Male Divine in Contemporary Culture

The theologist in this article questions the gender of god in the face of the onslaught of the question of the female divine; the varied criticisms and the study of the scriptures where God declares to Moses “I am that I am.” The article goes on to defend the male divine in that it argues from religious studies, scriptures and published studies the male nature of God from a Christian’s standpoint. Taking on certain criticisms and arguing against them point by point, the article is a reaction to the threat of women’s liberation and the wave of studies on the female divine. The author of this article goes on to reiterate the actions taken on by other religions to fall into a certain political correctness when discussing god, removing his gender which the author believes is confusing. Since the establishment of early Christianity as God is seen as the “Holy father” and Jesus as His “only Son”, the author of this article argues that God has no gender and that even with the male divine argument, God exists outside sexual differentiation. The attributes of the Male divine in God is due to the fatherhood personified in human worship of 'Him ' and the female attributes come from the “female acts” that God is seen to perform according to the scriptures. Even then, the question of God 's gender in this article while 'made invalid ' due to God 's “otherhood” still pronounces the “male divine” being that 'God ' even from a Christian viewpoint due to the Jewish patriarchal nature of the Old Testament being that Jewish Theology is heavy on male transcendence. Judaism sees patriarchy as the mandate of giving life and of making reality - women need the male to “be heavy with child”, to look after the family, to carry the line from generation to generation. Thompson however argues that while this is so, the Male Divine is just a manifestation of the “wholeness” that is “God the Holy Spirit” and “Spirits” do not inhibit a corporeal body so gender does not limit them. He goes on to argue that the male divine is made so because it was God who commanded man to refer to him in the masculine as the scripture made it clear - "O Jehovah, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. Shall the potter be esteemed as clay; that the thing made should say of him that made it, “He made me not”; or the thing formed say of him that formed it, ‘He hath no understanding’?" (Isaiah 64:8; 29:16). The article concludes that it is not any mortal 's prerogative to question what God commanded making the “male divine”, according to the author a “God ordained belief” from a Christian standpoint.

Works Cited
Ben Thompson, P. (2000, March). Is God Male? Retrieved October 9, 2010, from Apologetics Press: http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2167

Cited: Ben Thompson, P. (2000, March). Is God Male? Retrieved October 9, 2010, from Apologetics Press: http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2167