Change Per Post

I was recently asked to comment on my reference to God/-ess when writing and my fragmented attempts to speak of the divine in the feminine.

The beginning of 2007 I decided to speak of the “God” using feminine references - “She” and “Goddess” - rather than the masculine as is usual - “He” and “God”. I did so for the most part to see what came up for myself and secondarily to see what would come up as I did so.

This post includes some of reflections on embracing the feminine in God and includes some of my reasoning personal experiences having done so.

Textual and Contextual Engagement

The biblical Hebrew reference in Genesis “God created man in his image: male and female he created them” speaks of men and women, male and female, individually and together as the image of God. The language here, though masculine, is inclusive. In my English context in South Africa the same usage of “he” is not inclusive.

The Old Testament and New Testament both make radical shifts from their cultural vantage point toward progressive validation of women and the feminine.

In retrospect those same OT and NT texts may sound sexist, but that’s just due to not valuing or understanding the context into which they speak. Hence, texts (e.g. Paul’s teachings) used to liberate women in his context have been used by some to suppress women in our context. This is akin to how Scripture was used in Apartheid era to support racism and racial suppression…

(Continue reading this post via Tim Victor’s Musings)