Female Monotheistic God?

[jahenders]

The best bets to the WI would either be:
1) ISIS somehow becoming a predominant aspect of Egyptian mythos and then spreading

2) Some Celtic/Pagan female deity becoming central to that mythos and spreading.

BTW, just to inform of other views ... I believe that God the Father (and the son and the Holy Spirit) all to be intrinsically male. Even though the Holy Spirit lacks a physical body, his spirit is male. That being said, I also believe we have a Heavenly Mother who, though not a member of the Godhead, was God the Father's partner in creating all of our spirits.

 

[Minchandre]

I understand what you all are saying about how technically God isn't gendered, but lets face it, God is referred to as 'he' at least in all English texts, God is the 'father' an explicitly male text adverb, and all drawings and representations of God are drawn male.

When I asked, I was specifically thinking along the lines of having the Abrahamic god as a woman.

Also, could a possible way be the polytheistic faith that evolved into Judaism, instead of having a male figure become the one God, could a female god have become that. Like, using Greek Paganism as an example, could maybe Athena, one of the more revered goddesses (hell, even Greece's greatest city was named after her, not Zeus), have developed to become the singular God.

My point was: God isn't explicitly male; rather, God is genderless, and the realities of the Hebrew (and Greek and Arabic and Latin and English and...) languages make him so.

A female God would either require a language that defaults to the female, or an explicitly female God. Any explicit gender is sort of counter to the Abrahamic god in "raw" form, though, again, I point out the Trinity.

 

[Ridwan Asher]

Really? I didn't know that. I must admit, I am embarrassingly knowledgeable about Islam. It's not something they teach you about too much the the American south.

Would it be possible to have at least a majority of adverbs about Allah being feminine?

I don't think so, since Arabic culture has been very masculine. But the name "Allah" is kind of feminine sounding in Arabic, though it just means "The God"(Al-Ilah). Though some of "His" adverb actually is feminine, like Adz-Dzah. Allah is genderless because Islamic religion is totally serious about the exceptionality and superiority of The One and Only God over absolutely everything, all of which is "His" creation without exception. So obviously "He" is superior and different from his creation in the very essence, and thus "He" is comparable to none.

 

[jahenders]

It's far from a universal belief that God is genderless. I understand how linguistic structures and pronouns CAN drive interpretation of gender without intent. However, that does NOT mean that's WHY God is shown as male in scripture.

I do agree that it might have been harder for a clearly female deity to have a broad following in the ancient middle East/Europe. However, I guess if She appeared enough, was blatantly female and developed a strong, organized following, I guess it could have caught on. After all, the Ancient Israelites fell away from following God and started following a golden calf, not to mention various groups worshipping animals, trees, etc.

My point was: God isn't explicitly male; rather, God is genderless, and the realities of the Hebrew (and Greek and Arabic and Latin and English and...) languages make him so.

A female God would either require a language that defaults to the female, or an explicitly female God. Any explicit gender is sort of counter to the Abrahamic god in "raw" form, though, again, I point out the Trinity.

 

[John7755 يوحنا]

It's far from a universal belief that God is genderless. I understand how linguistic structures and pronouns CAN drive interpretation of gender without intent. However, that does NOT mean that's WHY God is shown as male in scripture.

I do agree that it might have been harder for a clearly female deity to have a broad following in the ancient middle East/Europe. However, I guess if She appeared enough, was blatantly female and developed a strong, organized following, I guess it could have caught on. After all, the Ancient Israelites fell away from following God and started following a golden calf, not to mention various groups worshipping animals, trees, etc.

The worship of Isis comes to mind. If we can remove the secret types of worship and the overall mystery element from the religion it would be possible for it to become quite a powerful religion in Europe. Also it would help if Isis worshipers were more zealous and refused to worship any other God, perhaps then Isis could truly spread and resist the Roman deities and authorities from just adopting Isis into the official pantheon.

 

[gochisox]

i remeber reading that early on that Jesus was much more feminized then he is now, his early statues and paintings were based off the god Apollo, (no beard, hairless, more feminine face). The Basilica di San Vitale's arian baptistery is a very good example of the early Jesus face. Ive heard it wasent until Mary became such a powerful feminime figure for worship that Jesus became the manly man he is today, before he was much more feminem. So if you keep Mary from become the Virgin Mary and keep Arian and other non-Nicaean belief systems strong, you have a building block for a sect to give a female god, would be tough though.

PS, even in the Renaissance Jesus was not always manly man, just take a look at Quirizio da Murano, The Savior, its Jesus wearing a dress.

 

[Kalontas]

I remember reading about the ancient Israel struggling at one point with cults that still worshiped Asherah (El's or Yahweh's wife and queen) even in the era when the divine cult was reserved to El Elyon (but before the existence of other gods was completely denied). Perhaps those cults can spin off and learn from some Mother Earth non-organized cults to develop into an Abrahamic cult of a mother goddess. Call them Asherist (which might cause some confusion with worshipers of Ashur...)

