God the Mother?

[Bubba_Switzler]

It occured to me recently that perhaps there is something deeper to the metaphor of God the Father. Why not God the Mother?

(Of course, Catholics have Mary as a Mother figure but Mary is not God.)

(Edited)

So why Father and not Mother? Our relationship with our biological father and mother are generally very different. The father figure is an authority while the mother is nurturing. Both care in their own way but a father are far more likely to exhibit “tough love” than a mother.

It’s also interesting because babies generally bond first with the mother and only later to the father who, after all, doesn’t provide any tasty nutitiion. Fathers, in turn, tend to be more standoffish and reserved in their affection for children.

So what does all this imply in our relationship with God? And how does Jesus, the “Son” of God, fit into the equation?

 

[Della]

God certainly does have the attributes of both sexes. However, he has revealed himself to us as the Father. The God who made women certainly knows all about women, after all. Here’s a biblical quote that likens God’s actions to that of a mother:

Isa.66:13 As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

It doesn’t at all mean that God is God the Mother, though. God has chosen the way he wants us to relate to him. Who are we to tell him otherwise?

 

[I_Fortuna]

This is why Marriage is a Sacrament of the church. The joining of man and woman portrays the full image of God.

 

[Cristian_B]

Because the father is the leader, both of his sons and his entire family. But He is not called ‘father’ because He is a man, but because He created us and He is the leader. A mother also creates, but the father is the leader. So this is why we call Him ‘father’.

 

[invocation]

There is some precedent in the tradition for addressing God as Mother. This is seen most famously in Bl. Julian of Norwich (she dies in the early 15th c. and is commemorated on 13 May in the Catholic Church).

There is some difference here though between Julian and the way you ask your question. Usually when we refer to God the Father, we are talking about the first person of the Trinity. Bl.Julian does not see Mother as an alternative name for the first person of Trinity, but for the second person. Christ is our Mother. She draws on the connection between Christ and Wisdom (which is a feminine noun in both Latin and Greek), and refers to the second person as All-Wisdom on a number of occasions in connection with the idea of the second person being Mother.

For example (from Julian of Norwich, Showings, ch.58)

God Almighty is our loving Father, and God All-Wisdom is our loving Mother, with the love and goodness of the Holy Spirit, which is all one God, one Lord…I contemplated the work of the all blessed Trinity, in which contemplation I saw and understood these three properties: the property of fatherhood, and the property of motherhood and the property of lordship in one God.

This is just one part of a much longer section, and one of many sections where the Motherhood of the second person is explored.

 

[michaeldaniels]

Please enlighten me as to what a so called “Zen Catholic” is exactly

It occured to me recently that perhaps there is something deeper to the metaphor of God the Father. Why not God the Mother?

(Of course, Catholics have Mary as a Mother figure but Mary is not God.)

(Edited)

So why Father and not Mother? Our relationship with our biological father and mother are generally very different. The father figure is an authority while the mother is nurturing. Both care in their own way but a father are far more likely to exhibit “tough love” than a mother.

It’s also interesting because babies generally bond first with the mother and only later to the father who, after all, doesn’t provide any tasty nutitiion. Fathers, in turn, tend to be more standoffish and reserved in their affection for children.

So what does all this imply in our relationship with God? And how does Jesus, the “Son” of God, fit into the equation?

 

[Ignatius]

Why not God the Mother?

Because that is Blasphemy.
Some people go to great lengths to bring the feminine when referring to God, misrepresenting the writings of some of the saints. But these are distortions. For example, Wisdom has always been referred to in the feminine but Wisdom is not one of the members of the Holy Trinity, and certainly not God the Father.

 

[Zach82]

Jesus Christ is male, and Jesus Christ is God. Therefore, I personally tend to be wary of using the feminine pronoun for God. However, I don’t immediately reject feminine pronouns and the like for God as blasphemy. Certainly some of the sentiment it implies is correct. It can hardly be denied that God encompasses far more than masculinity alone can imply. I propose that we, as Christians, refrain from hasty judgements about the practice and let time and prayer put it to the test.

Zach

 

[Bubba_Switzler]

While the contrast between masculine and feminine attributes of God is relevant and important, I’m actually more interested in the contrast between fatherly and motherly attributes and what that implies, theologically. As Christian B and I pointed out, authority is part of that but is it the entireity of it?

(Also, I have heard some discussions that imply that Jesus exhibits feminine attributes but that seems quite a stretch not least of which because he is male and not even a particularly andogenous or metrosexual male given his hard lectures to the Pharisees and the final passion on the cross.)

 

[Zach82]

Comments that Jesus has feminine attributes seem more grounded in an outdated and arbitrary understanding of gender roles, if’n you ask me- like much of the reasoning behind the divine gender debate, really.

Zach

 

[ChrisWRIT]

Because God is depicted in masculine imagery throughout the Bible, indicating that masculinity is essential to His nature.

