God as Mother/Goddess?

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Angel_Hazard

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After thinking about my last question “Do Lutheran’s view God as Goddess?” (which was prompted by a website I found) another question is gowning at my mind “Are there Christian Denominations that view God as Mother or Goddess?”. I’m curious about this as I’'ve found a few other websites that refer to God as Mother or Goddess. It just seems really unusual to me. I’m not judging anyone, I’m just curious.

And yes I know… I get overly obsessive at times, its just my personality. 🤷 When I find something that I have never heard of before I tent to get a little obsessive.
 
Actually there’s a big thread already happening on that topic of referring to God as he and Father, as opposed to Mother/Goddess…

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=7654828

My opinion is that Jesus taught God as father. Jesus was incarnated as a man. And the way God interacts with the universe is masculine and the universe is feminine.

Those are just a couple of ideas.
 
That is a good way of looking at things. Thank you for the link 🙂
 
The revelation we’ve been given is that God is our Father. Being perfect, He can definitely project a feminine image and be a mother, but we never received that kind of revelation and therefore we can’t presume God in that way. God is more than we can understand and we can only claim what has been revealed to us.
 
I have no problem with anyone seeing God as “Mother” as well as “Father”. There are many feminine allusions to the character of God in both testaments.

My favorite “version” of the Lord’s Prayer is found in the New Zealand Book of Common Prayer…

**Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
sustain our hope and come on earth.

With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and testing, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
now and for ever. Amen.**

From what I understand…these are the concepts which the prayer is understood in the Maori…every concept in scripture is not always “translateable” in every culture and people of various languages…just as there are “lost nuances” from the Hebrew and Greek which we do not recognize in our English versions.

I also have no problem with “gender neutral” versions of scripture…all translations are “concepts” and each translation carries with it it’s own religious bias of the translators and language it is translated into.
 
Angel_Hazard said:
After thinking about my last question “Do Lutheran’s view God as Goddess?” (which was prompted by a website I found) another question is gowning at my mind “Are there Christian Denominations that view God as Mother or Goddess?”. I’m curious about this as I’'ve found a few other websites that refer to God as Mother or Goddess. It just seems really unusual to me. I’m not judging anyone, I’m just curious.

And yes I know… I get overly obsessive at times, its just my personality. 🤷 When I find something that I have never heard of before I tent to get a little obsessive.
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You deserve the courtesy of an answer to the question you actually asked; there is no need to apologize for curiosity.

No mainstream Christian denomination refers to God as mother according to whatever it has in the way of official belief. The dividing line between a denomination and a sect is perhaps difficult to specify, but at least two American sects have a tradition of referring to God as father-mother, namely the Shakers and the Christian Scientists (both were founded by a woman). And yes, I am aware that Mother Ann Lee who founded the Shakers got her start in England.
 
jbuck919 said:
You deserve the courtesy of an answer to the question you actually asked; there is no need to apologize for curiosity.

No mainstream Christian denomination refers to God as mother according to whatever it has in the way of official belief. The dividing line between a denomination and a sect is perhaps difficult to specify, but at least two American sects have a tradition of referring to God as father-mother, namely the Shakers and the Christian Scientists (both were founded by a woman). And yes, I am aware that Mother Ann Lee who founded the Shakers got her start in England.
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Thank you for the information:thumbsup: 🙂 and for being so friendly about it. 😃
 
Angel_Hazard said:
“Are there Christian Denominations that view God as Mother or Goddess?”.
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Any religion that speaks of “the Mother of God”, is, unwittingly perhaps, implying that God is Mother, no matter how many official statements are made to the contrary. The natural human response to such a phrase is pretty obvious. (Not that that’s a bad thing.)
 
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