Father God

The Creation of God, by Harmonia Rosales

The Times reported from the Church of England synod that Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of York, acknowledged that for some people describing God as a father might be problematic.  The Daily Mail made the further predicable link to concern about the church becoming 'woke'.  'Anglican Ink' went on to remark that we should "follow the lead of Jesus rather that the Bishop of York".  But it's not 'father' that I have a problem with.  It's 'God'.

In Exodus chapter 15, Moses asks the voice coming for the burning bush 'who should I say has sent me?'  The answer came, "say the one called 'I am...' sent you."  Many jews still do not say or write the name of gd (they miss out the vowels when they have to.)  A number of Christian sects have also  taken the instruction to call God 'I am' or Jehovah.  

So my point is?

God came into the English language from Proto-Germanic origins. It's etymology is uncertain, but it may well go far back into the distant past to the Indus basin and Sanskrit.  The word is thought to derive from 'pour' or 'libate', as to honour or worship.  In the German it is definitely neuter.  And here is the problem.  Our culture is constrained by language, and by itself.  In English, the neuter ǵʰutós has become masculine.  In Greek we have Theo (to look at, to observe), and Latin, Deus .  This is not to be confused with the expression 'What the deuce', as the deuce here means 'two', and is associated with the devil.

Deus has it's own difficulties, and is likely to be linked to 'the sky', but we can also see it's similarity to Zeus.  

So it's just a word, and it's the meaning behind it that counts.  After a while we get used to all sorts of words and they become unique in themselves.  My surname might be 'idiot', but soon it just means 'my surname'.

It is fashionable these days to tell the world which 'pronouns' we want others to use.  Gender has become a big issue.  What do we do about this?

Jesus tells us that we have the privilege of being able to call 'God' our father (or abba). Many children in Leicester refer to their fathers as ap-ha.  They also say papa, which is used across Europe. Rather than being childish, it indicates the nature and quality of a relationship.  I still call my mother 'mum'.

So we do return to gender.  The problem with gender is that it has history, just like 'ethnicity'.  Gender and ethnicity cannot he considered without understanding the effects on them in society of  'power' and 'rank'.

I personally think that language is always evolving, and will continue to evolve.  We know that our creator certainly does not have a gender.  If we were inventing our language again from scratch, would God be neuter, and would we refer to God as our Parent rather than 'Father'?  We can't say this because we are constrained.