‘Divine Super-Gender’
The intro to Philip Mathias’ The Perfect Prayer is an articulate explanation of a commonly complained-about conundrum:
This book comes to the obvious conclusion that God is neither male nor female. But I have consistently referred to God as “he” or “him.” The reason is entirely linguistic. I have not found a way to use the English language to express this notion of divine super-gender without clumsiness and confusion, both of which would obscure the ideas and conclusions that I have tried to present. Alternating “he” and “she” doesn’t work because it is too arch and would force the gender issue into every single reference to God. Referring to God as “it” doesn’t work either for obvious reasons. Using no pronouns at all and referring only to “God” as “God” each time is enormously heavy-handed and would greatly belabor the text. Thus the misleading “he” seems to be the only literary solution that works.
Posted by Nathan Bierma on 05/17 at 09:25 AM
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