 

[DominusNovus]

BTW, just to inform of other views ... I believe that God the Father (and the son and the Holy Spirit) all to be intrinsically male. Even though the Holy Spirit lacks a physical body, his spirit is male. That being said, I also believe we have a Heavenly Mother who, though not a member of the Godhead, was God the Father's partner in creating all of our spirits.

All well and good, but the only major religion that explicitly ascribes a sex to the God of Abraham is Mormonism, in my understanding. That said, from a theological perspective, the structure you just described is more henotheistic than monotheistic.

 

[Tanc49]

I really like the idea someone mentioned above of the cult of Mary spinning of into a life of its own, or a NT God being more female.

About God being genderless, in Christian tradition, he is clearly male, look at the Sixtine Chapel.

The problem is that you'd need that spinoff very early. Peter, the first pope, was a massive misogynistic and developed a lot of traditions against women. You have a short time window before he becomes pope but after Jesus died to make it happen.

What if Magdalene is more important? As in, she becomes more proeminent, betraying Jesus three times and the like? She'd then become the first pope and you'd have a shot at such a spinoff

 

[Edwardx]

After reading this thread all i could think about was the Faith of the Seven from A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) and how it revolves around a single god with 7 faces, 3 male (father, warrior, smith), 3 female (mother, maiden, crone) and one with no gender (the stranger i.e. death).

I know this has little bearing on the actual discussion but it felt relevant given that it was suggested about having a mother in the trinity.

 

[RPW@Cy]

It was quite common in some strands of early Christianity to refer to the Holy Spirit as female, particularly among Gnostic groups, though it was eventually rejected by the forerunners of the mainstream churches. Allow this identification to be preserved and given the prominence of the Holy Spirit in mainstream worship you will be a good way there - a situation where God the Father recedes into the background as more of an Old Testament figure while the Holy Spirit is seen as the day to day aspect of God for Christians (with jesus taking care of specifically masculine issues) should take you the rest of the way.

 

[jahenders]

If she somehow became a single deity, instead of one of several, and THEN her worship became prevalent enough that Yahweh's never caught on, then that could be a basis.

I remember reading about the ancient Israel struggling at one point with cults that still worshiped Asherah (El's or Yahweh's wife and queen) even in the era when the divine cult was reserved to El Elyon (but before the existence of other gods was completely denied). Perhaps those cults can spin off and learn from some Mother Earth non-organized cults to develop into an Abrahamic cult of a mother goddess. Call them Asherist (which might cause some confusion with worshipers of Ashur...)

 

[jahenders]

I don't think it's the only one and I would argue that if you were to ask most Christians they would say that God is male.

The structure I described is no more henotheistic than the trinity -- it's simply a different view of the trinity, which has often been a somewhat nebulous and/or contentious issue (e.g. Arianism) in Christianity.

All well and good, but the only major religion that explicitly ascribes a sex to the God of Abraham is Mormonism, in my understanding. That said, from a theological perspective, the structure you just described is more henotheistic than monotheistic.

 

[The Professor]

I don't think it's the only one and I would argue that if you were to ask most Christians they would say that God is male.

The structure I described is no more henotheistic than the trinity -- it's simply a different view of the trinity, which has often been a somewhat nebulous and/or contentious issue (e.g. Arianism) in Christianity.

And considering the original ME triad of El/Yah the father, Asherah the mother, and Baal/etc the resurrecting son, it could have been thought to be the more likely outcome.
In any event it is difficult to create a monetheistic female god without also ranking women above men socially

 

[Simreeve]

"Great is Diana of the Ephesians!"

 

[John7755 يوحنا]

And considering the original ME triad of El/Yah the father, Asherah the mother, and Baal/etc the resurrecting son, it could have been thought to be the more likely outcome.
In any event it is difficult to create a monetheistic female god without also ranking women above men socially

I don't know about this, Baal was primarirly associated with the Levant and for the most part as were the other two and were rarely worshiped outside of the west central Semitic world. So to get the three worshipped as a odd trinity of sorts you would need those peoples (Aramaens perhaps?) dominate Mesopotamia. Although it would be cool to see a codefied religion that worships Asherah "she who treads on the sea".

 

[The Professor]

I don't know about this, Baal was primarirly associated with the Levant and for the most part as were the other two and were rarely worshiped outside of the west central Semitic world. So to get the three worshipped as a odd trinity of sorts you would need those peoples (Aramaens perhaps?) dominate Mesopotamia. Although it would be cool to see a codefied religion that worships Asherah "she who treads on the sea".

Well I may be wrong with it being Baal since the Punics tended to conflate him with El.
But being nonmesopotamian didn't stop the spread of Judaism OTL so if we go by this triad being an ATL Judaism we could see it spread and a form of it get adopted by Greeks and the Romans (if they still develop as OTL)