Liam Flecksing
Puritan Board Freshman
My mother recently got into an argument with my uncle about gender and how it applies to God. Just for a little background, my uncle is a non-denominational arminian pastor who says he finds his roots in the Anabaptist tradition.
The conversation sparked from a comment my niece made to my uncle while my mom was present: "dad, you're my father but God is my best father" or something along those lines. My mom replied "he's also your best mother". My uncle quickly told my niece not to listen to my mom because "she's a feminist and doesn't know what she's talking about". He then went on to argue that God is male. My mom started to talk about how God can't be male or female because he transcends male and female distinctions. She wasn't arguing we should call God by "she" and "her" but rather that God clearly presents himself as masculine in holy Scripture, yet that does not mean we can call him male.
I tend to agree with my mom on this. While I might be a little more cautious about applying the title of "mother" to God, some of the fathers did use this or similar language.
“The divine power, though exalted far above our nature and inaccessible to all approach, like a tender mother who joins in the inarticulate utterances of her babe, gives to our human nature what it is capable of receiving.” - Gregory of Nyssa
“In his ineffable essence he is father; in his compassion to us he became mother. The father by loving becomes feminine.” - Clement of Alexandria
“The Word [Christ] is everything to his little ones, both father and mother.” - Augustine
From what I see in the scriptures, God is masculine in nature and must be referred to by masculine pronouns yet that does not make him male. I do not believe we can call God a male for several reasons:
God is immutable, infinite, and formless. What makes a man a man is that he is created with biological characteristics that make him such. God does not have a body, so in what sense could God even be male? If we were to argue that God is indeed restricted by the category of male and female, wouldn't it logically follow that gender existed from all time since God is immutable? It seems to me that if you try to argue that gender hasn't always existed but God is male you fall into nominalism because you say gender is simply a construct of the mind that can be applied to certain creatures based on whether they fulfill certain characteristics.
All in all, the arguments seem to be weak and not based in Scripture and what we know about the nature of God. If anyone has any material (especially patristic) that addresses this issue, please let me know.
The conversation sparked from a comment my niece made to my uncle while my mom was present: "dad, you're my father but God is my best father" or something along those lines. My mom replied "he's also your best mother". My uncle quickly told my niece not to listen to my mom because "she's a feminist and doesn't know what she's talking about". He then went on to argue that God is male. My mom started to talk about how God can't be male or female because he transcends male and female distinctions. She wasn't arguing we should call God by "she" and "her" but rather that God clearly presents himself as masculine in holy Scripture, yet that does not mean we can call him male.
I tend to agree with my mom on this. While I might be a little more cautious about applying the title of "mother" to God, some of the fathers did use this or similar language.
“The divine power, though exalted far above our nature and inaccessible to all approach, like a tender mother who joins in the inarticulate utterances of her babe, gives to our human nature what it is capable of receiving.” - Gregory of Nyssa
“In his ineffable essence he is father; in his compassion to us he became mother. The father by loving becomes feminine.” - Clement of Alexandria
“The Word [Christ] is everything to his little ones, both father and mother.” - Augustine
From what I see in the scriptures, God is masculine in nature and must be referred to by masculine pronouns yet that does not make him male. I do not believe we can call God a male for several reasons:
God is immutable, infinite, and formless. What makes a man a man is that he is created with biological characteristics that make him such. God does not have a body, so in what sense could God even be male? If we were to argue that God is indeed restricted by the category of male and female, wouldn't it logically follow that gender existed from all time since God is immutable? It seems to me that if you try to argue that gender hasn't always existed but God is male you fall into nominalism because you say gender is simply a construct of the mind that can be applied to certain creatures based on whether they fulfill certain characteristics.
All in all, the arguments seem to be weak and not based in Scripture and what we know about the nature of God. If anyone has any material (especially patristic) that addresses this issue, please let me know.
