She begins her book with “God values women.” God sure does, but you wouldn’t know that from some evangelicals. Their confused form of valuing is called assigning, as in roles. They give women a role, and they give men a role, and the man wins. That’s not valuing. That’s assigning.
Amy Peeler, in her new and important book, Women and the Gender of God, is the one who opens her book with “God values women.” Her book upends the assigning sense of valuing.
The problem, to repeat, is the misogyny often at work among evangelicals. Of course they won’t define it that way. They like to call their view “complementarianism” and they do so because “patriarchal” and “hierarchical” reveal that valuing means assigning.
Amy Peeler says it right when she says “Christians,” and she’s not just talking about the above groups, “have not lived up to the faith’s central anthropological claim – the imago Dei – with respect to women.” Again, the assigning sense of valuing does precisely that: it devalues the image of God.
But she will dig deeper in her book. “The deeper, often hidden, and therefore more insidious cause of Christianity’s failure to value women is that Christianity often gets God wrong.” Write that one down. It’s not simply an image of God problem but a God problem.
How so? “Many orthodox theologians, nonetheless, support masculine language and conceptions of God with analogical reasoning that is limited to males alone. God initiates like men initiate. God begets like men beget. God the Son was male like men are male.”
Yes, here is the issue: “Theology has consequences. It is easier to devalue and then mistreat those humans who are believed to be less like God.” The consequence of a bad view of God, which distorts valuing women into assigning them roles, is that such persons are less like their male God and thus can be devalued. Of course, she recognizes and will examine the masculine language about God in the Bible, but if Jesus reveals God then there is another way to understand God, Jesus, the Spirit, and women because Mary mother of Jesus is part of the equation.
Peeler’s Women and the Gender of God addresses both the conservatives “tight grip on the male-like masculinity of God” and those post-Christian critics who “dare interpreters to deny the seemingly obvious male God of the biblical text.”
Here are some of her major theses and claims:
“As the chief revelation of God, what is disclosed about God in the coming of Jesus Christ defines all knowledge of God.”
And, “The persons at work in this event, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and Mary of Nazareth, reveal that the heart of the Christian narrative rejects the damaging assumptions of God’s maleness.” As God goes, so goes Woman.
“My claim is this: the God revealed there harbors no preference for males because God the Father is not male and God the Son is male like no other.” That one can take some time to register.
And, “That God chose to reveal Godself to humanity, to redeem humanity, by taking on flesh, by being born of a woman sets the appropriate ways to conceive of God.” Mary important, not for her being assigned: “One cannot proclaim even the most basic Christian confession – Jesus is Lord – without assuming her. Without birth through a woman, Jesus of Nazareth did not live. The title ‘Mother of God’ is the indispensable prolegomenon to the gospel. If she is forgotten, the whole theological project goes askew.” Is this perhaps part of the problem for so many Protestants and evangelicals? Part, yes. Catholics and Orthodox, however, don’t rise to the right level of valuing either, so I would say.
“This God who honors women and does not favor men is revealed with dazzling clarity in the pregnancy that is the epicenter of the Christian faith.” The core theological doctrine for Peeler is the incarnation. “That God was born of a woman – the mode of the incarnation – determines how all Christians view the triune God as well as all people made in the divine image.” She finishes with a flourish: “the incarnation itself – the fact that God chose to have a mother – … proves true the audacious claim: God does indeed value women.”
It's Advent looking to Christmas, the Day of Incarnation.
“The deeper, often hidden, and therefore more insidious cause of Christianity’s failure to value women is that Christianity often gets God wrong.” Write that one down. It’s not simply an image of God problem but a God problem." Thank you for this wonderful post! On leaving 2 complementary churches I actually told several pastors that we don't worship the same god. I cannot worship comps god. I can only worship the God who is portrayed through the Bible, His personal actions in my life and others.
Scott, I'm so honored that you've made the time to consider my work and been so bold in sharing it. May it continue to encourage many in God's love and valuing of all people. I know it will do so even more because of your sharing of it. Thank you.