Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 37:3 (Summer 2023)
Article: God As Motherly Father And Fatherly Mother
Author: Joshua Robert Barron

PP 37:3 (Summer 2023) p. 20

God As Motherly Father And Fatherly Mother

Joshua Robert Barron

Joshua Robert Barron holds an MDiv from Emmanuel Christian Seminary and is a PhD candidate in World Christianity at Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology. He and his wife Ruth have ministered in Kenya with the Community Christian Churches and the Africa Inland Church for over fifteen years, as well as the Maasai Discipleship Training Institute and the Community Christian Bible Training Institute. A staff member of the Association for Christian Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA), Joshua has published research in Priscilla Papers, Global Missiology, International Review of Mission, Journal of African Christian Biography, Missio Dei, and elsewhere.

Portions of this article were previously published in the author’s article, “My God is enkAi: a Reflection of Vernacular Theology,” Journal of Language, Culture, and Religion 2/1 (2021) 1–20.

In 1998 as a seminary student, I was assigned Elizabeth Johnson’s She Who Is, which is now regarded as a classic Christian feminist theology text.1 Before reading the book, I admit that I was troubled by that feminine pronoun, “She.” My culture had taught me, even if only implicitly, that God is “He.” Of course, Italian Renaissance artistic depictions of God the Creator as an old (if still ruggedly muscular) man with a long white beard are anthropomorphic (or perhaps merely andromorphic) and not to be taken literally. But what does it mean to refer to God as “She”? Was Johnson implying that God as revealed to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (and to Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah) and who became incarnate in Jesus is a goddess? Did this represent an embracing of pagan mother goddess and fertility goddess imagery? That, I thought—and still believe!—is incompatible with Christian faith. But I failed to reflect on the converse. What are the implications of insisting that God is “He” but never “She”? Logically, if referring to God as “She” implies a female goddess with female sexuality, then would not the use of “He” imply a male god with male sexuality?

Among English-speakers, many Christians find the prospect of applying feminine pronouns to God liberating and inclusive. Insistence, often by patriarchists, that God can only be addressed with masculine pronouns has often served to devalue women and to further exclude them from both theological discourse and from Christian leadership. Such an insistence reinforces the pagan idea from Greek philosophy that women are inherently inferior to men in essence and being. Thus, in the fourth century, Augustine of Hippo misinterpreted 1 Cor 11:7 ...