· we believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty
· the Lord is my Shepherd
· High King of Heaven
There can be no doubt that the God of Christianity and of Judaism is male. At least that is how He has traditionally been conceived and spoken of, and the language used to address God, and to speak about God, by many worshipping communities, of all denominations, is still resolutely male.
There are, of course, many who reject the use of anthropomorphic imagery for God at all. I am certainly not suggesting an acceptance of God as actually being male or female. However, in common with many religious thinkers, I would affirm that the notion of God is so completely beyond the ability of our intellects and language to grasp that, sometimes, the only way to approach God is through imagery. We could use completely gender-neutral language all of the time but this can leave God in the realm of an indescribable concept and as cold and unapproachable. For many of us, in order to approach God in our very human and imperfect way the use of some kind of imagery is helpful, so long as there is an acceptance that this use of imagery is simply a device by which we can use language to try to describe a concept, which is beyond language.
Daphne Hampson - Professor of Divinity, at the University of St Andrews in Scotland has asserted that, for a variety of reasons, it is not possible to be a feminist and a Christian, that the two are mutually exclusive. Other feminist theologians have asked searching questions about the patriarchal nature of Christianity, but are deeply committed to remaining within the Christian church.
For me, I am not comfortable with meddling with the language of traditional prayers and hymns. For example, I am deeply attached to Psalm 23 – “The Lord is my Shepard” it’s part of my history and I find it comforting and strengthening in times of fear or uncertainty. In principal I have no problem with male imagery of God but it has to be balanced with an equally powerful imagery of God as female.
Maud Robinson