My seminary friends and I were discussing God-the-Father and God-the-Mother existing as one step down from the Absolute, an Ultimate deity (in the Wisdom Traditions called “The Monad”) who is beyond gender, even beyond/above Creation.
Wikipedia articles give Christian and Jewish opinions:
- Gender of God in Christianity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_of_God_in_Christianity
“the majority of Christian denominations (with the notable exception of Mormonism) accept a God who transcends gender.â€
- Gender of God in Judaism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_of_God_in_Judaism
“’ G-d has no body, no genitalia, therefore the very idea that G-d is male or female is patently absurd. We refer to G-d using masculine terms simply for convenience’s sake, because Hebrew has no neutral gender; G-d is no more male than a table is.’”
This is some more information on the RCC position that God is genderless. http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s2c1p6.htm
III. “MALE AND FEMALE HE CREATED THEM”
Equality and difference willed by God
369 Man and woman have been created, which is to say, willed by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality as human persons; on the other, in their respective beings as man and woman. “Being man” or “being woman” is a reality which is good and willed by God: man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them immediately from God their Creator.240 Man and woman are both with one and the same dignity “in the image of God”. In their “being-man” and “being-woman”, they reflect the Creator’s wisdom and goodness.
370 In no way is God in man’s image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective “perfections” of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God: those of a mother and those of a father and husband.241
241 Cf. Isa 49:14-15; 66:13; Ps 131:2-3; Hos 11:1-4; Jer 3:4-19.
I lean toward the Kabbalistic understanding that God is genderless at highest level “Ain Sof” But male and female attributes are “emanations” of the Divine One, not actually male and female deities.
God, by definition, has to be all inclusive. Our natural fixation on male/female overlooks the fact that in other species Terran science has already identified between 17 and 50 other genders! All of these must, in some way, be reflections of some aspect of Deity in order to exist. ERgo, The Father IS The Mother, etc. I have begun to think in terms of Progenator, Begotten, and the Fire of Their Love. …
Would it be best not to attach form at all to adonai el eloiaynu for the all parent is formless and filled with light and denoting a polarity male/ female would take away from the supreme love that is present