Towards the end
of the last century, Christianity went through a phase where there
was an interest in making liturgy and the bible more “inclusive.”
Anywhere the previous translators use the word “He” or “Him,” the
word God or something else was substituted. The “male” references
to God began to disappear from worship services around the country.
Our theology
teaches that Man was created in the image of God and that Man
includes both male and female. Spiritually and physically male and
female are slightly different. We all know the physical
differences, but what are the spiritual differences? Swedenborg
taught that a male spiritually has wisdom outwardly and love
inwardly. A female spiritually has love outwardly and wisdom
inwardly. Love is drawn to Wisdom and Wisdom is drawn to Love.
Swedenborg’s
concept of conjugal love is a spiritual marriage of the male and
female. He explains that in Heaven, those in conjugal love appear
as one because the outer love of the female has connected with the
inner love of the male and the outward wisdom of the male has
connected with the inner wisdom of the female. There is a
correspondence in heaven of the bride and the bridegroom. The
church is signified by the bride and God is signified as the
bridegroom. This is an interesting correspondence because of the
male representation of God.
So why did the
Bible translators use the words He and Him when referring to God? I
have read about the translation of the bible from Greek into English
and find it interesting that the Greek word for Him (with a capitol
H) often stood for “he, she, it.” We know that many languages have
male and female pronouns for words and that some of what was written
in the bible was limited to the language of the day. For example in
French, most words are either male or female - the pronoun used will
either be “Le” (male form of the pronoun “the”) or “La” (female form
of the pronoun “the”). In English, we do not experience the
male/female connection as much in the written word but it is still
there in certain phrases such as “mother earth.”
I have already
mentioned the “Bride and Bridegroom” correspondence, but there is
also correspondence with the Word for male and female. In many
passages of the Bible, “the male" means its truth, and "the female"
its good. Swedenborg also explains that often times "male" means
doctrine, and "female," the life. Think about the phrase written
above our sanctuary “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The
"Way" is doctrine, the "Truth" all that is of doctrine, and the
"Life" the good itself which is the life of the truth. I read this
simply that God is the creator - he is the doctrine, and that in Him
is the male (the Truth), and the female (the Life).
It is a given in
our theology that God and man have both male and female aspects of
their spirituality. Those who dislike using the word “His”, “Him”
or even refer to the male side of God are missing out on key
correspondences. In our concern to be more “inclusive,” I feel we
are missing out on a very important connection to
Heaven.
I leave you with
the words of Thomas Ken (1764):
Praise God,
from whom all blessings flow.
Praise Him, all
creatures here below.
Praise Him
above, ye heavenly host.
Praise Father,
Son and Holy Ghost.
“Every one, both man and woman, has an understanding and will;
but yet in man the understanding predominates, and in woman the
will predominates, and the character of the person is according
to that which predominates. But in marriages in the heavens
there is no predominance; for the will of the wife is also that
of the husband, and the understanding of the husband is that
also of the wife, since the one loves to will and to think as
the other, thus mutually and reciprocally. Hence their
conjunction in one.”
Emanuel Swedenborg (H.H. n. 366-370)
