The Feminine Imago Dei

This is part of the second of two papers I submitted for my most recent deadline. It fulfils a unit called “Experiential Project with a Theological Reflection.” You’ll notice that this one is much more personal, since I reflected on my experience in ministry as a single woman. For the actual paper, I incorporated the experience of several other women. This post is only my own experience, and as with my previous post, I’m very happy to send you the full paper if you get in touch with me personally! I learned so much about myself and how to see God in new ways through writing this paper, and I’m excited to share some of what I discovered here!

I first felt my own call to ministry when I was fifteen years old. I was training to be on staff at a summer camp, and I felt something light up inside at the opportunity to disciple young people by engaging them in relationship and sharing what God was teaching me. From that week on, I knew that my life’s work would always be about teaching young people to love God. This call took me to a private university after graduating high school, where I completed a degree in Christian Ministries. During that time, I became the intern in the student ministries of my new church. The theory I learned in classes alongside hands-on ministry experience confirmed my calling as I found fulfilment and joy in discipling students.

It was not until I arrived at university that I learned about the controversy of women in ministry. I was confused by the positive and negative reactions I got when sharing my calling because I knew I had gifts for teaching and leadership in the church, confirmed by trusted mentors and peers, and I had already started using and strengthening those gifts. I did not know that many churches would severely limit the roles I could hold because of how they read Scripture. I realised then within the church I grew up in, women could be on staff and teach youth, but they were never given the title of pastor or the opportunity to teach to the general congregation. These barriers did not make sense to me because I had been greatly influenced by the leadership and teaching of both men and women working in youth ministry.

I also found that my desire for a meaningful career was off-putting for those who came from contexts that held to traditional family structures. Many of my male professors and other youth pastors talked as if it was assumed that I could work in the church until I had children, at which time I would automatically step down to be a stay-at-home mother. The same assumption was not made for the men on my course since culturally it is more acceptable for men with families to work outside the home, and it frustrated me that these people who did not know me or my call made that assumption for me.

These types of interactions caused me to question my calling and place in the church as I prepared to graduate and start a ministry career, unmarried. If my most valuable contribution to the church was, as many communicated implicitly and explicitly, as a wife and mother, what value do I have without those roles to define me as a woman? While I do have a desire to be married and have children, I struggled to find definition and expression of femininity without that. Ultimately, I chose to believe that I have value in the church for myself, but I needed to understand how much being female does and should affect my life, my ministry, and my relationship with God. I could see that I as a female add something unique and valuable to youth ministry because I thought, felt, and acted differently than my male peers. My feminine nature creates different community, and my female voice is necessary to speak to the needs of the ministry, especially for young girls. Outside of ministry, I experienced an incredibly beautiful image of God in my community of women. We constantly pour ourselves out for each other knowing we will be poured back into, demonstrating God’s love in sisterhood. I wanted to find a way for female expression and relationship to be celebrated and encouraged. 

When looking for ministry positions, I heard back from many churches that I was not qualified enough for the youth pastor position, but that I should apply for an open children’s ministry position, even though I am not called or qualified for children’s ministry. I have sat at tables full of men who do not know how under-represented half their ministry is. I have heard countless times the deliverer of a sexist joke justify it, saying it was “made in love,” not understanding its true demeaning nature, or how that language and attitude draws divisive lines when we should be working towards unity in the church. I have felt overlooked, dismissed, and unheard. Despite all this, I know my value lies in the power of the image of God, and I hold fast to my conviction of being called to youth ministry. The limits imposed on me by some in the church do not align with my calling and gifts and, more importantly, with what I believe Scripture says.

So God created humankind 
     in his image, 
in the image of God he 
     created them, 
male and female he
    created them. (Gen 1.27)

From the beginning, humankind was made in two genders, both in the image of God. I argue that the creation account tells us that one gender is not more valuable than the other, nor does one more fully reflect and bear the image of God than the other.

For the image of God to be redeemed within humanity for both men and women, we first need to understand God. Godlikeness is not found in being male, but that is not what our language of God communicates. In the majority of church tradition, God is referred to as “he,” with his traditionally male aspects emphasised. It is with few exceptions until the emergence of feminist theology within the twentieth century that women have begun to question this assumption, and it has been to the detriment of our understanding of God and the flourishing of his kingdom.

