The fatherhood of God

Issues in religion, ethics, and the philosophy of language

I. One feminist critique of New Testament language for God

To call God "our Father" is to use a metaphor.
To use a metaphor is to take a term whose primary meaning derives from one context and to project that meaning into a context where it does not literally apply.
There are many metaphors that may be used to speak expressively of the mysterious and transcendent Reality that is beyond human conception.
To refer to God primarily or exclusively as "our Father" is to perpetuate the sexism of patriarchal tradition.
Therefore, Jesus' religious language (and that of the NT generally ) was sexist (or is by our standards today).

II. Shared affirmations

Woman and men are equal.
People have the right to choose the names they find best express their relationship with the God they have discovered.
It is worthwhile to inquire what truth may be found in the concept of the motherhood of God as well as in the concept of the fatherhood of God.

III. A response to metaphor theory

Metaphor theory tends to presuppose the psychological insight that the father is the child's first image of God.
Maturity involves growing beyond that first image--either by abandoning the father concept of God or by supplanting an infantile concept with a mature concept of God as father.
Since whatever science truly discovers can be interpreted by philosophy as serving the purposes of God, it is an option to regard the psychological tendency as part of the Creator's plan of progressive self-revelation.

IV. Some symbols for God use language metaphorically: "God is ‘the Rock.’"

Some symbols for God use language analogically: "God is good." God is the supreme example of goodness, and the creature shares ("participates in") divine goodness.

V. In like manner, God is the prime example of parental love.

Ultimately, it is not so much that we project the image of God on the basis of our experience of the human parent; rather, human parents are created reflections of God.

VI. If analogy theory is correct here, then metaphor theory tells part of the story but not the heart of the story.

It tells of the human origin of the father concept, but not its divine origin.

Jesus' teaching of the fatherhood of God was not merely a metaphor, but a revelation of relationship.