16. God, Mom!
The Blessings of Breasts and Womb
- Sheila Lintott Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Published Online: 13 AUG 2010
DOI: 10.1002/9781444324525.ch16
Copyright © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Book Title
Motherhood - Philosophy for Everyone
Additional Information
How to Cite
Dunn, G. A. (2010) God, Mom!, in Motherhood - Philosophy for Everyone (ed S. Lintott), Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, UK. doi: 10.1002/9781444324525.ch16
Editor Information
Bucknell University, USA
Publication History
- Published Online: 13 AUG 2010
- Published Print: 24 SEP 2010
Book Series:
Book Series Editors:
- Fritz Allhoff
Series Editor Information
Western Michigan University, USA
ISBN Information
Print ISBN: 9781444330281
Online ISBN: 9781444324525
- Summary
- Chapter
Keywords:
- God, Mom! - the blessings of breasts and womb;
- suffering, a central theme in Job - being all about motherhood;
- “God is a woman” - Job doesn't curse God as Satan predicted he would;
- God's speech, judged by commentators - more of an end run around Job's complaints than a satisfactory response to them;
- Shadday originating within a paradigm of divine-human relations - highlighting God's role as guarantor of fertility;
- from mother goddesses to classical theism - “God is a woman,”or more precisely, a mother;
- if God is perfect, God is also immutable or unchanging - change in a perfect being, could only be for the worse;
- seeing God as epitome of maternal care - surpassing the very best of mortal mothers in nurturance;
- “Defective and misbegotten” - Thomas Aquinas's offensive theory, that women were “misbegotten” males;
- “The true mother of life and all things” - conception of God as Mother, fostering feelings of gratitude and arousing a desire to help others
Summary
This chapter contains sections titled:
“God is a woman”
From Mother Goddesses to Classical Theism
It's Like This
“Defective and misbegotten”
“The true mother of life and all things”
Mothers Made in the Image of God
Notes