God as a Mother

Not only a Father: Talk of God as Mother in the Bible and Christian Tradition, by Tim Bulkeley.

Last year I took a paper on the book of Isaiah taught by Tim Bulkeley, formerly of Carey Bible College in Auckland, and now retired. As is normal with lecturers, he took the opportunity to promote his most recent book, the result of reworking his doctrinal thesis. I like these occasions because it gives me the opportunity to read books that I might not normally come across. Not only a Father is very thin (only 120 pages) which is a bonus when studying as reading quickly piles up. But also when Tim detailed what he was trying to do in it, it sounded really interesting. I had already come across some of the motherly language for God in the Bible, but when I sat down a few weeks ago to read Not only a Father, I was surprised to discover how much I had missed and how subtle some of the language was.

Tim argues that the language used for God in the Bible is not exclusively male, but includes numerous motherly images, which enable God to be described as caring and nurturing towards his creation, particularly humans. These references are particularly common in the Old Testament where they are so subtle that they are often overlooked. However, they are not exclusive to the Old Testament even though the mainstream fatherly language of God stems from Jesus’ use of “Father” for God in the Gospels. Matthew 23:37-39 (paralleled by Luke 13:34-35) is a clear example of motherly language where Jesus describes himself as a mother hen gathering her chicks. As Jesus is part of the Godhead this must be taken into account alongside his use of “Father”.

Even though in both testaments the masculine pronoun is used for God (there is no neuter gender in Hebrew, and it would seem weird to us to refer to God as “it”), this does not mean that he is male. As Tim points out, if God is considered to be purely male, then we are casting him in our own image and detracting from who he is as our creator and saviour. While it may seem weird to refer to God as “mother”, thinking of God as not exclusively male allows us to gain a broader understanding of the God we worship. It allows him not to be constrained by our own stereotypical notions of what it means to be a man or indeed a woman. And although our notions of what God is like will never be completely accurate, I believe that the inclusion of these motherly images of God moves our ideas about God closer to what he really is like.

The best thing about this book though, is that it is all available online. Tim has put the whole text up on his website (bigbible.org/mothergod/) so that people will be able to post comments and engage in discussions with each other about it. So, don’t just take my word for it that it is a good read. Check it out for yourselves.