Gender of God
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The gender of God can be viewed as a literal or as an allegorical aspect of a deity. In polytheistic religions, gods are more likely to have literal sexes which would enable them to interact with each other, and even with humans, in a sexual way.
In most monotheistic religions, one cannot apply a gender to God in the usual sense, as God's attributes cannot be compared to those of any other being. Thus, the idea of a "divine gender" is ultimately considered an analogy, used by humans in order to better relate to the concept of God, with no sexual connotation.
God is an intangible spirit in most religions and is therefore thought to have no gender. The preponderance of references to God in both the Old and New Testaments are in the context of a masculine reference, often "Father". However, there are a significant number of feminine allegorical references to God, most often in some maternal role.
See also
- Ardhanarishvara
- Feminism
- Gender and religion
- Gender in Bible translation
- God (male deity)
- Goddess
- Goddess movement
- "God Is a Girl" (2002)
- "God Is a Woman" (2018)
- Radha Krishna
- Sky father
- The Hebrew Goddess
- Thealogy
