Go Beyond God's Gender
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
16 February
2023
Abrahamic God with All Male Characteristics and
Philological Trappings Like the Fundamental Christian Prayer, 'Our Father, Who
Art in Heaven' Contributed To Thinking of God with All Macho Attributes and
Basic Sanguinary Cruelties A Male Is Endowed With
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The specifics of the Chirch of England project are unclear.
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It's indeed
heartening to know that the Church of England is seriously considering
gender-neutral terms for god. Using he or she for god is the objectification,
nay personification, of god.
American
anthropologist and agnostic Ruth Benedict's 1887-1948) seminal essay “Who
created god and decided ITS gender” (originally from 'The Races of Mankind,'
1943) enumerated upon god's gender. She wrote that god, esp. the monotheistic
god of all three Semitic faiths was an existential construct by the early men
(gender-specific men with no role of women) for mere survival.
Our
prehistoric ancestors created god in their own image and imposed the male
identity on tithe role of predominant gender (read male) in linguistic
development of mankind further established god as a male.
Abrahamic
god with all male characteristics and philological trappings like the
fundamental Christian prayer, 'Our father, who art in heaven' contributed to
thinking of god with all macho attributes and basic sanguinary cruelties a male
is endowed with. Unlike the eastern concept of god as a transcendental spirit
without a specific gender, the Semitic god is a distinctly carved out male
entity despite claiming that god is formless. So, he/his/him were used and
female gender specifications were simply ignored. Ruth would always use IT for
god and publishing houses and publications also accepted her way of addressing
the imaginary being. Now when the gender differences are fading and ebbing
away, it's time for all of us to use gender-neutral terms for god.
Never in my
life have I used he or she for god and always resorted to calling and writing
IT. With the evolution of languages, human mind should also evolve and adapt to
new-fangled terms that are not blatantly gender specific. At the same time,
start writing god in lower case instead of God in upper case. Many European
publications have begun to write god and not God. Indian publications, viz,
TOI/DH/The Hindu/NAI etc. have always retained god and never God whenever I've
written to them. In fact, I argued in one of my articles in The Hindu, Open
Page as to why god must be written in lower case and never in upper case.
See my
article, ' The Makings Of A Theo-Lingual
Conspiracy?, 'June
28, 2016). People in India are so docile and lily-livered that they dare not
write god in lower case. Nor do teachers in schools teach the impressionable
kids that there can be two ways to write god and both are perfectly alright:
God as well as god. How many Indian teachers and lecturers of English are aware
of this and write god in lower case?
----
Also
Read:
Church Of England Explores
Gender-Neutral God, Critics Hit Back
By
Amit Chaturvedi
February
10, 2023
The Church
of England will look into how to use gender neutral terms to refer to God in
prayers. It, however, added there are no plans to abolish current services,
according to a report in the BBC. The outlet further said that the issue reflects
the growing awareness about the need to be conscious of the changing societal
norms. Gender neutrality is an idea that policies, languages and other social
institutions should avoid distinguishing roles according to people's sex or
gender.
As per The
Guardian, the church said it would launch a new commission on the matter in the
coming months. However, any potential departure from the existing rules would
have to be approved by synod, the church's top decision-making body.
"After
some dialogue between the two commissions in this area, a new joint project on
gendered language will begin this spring," said Rt Rev Dr Michael Ipgrave,
Bishop of Lichfield and vice-chair of the liturgical commission responsible for
the matter.
"In
common with other potential changes to authorised liturgical provision,
changing the wording and number of authorised forms of absolution would require
a full synodical process for approval," he added.
He said
that the church had been exploring the use of gendered language in relation to
God for several years.
The
specifics of the project are unclear, The Guardian report said, giving examples
such as what would replace the term Our Father in the Lord's Prayer.
Conservative
critics have hit back at the suggestion with the Rev Dr Ian Paul telling the
Telegraph that they would represent an abandonment of the Church's own
doctrine.
"The
fact that God is called 'Father' can't be substituted by 'Mother' without
changing meaning, nor can it be gender-neutralised to 'Parent' without loss of
meaning," he said.
Source: Church Of England Explores
Gender-Neutral God, Critics Hit Back
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul
is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He
has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several
languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/god-gender-philological/d/129118
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