In light of this extra-institutional awareness of woman's standing, the proper account of origins is a simultaneous creation of both sexes, in which man and woman are different aspects of the same divine image. "In the image of God He created him. Male and female He created them" (Gen. 1:227).
The decision to place in sequence two ostensibly contradictory accounts of the same event is an approximate narrative equivalent to the technique of post-Cubist painting which gives us, for example, juxtaposed or superimposed, a profile and a frontal perspective of the same face. The ordinary eye could never see these two at once, but it is the painter's prerogative to represent them as a simultaneous perception within the visual frame of his painting, whether merely to explore the formal relations between the two views or to provide an encompassing representation of his subject.
Analogously, the Hebrew writer takes advantage of the composite nature of his art to give us a tension of views that will govern most of the biblical stories -- first, woman as man's equal sharer in dominion, standing exactly in the same relation to God as he; then, woman as man's subservient helpmate, whose weakness and blandishments will bring such woe into the world.
--Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative, pages 145-46
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Okay. I have to admit that this conversation has me completely baffled. Here is Shawna's explanation for using the term "Godde."
"Why Godde and not God? Godde is combination of God and Goddess to show that the Divine transcends gender: Godde is neither male nor female and both male and female since Godde created both men and women in the image of Godde. I believe that Godde is Mother as well as Father. Instead of using the standard Lord that’s used to translate Yahweh in the Hebrew Scriptures, I use Sophia-Yahweh or Sophia. I will lean more towards feminine references to Godde on my blog as masculine references are just about all you hear in church and society to refer to Godde. I use exclusively feminine pronouns for Godde for this reason as well. You’ll be seeing Sophia and Mother a lot on this blog, and I hope it doesn’t offend you. I hope it will help you to see Godde in new ways and start to walk on new paths with this Godde who cries out like a woman in labor to bring forth her people and nurses them at her own breast (Deut. 32:18, Psalm 22:10; 131:2; Isaiah 42:14; 49:15; 66:13)."
http://www.shawnaatteberry.com/2010/08/07/why-godde/
This is the third google search result for "godde." However, I had read it when it was originally written and have been quite puzzled by the conversation here.
I understand two things. Shawn is using Godde to show that God transcends gender. She is also using the feminine pronoun in the same way that masculine pronouns has been used for millenia by others who claim that God transcends gender.
It is possible that Shawn is not aware that the "e" ending on Godde suggests that it is a feminine word rather than one which transcends gender. But that is an artefact of Indo-European lingistics and does not invalidate her assertion that Godde transcends gender.
I think that we seriously lack an understanding of what it has meant to both men and women, that God has been assigned masculine gender at least in a social sense for the last few millenia.
In protestant Christianity, men always have same gender identity as a symbol of power in their minds. Women never have. This is devastating. I can honestly say that I don't think people really understand how distorting and painful this is. The psychic pain of finding that I and my brothers have been members of two completely different religions our entire life is distresssing. They belong to a religion where God is in the image of their own identity. And I am a member of a religion where God is never in the image of my identity.
Shawna also has more to say on why she has chosen Godde. Two reasons -
One, Godde is the Old English for the masculine God.
Two, Godde appears to have a feminine ending to us.
So, it includes a connotation of both masculine and feminine.
I don't seek the redress that Shawna does, but I do understand it. As you know, my own faith and practice, my interpretation of the Bible, is grounded in a rather old fashioned scholarship, but I did enjoy the Book of J on your recommendation. Thank you so much for that.
So, I think that the purpose of a divine feminine version might be to offer women the experience that men have enjoyed for the last few thousand years - to see what it feels like to read about God as being of one's own social gender.
It is a truly revolutionary experience for women. I can only say that I am shocked when I read of God as feminine, to think that this is how men are raised, with God being of their own gender. it is astounding to me that more is not made of this, rather than less.
But your display of distate at the divine feminine, resembles my distate of the divine masculine, so I understand it.
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