly father, i just think it is awesome how, unlike humans who are often incomplete, God is full.
 
I just recently read something on this subject, how serendipitous!

To quote:
First of all we have to say that the Bible does indeed, when addressing God in prayer, use the image of him as Father, and not as Mother, but that in images used in talking about God it always equally attributes feminine characteristics to him. When, for instance, it is talking about God’s sympathy, the Old Testement does not refer to that with the abstract word “sympathy”, but uses a term with a corporal reference, rachamin, the “motherly body” of God, which represents sympathy. This term demonstrates the motherly characterisitcs of God, albeit in the spiritual dimension. . . Why is this strictly limited to calling God Father? And the next question, which puts the matter more pointedly, is: Why did God come to us as “Son”? Why did God become incarnate as a man? And why did this Son of God, in his turn, teach us to join with him in saying Father to God, so that this business of saying Father did not remain just an image, which might have become obsolete in the sourse of the history of out faith, but is now the very word that is put into our mouths by the Son? . . . At the moment we are in a new phase of reflection on this question, but I think that in the end we cannot provide an answer. What we can say is perhaps two things. First: in the religions that existed in the world all around Israel there were god-couples, with a god and a goddess. Monotheism, in contrast to that, excluded the idea of a god-couple and, instead of that, regarded mankind, or alternatively Israel, as the chosen partner, the bride, in relation to God. . . In that way, the female image is given forever to Israel, and likewise to the Church . . .The second point is that wherever images of the mother-goddess have been used in worship, they have so altered people’s thinking about creation that creation had been transformed into an emanation and birth, and thus, almost of necessity, pantheistic models of divinity have been developed. The God who is portrayed in the image of the Father, on the contrary, makes things by means of the Word–and that is the point at which the specific distinction between the act of creation and creature becomes quite clear.
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Just some interesting food for thought
 
I would suggest reading Margaret Barker’s stuff (particularly The Great High Priest); she has an interesting take on the feminine references to God’s attributes that you noticed

I agree with the others, the Divinci Code was a mediocre book, as fiction, and is about as factual as a Tom Clancy novel; just enough detail to suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy the story, even if many of those details are not in themselves true.

BTW, anyone know what the RCC scholars/church have to say about Barker’s research/theories? I find her conclusions to be interesting, and while I think they would be initially refuted, I personally find that they make my own digestion of the Marian element of the RCC much smoother (being new to the RCC).
 
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Subrosa:
You make a good point. God is pure spirit. Non-genderized at that. God has no need of gender.

I once spoke with a couple of fundimentalists from the Calvary Bible Church. They were trying to convince me that since God made man in His own image, God must have arms, legs, eyes, ears, etc. I didn’t buy it.

But considering that God is pure spirit, God can be any gender He -or She -wishes!
Click to expand...
Next time you get hasseled like that, just tell them they are sounding like the Mormons. That should out them on spin cycle.
 
“Gender” in the English Language is basically a grammatical concept. Our language has three genders. Other languages only have two which are labled masculine and feminine. Thus in Spanish casa (house) is feminine. This does not mean that the house is a woman. In English gender is reserved only for pronouns. The neuter gender “it” is reserved for only inanimate objects. Thus it would be disrespectiful to refer to God as It. There are images of God in the Bible that are not human. God appeared to Moses as Fire. The Holy Spirit is seen as a Flame on Pentecost. We have come to use the word “gender” where we really mean “sex” God has no sex He is a pure spirit as are the angels and devils. Jesus is the Human Person of the Blessed Trinity as such He is definately a Man.
 
I am made in the image and likeness of God. I am a woman.

Therefore…
 
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