Hmmm … a new theme seems to be popping up in my life. Perhaps a new path to be investigated.
It began with a group discussion via e-mail attempting to deconstruct the gender of God. Or should I say the gender by which we refer to God? You never know what we might discuss at at the Unauthorized Theology Pub, but this was a lively discussion. I have to ask forgiveness for my attempts to stir the pot (as it were). The written discussion there lead to a live discussion during church today between me and my good friend, iPete.
He recommended a book, The Alphabet Versus The Goddess, by Leonard Shlain. According to iPete, the describes a time when women were revered. It was in the time before we had the written word. The alphabet and linear thinking lead to the prominence of men and masculine dominence. Sounds interesting. We did agree that a world in which women were in control is every bit as broken as one where men dominate. That a world in which women get to call all the shots doesn’t make sense either. An eye for an eye just makes the whole world blind (no I didn’t write that, but I can’t remember who did).
We came to a place where we began to think about things like the passage in Genesis which has always been mysterious to me, Genesis 1:26-27:
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
In every other place in the Bible, God refers to Himself as “I” … as singular. But here it’s a definite plural and it doesn’t seem to be the royal “we.” What is interesting here is that a plurality of Gods (perhaps the Trinity?) created male and female humans. God created these genders from something and S/He created the gender differences based upon something. Perhaps? Perhaps based upon gender differences within the godhead? Is the God the father masculine, God the Word become flesh androgenous, and God the spirit feminine? Some things to ponder …
On another blog I’ve recently begun to follow, Emerging Women, they are having a book discussion about Dance of Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd. The moderator posted several questions for people to consider as well as several quotes from the book. This quote in particular caught my eye:
“To my surprise I’d learned that in ancient times the snake was not maligned or seen as evil but rather symbolized female wisdom, power, and regeneration.” (p 71)
I remembered back to a book I read about 20 years ago. I think it was called The Crone or something like that. I was flirting on the edges of witchcraft and Nativism. I don’t remember many details about the book except that the main theory was that in northern Europe before the advent of Christianity, women were valued members of the community. Young women, middle aged women and particularly old women (or crones) all had specific roles to fill within their villages/communities. Crones in particular were the keepers of wisdom and were revered for their knowledge of herbs and medicine. The author’s thesis was that the advent of Christianity completely changed all of this and reversed the order. Her idea was that the witch hunts of the Middle Ages were primarily a tool used by the priests and bishops of the Church to root out the challenge to their authority that the women represented.
I really am beginning to wonder if we can get to a place where men and women are in actuality equal. If we can understand the Trinity in those terms as well. Then that might be the place that begins to set things right again. Can we get there?
