God, male, female, neither?

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Hermione

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Is God male, female, or gender neutral?

This is confusing for me, because while in the Catechism it says that God is neither male nor female, and has properties of both mother and father…
370 In no way is God in man’s image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective “perfections” of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God: those of a mother and those of a father and husband.
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…in the Bible God is described as “He” and Jesus calls him “Father” not “Mother.”

So why is this? Is God male in the Bible because the languages of the time were like English in that “he” is the generic pronoun and “she” is used only when the subject is known to be female?

Is it appropriate to call God Mother as well as Father?

Thanks!
 
Gender neutral. However, since man (mankind) is created in his image, both men and women will have features like God. Its not like we have perfection that he doesn’t have. So whatever is the ultimate in motherliness or fatherliness, its very perfection, God will have it in some way or sense.

I think it is relevant that Jesus calls God “Father” and taught us to say, “Our Father”. I’d have to think a bit to answer the Hebrew question.
 
God is pure, infinite, Spirit, and spirit can have no gender. God is not male, but it can be said that in relationship to his creation he is “masculine;” and we are all–male and female–feminine in our relationship to Him, in the sense that he gives, we receive; he begets, we are begotten. He creates, we are created.

Conversely, in his infinite care and concern for his creation, Jesus used the image of a mother hen with her chicks. Yet, when he addresses his heavenly father, he always uses the term “Father”-- “Abba,” which really means “Daddy.”
 
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Hermione:
Is God male, female, or gender neutral?

This is confusing for me, because while in the Catechism it says that God is neither male nor female, and has properties of both mother and father…
Click to expand...
…in the Bible God is described as “He” and Jesus calls him “Father” not “Mother.”

So why is this? Is God male in the Bible because the languages of the time were like English in that “he” is the generic pronoun and “she” is used only when the subject is known to be female?

Is it appropriate to call God Mother as well as Father?

Thanks!

Gender is part of a physical body. God is spirit, so he can have no gender.
 
jimmy said:
Gender is part of a physical body. ** God is spirit, so he can have no gender.**
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I don’t disagree, but this is essentially a contradiction. How can He be a “he” if He has no gender?

We rightly don’t call God “it,” and we know Him to be “Father,” but we also know – or believe anyway – there is nothing of Him that resembles our physiology, particularly the distinctives between male and female (human or animals.)

There must be some reason though why we understand Him as “He,” not “it” in spite of no physical characteristics. That is what I’ve not seen someone explain very well.
 
Ourboy said:
I don’t disagree, but this is essentially a contradiction. How can He be a “he” if He has no gender?

We rightly don’t call God “it,” and we know Him to be “Father,” but we also know – or believe anyway – there is nothing of Him that resembles our physiology, particularly the distinctives between male and female (human or animals.)

There must be some reason though why we understand Him as “He,” not “it” in spite of no physical characteristics. That is what I’ve not seen someone explain very well.
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We understand Him as ‘He’ because God is ‘Our Father’, and as humans, the father is male. We depict the Holy Spirit as a white dove, or a tongue of fire, or think of the Holy Spirit as a breath or breeze or wind.
 
Hermione said:
Is God male, female, or gender neutral?

This is confusing for me, because while in the Catechism it says that God is neither male nor female, and has properties of both mother and father…
Click to expand...
…in the Bible God is described as “He” and Jesus calls him “Father” not “Mother.”

So why is this? Is God male in the Bible because the languages of the time were like English in that “he” is the generic pronoun and “she” is used only when the subject is known to be female?

Is it appropriate to call God Mother as well as Father?

Thanks!

God’s sex is nothing, but gender wise He is well a He.
 
God is a male entity simply because He revealed Himself to us as such.
 
In the bible - patterns of reference to God are in masculine titles. God chose to reveal Himself in male form. Perhaps this was to allow people to revere how important he was to mankind.

Man and woman where created in Gods image, such as have a mind, will, intellect, emotions and moral capacity. His image has nothing to do with physical characteristics. Though some will contest this. In Genesis God breathed life into man - this is not described in any other of Gods creations here on earth.

God in Heaven has no physical characteristics - God is Spirit.
 
This is so controversial and new to me. I have never heard of God being a woman.

I will continue to believe that God is a man. He created man on His own Image. He created women from the side of Adam and it doesnt say women on His image.

I think this is some sort of invention so as not to ofend the feminists. One more way of pleasing others more than pleasing God. Jesus is God and Jesus is a man. He came as Man for a reason. a Father cannot be the mother. This is a blasphemy against God and I resent such a notion that God has no gender. Jesus called Him the Father. That is good enough for me. Jesus is sitting at the right Hand of the Father, this indicates to me that He sees God. The Epistles also says that when Jesus conquers death, He will give the Kingdom back to the Father.
 
wisdomseeker said:
This is so controversial and new to me. I have never heard of God being a woman.

