@William - I think we agree that it is appropriate to regard God as a person, and that the God of the Bible is a male person; but I probably take this more literally than you in the sense that I regard God as a Father and a Mother.
From this perspective... while feminism is false and harmful, like all socially-effective evils it necessarily contains some truth; and I think that the theological truth of the feminist critique is that a God who is exclusively Father, who is masculine, is necessarily incomplete, precisely because the sexes are real and complementary.
This might be answered by stating that there are secondary female characteristics, but this tends to erode God's genuine personhood.
So I understand that God is the dyad of Heavenly parents, that our Father is indeed the creator of this earth hence an appropriate focus in the Bible and through history; but that our Mother had an essential and complementary creative role which has - up to now, anyway, been neglected (even among Mormons who explicitly believe in Heavenly parents).
My own intuition is that Heavenly Mother it was who nurtured us all during our pre-mortal spirit lives - and that awareness of her reality and nature will increase as people become aware of our pre-mortal existence. This seems to be happening in Mormonism among laity - although without explicit official sanctioning, so far.
Why Heavenly Mother now? I assume because we are on the threshold of what is supposed to be the next stage in human consciousness - assuming we choose to take it.
In sum, I believe that a solo male God is unviable; likewise a solo female God/dess; and a 'sexless' God is a step back towards the feebleness of abstract Deism. In conclusion I think we need to think of God as a dyad, a unity of two.
@William - I think we agree that it is appropriate to regard God as a person, and that the God of the Bible is a male person; but I probably take this more literally than you in the sense that I regard God as a Father and a Mother.
ReplyDeleteFrom this perspective... while feminism is false and harmful, like all socially-effective evils it necessarily contains some truth; and I think that the theological truth of the feminist critique is that a God who is exclusively Father, who is masculine, is necessarily incomplete, precisely because the sexes are real and complementary.
This might be answered by stating that there are secondary female characteristics, but this tends to erode God's genuine personhood.
So I understand that God is the dyad of Heavenly parents, that our Father is indeed the creator of this earth hence an appropriate focus in the Bible and through history; but that our Mother had an essential and complementary creative role which has - up to now, anyway, been neglected (even among Mormons who explicitly believe in Heavenly parents).
My own intuition is that Heavenly Mother it was who nurtured us all during our pre-mortal spirit lives - and that awareness of her reality and nature will increase as people become aware of our pre-mortal existence. This seems to be happening in Mormonism among laity - although without explicit official sanctioning, so far.
Why Heavenly Mother now? I assume because we are on the threshold of what is supposed to be the next stage in human consciousness - assuming we choose to take it.
In sum, I believe that a solo male God is unviable; likewise a solo female God/dess; and a 'sexless' God is a step back towards the feebleness of abstract Deism. In conclusion I think we need to think of God as a dyad, a unity of two.
https://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=mother+heaven
I'm about to put up a follow up post, Bruce, which addresses some of these questions though I think my perspective is a little different to yours.
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