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of God, it is not surprising that the old man, young man, and the bird have lingering influence. Look at the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo labored to make the ceiling the narrative of God, or the great works of Da Vinci, and you will discover how such images for God shape language. The robust figure of the bearded, gray-headed God reaching for Adam, who is similarly reaching toward God, is a hyper-masculinized picture of God and humanity. Our words, no less than these painted images, render a similar vision of God unless we learn new ways of speaking of the divine. Many translations, such as the NRSV, have moved the practice of inclusive language forward by including women and sisters in the texts but have left He as the primary pronoun for speaking of God. The challenge is that grammatical elides into biological gender in the minds of many. Far too many believe that God is literally male and that “Father language” rightly denotes God as ultimate progenitor.12 Rosemary Radford Ruether wrote early about this reality and urged us to use the full biblical witness: Although the predominantly male images and roles of God make Yahwism an agent of the sacralization of patriarchy, there are critical elements in Biblical theology that contradict this view of God.13
She then offers a vision of the prophetic God who undercuts ruling-class privilege and welcomes liberated
slaves as God’s own people. Rendering the character of God as liberating sovereign who creates a community of equals also deconstructs patriarchal authority. A third resource is the proscription of idolatry, which includes verbal pictures. We commit linguistic idolatry with our literal projections of biblical imagery. Finally, Ruether highlights equivalent images for God as male and female in Scripture.14
Many have dismissed inclusive language as “politically correct.” I believe it runs much deeper, however. It is
an attempt to speak justly about humans, and it strives to offer a vision of God beyond gender.
One of the reasons I have given attention to the Spirit of God in recent years is that it allows one to bypass
gendered language for God. Language of the Spirit allows us to imagine that God is beyond our anthropomorphic projections.15 The God who dwells eternally in the richness of trinitarian community invites us to new ways of imagining God with us, moving us beyond our exclusively masculine vision.
Changing language helps, but so does the embodied presence of women as pastoral leaders. Their very presence
renders a different vision of God.
I remember when I served as an interim pastor at the Deer Park Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, for a
few months in 1985. Two events stood out early in my time there. The first Sunday was baby dedication day, and one little boy had a bad ear infection. He was crying, distressed, and his parents were mortified. They handed him to me and, miraculously, he quieted. The whole congregation went “ooo!”; I took that to mean instant pastoral credibility. 13
2019 BICTE CONFERENCE