The Motherhood of the Holy Spirit

12th Century Trinity Fresco on Chapel Ceiling, Urschalling, Upper Bavaria

Is. 66:12-13

For this is what the Lord says:

“I will extend peace to her like a river,
    and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream;
you will nurse and be carried on her arm
    and dandled on her knees.
As a mother comforts her child,
    so will I comfort you;
    and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”

Anthropomorphism is ascribing human characteristics to nonhuman things. I suppose in some ways we can’t help it. Humanity is the form we know and relate to best. So, we tend to think about God with human characteristics. Like that bearded gentlemen extending his finger to Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Of course, there is that passage in Genesis in which human beings, both male and female, are made in God’s image. And the incarnation of God into the human person Jesus. So maybe thinking of God in human terms is not completely out of line.

But when I think of the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit, I think of the feminine – a mother. That’s how the 18^th century founder of the Moravians, Nicolas Von Zinzendorf referred to her. The Hebrew word for spirit – ruah – is a feminine word. And then there’s that part of the Nicene Creed which says, “we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.” So, if the Holy Spirit is the giver of life, if she is the presence of God (or Shekhina in Rabbinical literature – another feminine term), if she is the Comforter (John 14:26), and the Breath (Ruah) of God, then I say we picture her and refer to her in the feminine.

If we’re going to anthropomorphize God, let’s either do it without attributing gender, or embracing God in both male and female forms.