Lest you think I am suggesting we throw out all gendered language of God, please hear me: there is value to knowing God through our human understanding of gender. Jesus taught us to pray to God the Father, which personally brings me great comfort and understand his fatherly protection and provision. However, praying to God the Father does not mean we cannot also understand him as Mother, since God reveals himself as mother: “As a mother comforts her child,/ so I will comfort you.” (Isaiah 66:13) All the names of God help us to know him more deeply, as well as ourselves and our relationship to him, which leads to better relationships between people. Some names and images of God may speak to us more powerfully in different seasons for different reasons, but we need them all. The beauty of a loving mother-daughter relationship is caught up in God’s image, and we lose that if we ignore God’s femininity. Femininity is a gift that allows women to know God. They do not have to relate to a God who does not know what it is to be female, nor do they have to look outside of God for a definition of female and femininity. 

Understanding God in his fullness helps us to understand ourselves because we were made with the imago dei, and that includes gender. There is value to the distinction between male and female in both body and spirit because female will always be included in any identity I hold: female Christian, female student, female pastor, daughter. The way I reflect the imago Dei is from femininity. Yet eschatologically, we transcend the need for gendered definition. Paul’s formative statement, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus”(Gal 3:28) describes a new reality of being because new life in Christ is now available. The only distinction that matters here is dead or alive, old or new, redeemed and free or enslaved to sin. These are the lines kingdom of God draws, and one is saved not by his or her race, class, or gender, but by being in Christ.

We need redemption, not because we are women, but because we are lost people who have identified with the world and the flesh and who are invited into relationship with the Creator.

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Though parts of my ministry journey have been difficult, I found freedom when I stopped focusing on what I can or cannot do, and instead served the people God put into my life that need to experience his love. God has not asked me to change the minds of church leaders so that I can hold any leadership position; he has called me to teach people how to love him, inviting others to live out God’s identity for them. Being feminine in ministry does not mean being demure, submissive, or timid because God’s love is not passive. This reflects the feminine God (sometimes named Sophia), who speaks out boldly against injustice (Proverbs 8:20) because it is an injustice when women are denied the ability to pursue their calling. It damages not only the women in leadership, but the entire church. During my ministry internship, I found that more often than not, what was needed from me as the only woman in youth ministry staff meetings was a strong voice bringing to attention the young girls in the ministry whose experience was not known to my male co-workers. I am feminine in ministry because I embody Sophia God in the way that I listen, comfort, toil, support, strengthen, and love. 

The church needs women being feminine in ministry in order to wholly carry out its mission. Young women need role models because they need to see they too have a place in the church alongside the men. They need spiritual mothers reflecting God as Mother, who could be single or married woman, as well as spiritual fathers reflecting God as Father. When a woman’s relationship with God is the foundation of her ministry, she does not need to fear getting lost in ministry by giving herself completely. Being enveloped by God is losing ourselves in him so that the first relationship that defines us is our relationship with him. The body of Christ suffers when some of its members lack identity and freedom, and each has a part to play as we “nudge” each other toward a new whole of humanity. Sometimes the work may look like a conversation around a welcoming table; other times it may feel more like a fight on a battlefield. Either way, our understanding of the imago Dei in individuals and communities informs our response to injustice, whether that is male-dominated language of God, under-represented women in the church, or more serious injustices to women across the world. 

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The project of feminist theology cannot be undertaken only by women to be successful and open the way for human flourishing; all women and men have a part to play to contribute to the unity of the body of Christ, since “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” (1 Cor 12:12-27) Zoe Bennett Moore writes, “Flourishing speaks of growth and thriving, of beauty and nourishment…A community flourishes when it is rooted and grounded in that which gives life—in the presence of God and in the practice of justice and love.” (Introducing Feminist Perspectives) The church must examine its traditions, practices, and culture to look for ways where it inhibits movement toward the new whole. Each individual must look at his or her own relationships, heart posture, and language to examine honestly how well he or she loves others. When the imago Dei flourishes in individuals, it flourishes in the community. By the grace of God, the imago Dei has the power to work within each of us to transform the self and the community.