God-Talk limits
From the time humans first developed the capacity to verbally communicate, they looked to the heavens and developed varying beliefs in a power beyond their limited comprehension or understanding. This power is known by many today simply as God. Since the dawn of mankind, most religions have attempted to assign attributes to, or define, what God is. Mankind has an incredibly varied vocabulary and has among its population individuals possessing astonishing theological and analytical ability. Yet, we still lack the required spiritual consciousness to properly describe exactly what kind of being God is. When attempting to establish the meaning, or an attribute, of God, our decidedly limited linguistic ability has created a long series of self-imposed challenges. Theologians, philosophers and lay persons alike use "[...] figures of speech--allegories, metaphors, and similes-- [...]" (Marthaler 38) in an attempt to create or convey an understanding of what they think God is. After all the centuries of discussion, we still do not know (and many never know) what God actually represents. This knowledge may already be lost to history, or is defined in a religion existing today, or may be revealed to us at some point in the future. What we
Additionally, their historically important contributions were likely diminished and not fully recognized. Calling God "Father" was a logical and stately choice and naturally assigns a personal connotation with, AND closer connection to, God. Our acting as though we do will continue to cause concerns for us. No small undertaking for how does one assign a name to the Creator of all things, the Alpha and the Omega? Obviously, the name could not be something too familiar or undignified, nor could it be deemed disrespectful. Although Biblical history states Jesus referred to God as his actual father, there are certain feminists who object to the use of the reference. Jesus taught his disciples (and us) to call God "Father" (King James Bible, Matt. In the beginning chapter of her book, Rosemary Ruether makes a strong statement:"The uniqueness of feminist theology lies not in its use of the criterion of experience but rather in its use of women's experience, which has been almost entirely shut out of theological reflection in the past. " In the Christian faith, the use of the term "Father" (as in the Christian Creed) has come to signify something truly special. Since men are the physically stronger of the sexes, they have invariably written most of the world's history and in doing so, wrote themselves into seats of glory, power and authority.
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,
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Acceptance Essays
