Recently, I helped lead a book study (I use the word “study” loosely). The book under consideration was The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels, a brief introduction to the texts discovered at Nag Hammadi in 1945. I was responsible for leading a discussion on the chapter titled, “God the Father/God the Mother,” and I drew the focus of attention to Pagels’ observation:
“Every one of the secret texts which Gnostic groups revered was omitted from the canonical collection, and branded as heretical by those who called themselves orthodox Christians. By the time the process of sorting the various writings ended — probably as late as the year 200 — virtually all the feminine imagery for God had disappeared from orthodox Christian tradition.”
Many of the gnostic texts tell how the universe includes feminine principles in the divine scheme. Most common is the divine mother, Sophia, associated with the Greek principle of wisdom. Less familiar is Barbelo from the Apocryphon of John (sounds like a bad Jane Fonda film!)
I went on to introduce some observations by the catholic feminist theologian, Elizabeth Johnson from her book, She Who Is. Johnson notes that the tradition giving rise to our trinitarian theology (Father, Son, & Holy Spirit) tends to give short shrift to the last element of the trinity. Why? she wonders. With tongue in cheek, she first suggests that theologians just ran out of steam after writing so much about the Father & the Son. But a more likely explanation, she suggests, lies with a discomfort among male theologians (and until the 20th century, they have almost all been male) in addressing theological concepts that we tend to associate with femaleness.
When we try to imagine god as Father or as Son, we have a vast store of images to draw upon; not so when we try to imagine god as Spirit. I’ve produce a page with a variety of images that might be taken to represent the divine in our world. Just for fun, take a look at them and ask yourself two questions:
1. Which of these images most closely resonates with the image of God you held as a child?
2. Which most closely resonates with the image of God you hold now or feel you are working towards?
Click here to view possible images of god.
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Sat, Feb 26, 2005
Half-filtered