Spiritual Perspective on Books November 18, 2013 ISSUE

Shaking up stereotypes

Kim Shippey

Spirit duly feeds and clothes every object, as it appears in the line of spiritual creation, thus tenderly expressing the fatherhood and motherhood of God.

—Mary Baker Eddy

Since the God of all grace made men and women to mirror who He is, there are compelling logical reasons to conclude that His nature is not exclusively masculine.

—Trudy M. Beyak

The Mother Heart of God: Unveiling the Mystery of the Father’s Maternal Love
Trudy M. Beyak
Faith Words, 2013

Those two statements, written about 125 years apart, guide us to some of the ways in which spiritual thinkers have recognized and written about the feminine qualities of God.

The first is by the founder of this magazine, writing in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (p. 507 ). The staff of The Mary Baker Eddy Library in Boston confirm that Mrs. Eddy had started using the term Mother for God, as in Father-Mother, at least by 1888. And although she was not the first to speak of a maternal aspect of the divine, she certainly used the concept in a new and interesting way.

The second quotation comes from the pages of The Mother Heart of God, a book by a committed Christian and firmly established investigative journalist, Trudy Beyak.

Beyak, who has three daughters and seven grandchildren, and lives in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, is highly respected for her compassion and tenacity in pursuing stories—more as a reporter than a Bible scholar—that show people how they can live healthier, happier lives.

In Mother Heart, Beyak gets even more ambitious. She spent five years researching the Scriptures and interviewing more than 50 Bible scholars and other prominent public figures from several countries.

This panel discussion of sorts presents a compelling argument for anyone looking for the truth about who God really is, and why it should matter. Why, Beyak asks, is the question about the so-called gender of God suddenly igniting into relevance today? As she uncovers answers, we realize we are learning the story of her own personal journey to know God.

Among the people she interviews is author and public speaker Anne Graham Lotz (daughter of Billy Graham), who insisted that the Bible is crystal clear on the issue of equality in a column she wrote for the Washington Post: “Today, when the Bible, which is God’s Word, is read, applied, obeyed, and lived out, women are treated with respect and honored as co-heirs with Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God.”

And William Paul Young, who wrote the novel The Shack, suggests that God delights in shaking up our religious stereotypes, breaking “all of the past rules.” Young admirably reflects the spirit of Beyak’s book when he says: “For many men, not just for women … it’s like the whole universe shifts for them. God’s love is like a mother’s love and a father’s love—only the love of God is even better than that.”

It would be hard to argue with that!

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