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Femininity and the Trinity

The feminine divine in Christianity

Any outsider walking into a Christian church could be forgiven for thinking that Christianity is a very male affair - you hear a lot about God the Father and God the Son, and of course in some of the largest churches, the person who represents Christ at the altar - the priest - is also a man. Judaism and Islam are similarly male-dominated.

So where does this leave women?

Where can we find those aspects of God which are really feminine - such as the nurturing, motherly side? And what does it mean for women to be worshipping a God who they think of as male, when there's no equally divine female by his side?

Jesus and the Holy Spirit, from a fresco in San Giovanni Evangelista church in Parma, by Correggio, 1520-21 ©

Things are not quite what they seem

Andrew Walker, Professor of Theology and Culture at King's College in London says the Holy Trinity of Christianity, consisting of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, isn't quite as male as it may at first appear.

And what about the third person of the holy trinity - the Holy Spirit?

Mariology

The Virgin Mary and pilgrimage

Anglican National Pilgrimage at Walsingham, 2003 ©

One of Britain's most popular religious shrines is the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, in a village near the east coast of England.

Nearly one thousand years ago, the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, is said to have appeared there and told a pious noblewoman called Richeldis to build a shrine - an exact replica of Mary's own house in Nazareth.

Walsingham still attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims every year from countries as far afield as Nigeria and Argentina, Ethiopia and the Philippines. What unites them is their unwavering devotion to Mary:

Mary as a grieving mother in Die Beweinung Christi by Albrecht Dürer, painted circa 1494-97 ©

Many of the women who come to Walsingham don't see Mary as a docile young virgin, but a powerful mother figure.

To many lay Catholics Mary is the female gateway through whom they experience the divine.

After the pilgrims arrive at Walsingham village, many of them remove their shoes to walk the "holy mile" to the shrine as they pray the rosary and sing to Mary.

At the head of the procession, four men carry a beautiful image of Mary in colourful robes, seated on a golden throne, with the baby Jesus in her arms.

Maria, by Alonsa Cano, painted 1646-50 ©

In the first of many services at the shrine, the image of the Virgin is crowned with flowers, and the pilgrims implore her to return to England.

Is Mary a goddess?

The devotion these pilgrims show to Mary the Mother is very similar to the devotion of Hindus to their Mother Goddess Amman, or the worship of the Mother of the Earth by those who've revived Goddess spirituality in the West.

But Mary is definitely not a goddess, nor part of the Holy Trinity - even though the attitude of the pilgrims at Walsingham might fool the ill-informed into thinking that she is.

Father Michael Ray, one of the priests at Walsingham, explains just how close he thinks this form of devotion comes to worshipping Mary as a goddess.

Christus und Maria, by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1515 ©

But if Mary isn't a goddess, there is still great argument about precisely what she does. Catholic theologians argue over just how important her role is in helping her son, Jesus Christ, redeem the faithful from their sins.

And there are campaigners who want Mary to become a much more powerful figure than she already is. They want the Pope to make an infallible statement "That the Virgin Mary is a co-redeemer with Jesus and co-operates fully with her son in the redemption of humanity." This is highly controversial because it would amount to giving Mary a status similar to the members of the Trinity.

Mary and Artemis

Artemis, sculptor unknown ©

In Turkey, Mary has replaced Artemis, one of the Greek goddesses.

When Christianity began to spread beyond the Holy Land, it arrived in areas where other gods and goddesses reigned.

Christians now sing hymns at the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Ephesus on the west coast of Turkey. But before Mary came, the Greek goddess Artemis was worshipped there, and there was a large temple in her honour.

The Christian Bible records how craftsmen who made silver shrines to Artemis railed against the newly arrived Christians who were threatening their trade.

But their protests were in vain - as Christianity gained a following in Ephesus, Mary replaced Artemis in the affections of the people. Mary even assumed many of the Greek goddess's titles, such as "Queen of Heaven" and "Mother of God".

Judaism and Islam

Mary in Islam

Annunciation by Andrea del Sarto, circa 1520-1530 ©

Mary is an important figure in Islam, where she's honoured as the mother of the Prophet Jesus.

But anything like the veneration of Mary at Walsingham would be quite unthinkable for Muslims - so where do they look for the feminine aspect of the divine, and where do they find it?

And yet, if the Qur'an is divinely inspired, as Muslims believe, does this text inspired by God reveal a feminine side of God? There are attributes like compassion, kindness, and forgiveness, says Fadia - but to call them feminine may not be useful:

Femininity in Judaism

The Jewish writer and filmmaker Naomi Gryn says that the God of Judaism, who often seems so angry and jealous - and male! - in the Hebrew scriptures, does have some feminine names.

Find out more

• Mary
• Goddess spirituality in Paganism