Discussing
Louis C.K. and God as mom

A Saturday Night Live monologue by Louis C.K. touched on the likelihood of heaven, atheism and maternal images of God.

Louis CK's question to atheists made me laugh out loud. But I could not laugh with him at the idea that God did something sinister to our "heavenly mother". I think the main reason we call God Father is because that is what His Son Jesus called Him. It's not dogma; it's not paternalism; it's because our Lord Jesus Christ called Him Father: Adonai. Aside from God, He rarely calls Him anything else. I agree that all good things are given by God and that He created all that is wonderful and beautiful about motherhood, and that these are certainly qualities of His own character. But Jesus, who came from the Father, never calls God mother, nor speaks of Him as mother. He calls Him Father, and that is why I call God my Father.

Thanks for bringing up what we would lose if we were to only think of God in maternal terms, Chris. I think what Louis C.K.'s observations suggest - and Yolanda Pierce's Time article gets at explicitly - is that we don't necessarily have to choose one or the other, even if Jesus did speak of God as Father. After all, He was speaking to a highly paternalistic society. And the fact that echoes of that society can still be strongly heard today, especially in religious circles, makes Louis C.K.'s subversiveness worth considering.

I would be careful with how much we attribute Jesus only calling God Father to the paternalistic society He lived in. He was quite happy to shake up a whole lot of other doctrines after all. If He felt that needed correcting, He was well able to do it.

On the other hand, there are times in the Old Testament when God talks about His motherly qualities. He talks about leading Israel, "like a mother carries a nursing baby" (Num 11:12) and the Holy Spirit is addressed in the (grammatical) feminine in the OT too. Likewise, Paul says that his relationships with the Thessalonians was like that of a mother to her children (1 Thess 2:7).

Still, we do need to bear in mind Jesus' choice of address and the danger of trying to make Jesus' ministry conform to our society, much in the same way as the people around Him wanted Him to conform too. So, Jesus calling God "Father" should shape our practice but should also cause us to think about what He meant by it. Perhaps the real issue isn't whether God is "Mother" or "Father" but what those terms mean, or should mean to us.

After all, God creates life and through Jesus we are born again, yet giving birth is (thank goodness!) the job of a mother. Perhaps we need to rethink what fatherhood means.

Good point about Jesus shaking up the doctrines that He felt were in need of correcting, Jonathan (and the implication that understanding God as Father must not have been one of them). To me, this suggests that He thought it was good and helpful to address and think of God as Father. Does this necessarily mean it is incorrect and unhelpful to think of God as Mother? I'm not so sure.

I'm coming a little (really, very) late to the party, but I always find discussions of our metaphors for God to be fascinating. Louis C.K. brought the extra bonus of making it funny.

On the serious point, it's worth noting that for many earlier-medieval theologians and philosophers, a major reason why God was Father and not Mother was out of deference to Mary. Her faith and her role as Jesus's mother was seen as so central to the Gospel story, people like Augustine and Anselm and probably others were loath to name someone else as Jesus's Mother, so they settled on the Father analogy. But you often see metaphors of Christ birthing, even nursing, the Church; and it's a common theme in hagiographies of Eastern saints, even of Christ himself, to be described as lactating. It's a bit sad that we've gotten to the point where emphasizing the ay the more nurturing, creative side of human nature is also reflected in God is some sort of controversial stance for feminism.

Thanks for bringing my attention to this video, even though this post got filed away and never read until a while after you wrote it

Never too late to join the conversation, Marta. Thanks for sharing.