Peter Kreeft explained this quite well in his book “Women & the Priesthood”.

You can read the pertinent parts over at his site

(peterkreeft.com/topics-more/sexual-symbolism.htm)

Chris

 

[Zach82]

Since when does the Catholic Church believe that the Bible offers everything there is to know about God?

Zach

 

[miamijoe]

As I recall, Jesus (AKA God) revealed this to us explicitly in the Lord’s Prayer… I think it starts out: “Our Father…”
As an aside, I’ve always attributed those motherly attributes also to Holy Mother Church who, while we are here, helps guide and nurture and feed us on our journey.

 

[Major_Tom]

Because that is Blasphemy.
Some people go to great lengths to bring the feminine when referring to God, misrepresenting the writings of some of the saints. But these are distortions. For example, Wisdom has always been referred to in the feminine but Wisdom is not one of the members of the Holy Trinity, and certainly not God the Father.

There’s a similar discussion occurring here:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=6502529#post6502529

There, I posted the following…

In the Cathechism (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 infinte perfection of God:those of a mother and those of a father and husband”.

 

[puzzleannie]

It So what does all this imply in our relationship with God? And how does Jesus, the “Son” of God, fit into the equation?

God revealed Himself to us as Father and Son eternally in complete harmony and loving relationship with one another, a relationship so complete and so totally giving and totally receptive in eternity that it is a Third Person, the Holy Spirit. so unless someone out there can improve upon God’s own metaphor, we will stay with it

 

[bookgirl32]

Since when does the Catholic Church believe that the Bible offers everything there is to know about God?

Zach

It doesn’t. But it also believes that everything in the Bible is divinely inspired truth and that there are no contradictory beliefs between Tradition and Scripture.

 

[cargau]

It occured to me recently that perhaps there is something deeper to the metaphor of God the Father. Why not God the Mother?

(Of course, Catholics have Mary as a Mother figure but Mary is not God.)

(Edited)

So why Father and not Mother? Our relationship with our biological father and mother are generally very different. The father figure is an authority while the mother is nurturing. Both care in their own way but a father are far more likely to exhibit “tough love” than a mother.

It’s also interesting because babies generally bond first with the mother and only later to the father who, after all, doesn’t provide any tasty nutitiion. Fathers, in turn, tend to be more standoffish and reserved in their affection for children.

So what does all this imply in our relationship with God? And how does Jesus, the “Son” of God, fit into the equation?

God is pure spirit and, thus does not possess gender in the human sense. Further, God is not limited by our understanding of gender roles. So, God may well be both fatherly and motherly. After all, He’s God!

Still, Jesus told us to call God our Father, not mother. So, that ends the discussion for me. On another note, I believe that some folks are desperately pushing the “women’s” agenda and resent God being portrayed as male.

IMO, when agenda tries to trump truth, it loses all credibility…

 

[Gerry_Hunter]

The biggest reasons for why not are revelation and obedience.

Jesus Christ, God the Son, referred to the First Person of the Trinity as “my Father and your Father.” He directed that we pray to “Our Father.” This is revelation, and from the most direct source there could be: God incarnate.

Given this revelation, we are called to obey. We are not called to come up with a substitute for that revelation, one that might be socially appealing and based on the best tenets of pop-psychological pseudo-science, and substitute it for what was revealed.

The whole God the Mother thing is an offshoot of monism and pantheism, both of which, though perhaps compatible with each other, are utterly incompatible with Christianity.

Blessings,

Gerry

 

[Cristian_B]

The biggest reasons for why not are revelation and obedience.

Jesus Christ, God the Son, referred to the First Person of the Trinity as “my Father and your Father.” He directed that we pray to “Our Father.” This is revelation, and from the most direct source there could be: God incarnate.

Given this revelation, we are called to obey. We are not called to come up with a substitute for that revelation, one that might be socially appealing and based on the best tenets of pop-psychological pseudo-science, and substitute it for what was revealed.

The whole God the Mother thing is an offshoot of monism and pantheism, both of which, though perhaps compatible with each other, are utterly incompatible with Christianity.

Blessings,

Gerry

Why would it be incompatible?

He is both mother and father, because He has the role of both father and mother spiritually.

Of course, even though He does fulfill the role of a mother, I don’t think we should call Him mother. That would be … disrespectful since that would mean there is a higher authority over Him (the ‘father’, since He would be the ‘mother’). But He does fulfill both roles.

 

[phoenix3212]

Why would it be incompatible?

He is both mother and father, because He has the role of both father and mother spiritually.

Of course, even though He does fulfill the role of a mother, I don’t think we should call Him mother. That would be … disrespectful since that would mean there is a higher authority over Him (the ‘father’, since He would be the ‘mother’). But He does fulfill both roles.

Exactly.

I would direct the OP to this quote, by Pope John Paul I:

“God is Father, and even more, He is Mother.”