Lady Wisdom: A Feminist Analysis

Today, in current modern society, women and men are continuingly questioning traditional biblical teachings about deity. Even though numerous people claim that God is beyond gender, history constitutes as evidence of referring God to “Him” as masculine and addressing Him as Lord, King, and Father, further providing a strong conditioning factor in our lives, whether one is religious or not. Rituals and duties have been placed in the hands of men, and the hierarchy has been put firmly in place, therefore revealing that their worth has been subordinated and demeaned in the structures of both society and church. Modern feminists and research reveal that this assumption is mistaken as Lady Wisdom’s attributes and various other examples prove

Women have experienced past struggles against centuries long discrimination on the basis of gender and through Elizabeth A. Johnson’s novel, she reveals women’s encounter with the liberating God of life through a feminist theologian perspective. Simone de Beauvoir descripted woman as being the “second sex” conveying how they are an inferior sex compared to men (Johnson 90). Although a Christian hymn declares that “there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in the Christ Jesus”, women have been subjected to having no voice in the church’s doctrine or law and have been banned from governing (Johnson 91). Especially for women of color, they are more prone to being victims of oppression and therefore struggle with relating to God. Furthermore, Christian tradition is deeply rooted with constant male images of God. Whether it be scriptures or hymn, God is persistently referred to as father, lord, or king, perpetuating and creating more commonalities between maleness and divinity. So how can women go about in breaking out of the limiting context in which they received

Within the advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” Lady Wisdom is present in plain sight as it states, “O come thou Wisdom from on high, who orders all things mightily to us the path of knowledge show” (Johnson 104). In addition to Lady Wisdom’s presence in Christian scripts, a bona fide symphony of images enables women and girls to acknowledge themselves in the language about God. In Hebrew, for example, the feminine noun ruah is the Spirit of God and is frequently depicted in Christian art as a dove. Not only that, but representations of God as a woman are depicted in psalms and parables and within a contemporary viewpoint, God as a woman is shown through the Hispanic community as the grandmother, the abuela, is a key wisdom figure in the family. The myth of gender dualism had been cultivated by the ignorance of the reproduction methods of humans. It is now understood that just as God does not have animal traits, the Holy does not have dualistically arranged masculine and feminine