Why is God a ‘ He ‘ ?

This has got to be one of the hottest debates amongst feminists and . It seems that many individuals have a problem with the usage of the male pronoun to describe our Creator .

Despite the disputes , everyone agrees that that

 

1. God is not literally a ‘ He ‘ since He has no biological body , and
2. Women are not essentially inferior to men .

These are simply red herrings .

There are two basic reasons for defending the exclusive use of the masculine pronoun and imagery for God .

First is the question of our authority to change the news of God used by Christ , the Bible , and the Church . This defense of masculine imagery for God rests on the premise that the Bible is divine revelation and not culturally related , negotiable or changeable . As C.S. Lewis put it :

 

Christians believe that God himself has told us how to speak of Him .

The second is a historical reason . Except for Judaism , all other known ancient religions had goddesses as well as gods . Furthermore , ‘ He ‘ is distinctive in its theology of the divine transcendence . As a man comes into a woman from without to make her pregnant , so God creates the universe from without rather than birthing it from within and impregnates our souls with grace or supernatural life from without . So as the universe cannot create itself , nor can the soul redeem itself . The masculine imagery safeguards :

 

1. The transcendence of God against the illusion that nature is born from God as a mother rather than as created
2. The grace of God against the illusion that we can somehow save ourselves .