Posted by Dave on 04/03/06 at 02:42:26 pm
Categories: Theological Ravings, Book Ravings, Feminism

This weekend I had the pleasure to read a great book about the "feminine face of God." Here are some of my thoughts...

Title: Is It Okay to Call God Mother?

Author: Paul R. Smith

This is a fascinating book that discusses Biblical reasons to use feminine language to refer to God.

But this is not a book written by a radical feminist that does not take the Bible seriously. Instead it is the exact opposite (well...maybe not exact opposite, but close). Paul Smith is a southern Baptist minister who takes the Bible very seriously, and sees clear Biblical reasoning to refer to God as "mother." But what is important is that Smith does no reject masculine language of God, because he asserts that rejecting this language would be un-Biblical. Instead he states that the church must ue both masculine and feminine language to refer to God.

This book is a challenge to all of us in the Christian church. We need to understand that the use of only masculine language in the church is difficult for many. If God is "male", what does that mean for females? What does that mean for the hierarchy of males and females? What does that mean for how women relate to God? Smith lays out a very well researched, reasoned argument that God has traits of both males and females, and in order to be a place where there is "no male or female," we need to begin understanding that the language that we use to refer to God must be inclusive.

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