God's gender

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Abira

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this is a new idea to me, and partly i find that the odd thing…

why is it that jewish people believe god to be without gender but christans believe him to be male?

what changed and why? Why is this issue massively important to some people?

muslims also believe allah to be without gender and use that word to avoid the word ‘God’ which indicated gender already by being the male form of the word ‘Goddess’…

It would make sense for God to be without gender to me…but really i want to know why christianity is the only religion to apply gender to God when most others do not. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Sarah.
 
Christianity is not the only religion to have a male god. The Hindu’s, for example, have a great number of gods (as well as goddesses) they worship.

I am not a theologian, nor am I a church historian. However, it seems clear to me that Jesus referred to God as His own Heavenly Father. And when Jesus took on human flesh, He was a male. So perhaps you need to direct your question directly to the source. All answers from us mere mortals may be little more than speculation.

In my younger years (college) I had a terrible time with the male image of God. Now, it doesn’t bother me in the least. God is my Father, my Mother, the Source of my existence. The pronouns used for God do not change that.

Gert
 
First of all, let’s look at what the Church officially teaches, then we can go from there. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
The Father revealed by the Son
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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.
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**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.
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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.”
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i was looking into the jewish patriarchal tradition, and the fact that they use male terms simply for convenience rather than meaning

it is true that hindu’s have gods and goddesses…although i was at a Hindu mandir and it was explained that the many faces of god are actually just ways to express different messages to people…that actually hinu’s believe in one god… and one without gender which is why the different representations/ parts can be shown as male or female to explain different ‘parables’ in a sense…

i’m not interested in Hinduism though… so maybe the whole jewish patriarcha tradition is the way to go 🙂
 
Abira said:
why is it that jewish people believe god to be without gender but christans believe him to be male?

what changed and why?
Sarah.
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Nothing changed. As a catholic we are taught the God has no gender, even though we use male terms to describe Him.
 
Abira,

It’s not so much that God has a gender but that the husband-wife relationship on Earth mirrors the relationship between Christ and the Church in Heaven. Judaism has some of that (there is a very graphic passage in Ezekiel about that) but I don’t think other religions see marriage in that light. And this view of marriage, apart from its very practical consequences, also influences how we think about God.
  • Liberian
 
why is it that people feel the need to apply gender with feminist politics etc?

are they just using the idea for their own purposes… if there is no gender basis whatsoever??
 
Are priests considered superior to nuns, and similarly, are the clergy considered to be superior to the laity? Why are nuns grouped together with the laity as a whole ( those who do not live the religious life in formal terms?). Please excuse my ignorance, I am trying to learn and understand.
 
heavenly said:
Are priests considered superior to nuns, and similarly, are the clergy considered to be superior to the laity? Why are nuns grouped together with the laity as a whole ( those who do not live the religious life in formal terms?). Please excuse my ignorance, I am trying to learn and understand.
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We all have different roles. In I Corinthians 12, St. Paul outlines many of the roles that exist in the Church, and shows how each role is equally important. He compares the Church to a living human body, and points out that if every part of the body tried to be or do the same thing, it would be most inconvenient for the person. Seeing, for example, is very important, but if all the parts of the body were for seeing, then how would the person hear, or speak, or walk, or handle and use the things that he sees? It is the same with us in the Church. The Church needs priests, but not all of us can be priests. The church needs nuns, but not all of us can be nuns. The Church also needs married couples and children, and it needs single people who are out in the world - every person in the Church has a role, and all these roles are very, very important.

Nuns, as imitators and living icons of Mary, are women. For some reason, we don’t see any men clamouring to become nuns. Priests, because they personify Christ, are men. It is not because of sex discrimination that women can’t be priests, just as it is not because of sex discrimination that men cannot be nuns; rather, it is because of the nature of these roles that they pertain to one sex, but not to the other.

The only real power anyone in the Church has is the “power” to be of service to the Church as a whole. It is true that we have to obey our priests and Bishops, but our priests and Bishops are not free to just make stuff up for us to do - they can only tell us to follow the teachings of the Church, which have already been in existence for 2,000 years. They aren’t free to change the teachings of the Church, or to tell us to do anything that would go against those teachings (and if ever they do, we have a solemn Christian duty to disobey such commands).

Each in our different roles, we work together to proclaim the Gospel to the whole world, and to be obedient to Christ in all things.

PS: It would also be worth pointing out that the Queen of Heaven, the greatest human being ever to have lived on the earth, Mother Mary, is a married lay woman. 😉
 
Hi heavenly - welcome to the forums.

Since your very good question is off-topic from this thread, you may want to start a new one so more people will have a chance to answer it.
🙂
 
heavenly said:
Are priests considered superior to nuns, and similarly, are the clergy considered to be superior to the laity? Why are nuns grouped together with the laity as a whole ( those who do not live the religious life in formal terms?). Please excuse my ignorance, I am trying to learn and understand.
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No need to excuse yourself! Learning’s what it’s all about.
Code: 
  Priests are superior only in the sense that they have a superior role to play in the Church.  They act "in the person" of Christ, meaning that Christ works through the priest to administer His sacraments.  The priest is nothing more than an instrument, It's pretty apparent that there are large numbers of nuns and lay people who are as holy or holier than many priests.  

  Only men can become priests and act in the person of Christ, because although God the Father transcends gender, the Incarnation of Christ became a man.  Jesus chose ordinary men to be His apostles on earth and to administer His sacraments until His second coming.  Therefore, you see the presence of a male authority in the Church.  Hope that helps.
:tiphat:
 
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