I will continue to believe that God is a man. He created man on His own Image. He created women from the side of Adam and it doesnt say women on His image.

I think this is some sort of invention so as not to ofend the feminists. One more way of pleasing others more than pleasing God. Jesus is God and Jesus is a man. He came as Man for a reason. a Father cannot be the mother. This is a blasphemy against God and I resent such a notion that God has no gender. Jesus called Him the Father. That is good enough for me. Jesus is sitting at the right Hand of the Father, this indicates to me that He sees God. The Epistles also says that when Jesus conquers death, He will give the Kingdom back to the Father.
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  1. Who said God is a woman? He is not a woman.
  2. Female human beings are considered to be in the “image of God”. Refer to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) paragraph number 369. Here is a snip from that:
    Man and woman are both with one and the same dignity “in the image of God”.
  3. It is proper to refer to God with male pronouns. God chose to reveal himself as Father.
  4. God the Father is not a man. See CCC 370:
    In no way is God in man’s image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective “perfections” of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God: those of a mother and those of a father and husband.
 
jimmy said:
Gender is part of a physical body. God is spirit, so he can have no gender.
Click to expand...
Incorrect. Sex is a part of the physical body, but gender is a matter of substance. That is, I am male because I have the BEING of a male. If I were to get into a major accident and lose everything below my waist, I would not cease to be male despite the fact that my body no longer has that distinctive characteristic.

God gives us His gender as our Father, and we are wise to follow it. He does not do so to demean women at all, either. His role is as Father, because the Church and Mary are both given exalted roles as women and figure greatly in the life of God.
 
Hermione said:
Is God male, female, or gender neutral?

This is confusing for me, because while in the Catechism it says that God is neither male nor female, and has properties of both mother and father…
Click to expand...
…in the Bible God is described as “He” and Jesus calls him “Father” not “Mother.”

So why is this? Is God male in the Bible because the languages of the time were like English in that “he” is the generic pronoun and “she” is used only when the subject is known to be female?

Is it appropriate to call God Mother as well as Father?

all rational creatures including angels and humans are feminine (not female) in relationship with God, because he intitiates, we respond, he creates, we are creation and accept creation as gift, he pours out himself in complete love, we receive his love and so forth.

Thanks!
God is masculine, which is not the same as male (which is a reference to genetic makeup and secondary sex characteristics). Masculine has to do with character traits inherent in the nature of the Being. God is the iniator, the creator, the active, the Father. A male is a father because he is also masculine, not the other way around.

Yes God has all positive traits including those proper to mothers, but in his nature he is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, not Mother.
 
I suppose it would be helpful to know what each poster means by the word “gender”. Some people (such as myself) tend to use it to mean the sex of a human being (male sex or female sex), or to mean the classification that a word has in language, (la cocina is a feminine noun).
 
Pug said:
I suppose it would be helpful to know what each poster means by the word “gender”. Some people (such as myself) tend to use it to mean the sex of a human being (male sex or female sex), or to mean the classification that a word has in language, (la cocina is a feminine noun).
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Operating from the medical dictionary, Gender is the set of traits, behaviors, and psychology often associated with a sex (hence the medical term transgendered for those who, say, have a female body but the psychological behavior of a male)… this would be defining charateristics from the classical position that essense preceeds existance.

Sex is the determined “gender” based on anatomy (think of this more as a definition from the existentialist perspective)

Masculine and Femenine are categories listed under the header of gender. One has a gender and it is either male or female. So God has a gender role of male, but does not have a sex and is not a man (other than in His being true man as well as true God in Christ).
 
Obviously God has no sex or gender since that is a biological property of some creatures.
God is not a creature so to say that he is a He or a She in anything other than a figurative sense is nonsensical.
 
promethius said:
Operating from the medical dictionary, Gender is the set of traits, behaviors, and psychology often associated with a sex (hence the medical term transgendered for those who, say, have a female body but the psychological behavior of a male)… this would be defining charateristics from the classical position that essense preceeds existance.

Sex is the determined “gender” based on anatomy (think of this more as a definition from the existentialist perspective)

Masculine and Femenine are categories listed under the header of gender. One has a gender and it is either male or female. So God has a gender role of male, but does not have a sex and is not a man (other than in His being true man as well as true God in Christ).
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Okay, so you are working with the definition of the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex. When you say “one has a gender and it is either male or female” are you saying that every, uh, creature, person, entity, being, has a gender? And by having a gender you mean is classified as being more in consonance with one of two sets of traits? Or perhaps you mean is more in consonance with one of two sets of traits.
 
There are those who have taught that the Holy Spirit has a Female character to Her.
 
I’ve always thought when god created adam he was not man or woman, but when god took a part of adam, it was his “feminine side” and really split adam into two parts, adam being man and eve being woman. I could be wrong but it makes sense to me.
 
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