Spirituality and the Divine Feminine

continued from my examiner column http://www.examiner.com/interfaith-spirituality-in-columbus/spirituality-mother-of-god-and-the-divine-feminine

Scholars of the world’s great religions enlighten us with practices and manifestations of the deity in Buddhism, and Hinduism which embrace the female principle; the divine feminine, through differing manifestations such as Kwan Yin, Durga, Parvati, Sita, etc.

Valerie Kaur, a Sikh writes about ‘Women as Equals’ in http://www.sikhwomen.com/ ‘A drastic distinction between the roles of the male and female exists in all the history of modern human societies. Women have grown to accept, not without resentment though, the male-dominated atmosphere of the world. Because people use religious doctrine to define their life styles, religious views in both the East and the West seem to condone, even encourage, the unequal treatment of women. In the 15th century, Guru Nanak established Sikhism, the first religion to advocate emphatically the equality of all people, especially women. In a continent characterized by severe degradation of women, this bold declaration, along with others, determined to erase the impurities of the Indian society. However, prejudices and injustices based on gender linger even today.’

She cites the following references from Sikh scripture: (SGGS Page 473 Shabad 1748) ‘From woman, man is born; within woman, man is conceived; to woman he is engaged and married. Woman becomes his friend; through woman, the future generations come. When his woman dies, he seeks another woman; to woman he is bound. So why call her bad? From her, kings are born. From woman, woman is born; without woman, there would be no one at all. O Nanak, only the True Lord is without a woman. That mouth which praises the Lord continually is blessed and beautiful. O Nanak, those faces shall be radiant in the Court of the True Lord.'

From (2)’SGGS Page 604 Shabad 2292 ‘The Beloved Himself enjoys every heart; He is contained within every woman and man. O Nanak, the Beloved is pervading everywhere, but He is hidden; through the Guru, He is revealed. '

And from (4,2)’SGGS Page 223 Shabad 706 ‘In the earth and in the sky, I do not see any second. Among all the women and the men, His Light is shining. (3)’

The famed 'Father of the Protestant Reformation', Martin Luther has plenty to say on the role of women, writing in a similar medieval time frame. “The word and works of God is quite clear, that women were made either to be wives or prostitutes.” Works 12.94
“Even though they grow weary and wear themselves out with child-bearing, it does not matter; let them go on bearing children till they die, that is what they are there for.” Works 20.84 Yet his writing on marriage and his love for wife Katy are splendidly inspiring. Its all about CONTEXT and the HISTORICAL/CULTURAL ground. It seems necessary to take a broad view and a long view and then a depth view.

There are many feminist and womanist scholars who undertake research to mine
the depths of history, anthropology and culture to provide us more complete pictures
of the nuances of belief, doctrine, practice and how they affect us politically, culturally
and socially. For instance in the book ‘‘Women, Men, and the Bible’ Virginia Ramey Mollenkott has argued on a deeper level that Jesus’ mission was to exemplify a new way of relating, contrary to traditional dominance-submission patterns. Jesus came as the suffering servant rather than the Davidic ruler man Jews expected. He modeled mutual submission and reciprocal respect. Only as a male could he effectively model this since women and slaves were already in submission by cultural decree.’ P41 Inclusive Language in the Church.

The author, Nancy Hardesty points out that Jesus became flesh, not male; it is a case of God becoming ‘human’. Thus, ‘son of god’ might better be translated as, ‘child of God’. A Hebrew feminine gender word for God’s presence is 'Shekinah' or divine energy and power which fills us with intelligence and skill. A Presbyterian pastor was careful during the ‘80’s movement to gender-neutralize patriarchal language to note that ‘God’ should be seen as neither male nor female but ‘Spirit’. Language is ever important to us because it shapes our beliefs and core values.

Hardesty cites another example of mis-translation where 'King James Translators made the deacon Phoebe in Romans 16:1 a ‘servant of the church’; the NAS and NIV translations repeat the error. The New English claims she ‘holds office’ and Revised Standard calls her ‘a deaconess.’ The Living Bible calls her ‘a dear Christian woman’ and yet the same word gets rendered ‘minister’ when applied to Paul and Apollos and male officers of the church.’ p 78. She says, p 80 ‘many texts of Scripture are made to appear much more male-oriented than they are in the Greek and Hebrew.’ It is a caution to us all in the 21st century to listen with care, read with diligence, question the source and know that human beings are equally valued in the Kingdom of God and should be treated as such.

[photograph is by Jastrow, 2006 from the Vatican Museums Pio Clemention, Sala a Croce Greca from Tusculum. The Roman mosaic is of Tondo with Athena and aegis. It dates from the 3rd century CE framed with a modern mosaic from the 18th century.]