God is now Our Mother. Modernist attempt to feminise liturgy.

How Annette Jantzen wants to feminise the language of liturgy

The language of the liturgy is patriarchal, she says: This is the opinion of the theologian and women's pastor Annette Jantzen. On her blog "God's Word Female" she offers texts and prayers for women that are intended to "feminise" the language in the liturgy. She talks about this in the katholisch.de interview.

"God is more than Lord and Father" says the theologian Annette Jantzen from Aachen. The pastoral counsellor for women translates Bible texts, prayers and psalms in a more "feminine" way and makes them available for liturgy and devotions. Jantzen explains in an interview with katholisch.de why "feminine" images of God can also have a church-political significance.

Question: Ms Jantzen, you started the blog "God's word, female" three years ago. How did it come about?

Jantzen: Again and again I notice in church services how one-sidedly male and patriarchal the language in the liturgy is. God is spoken of here as Lord, as ruler and as Almighty. Many women find it difficult to pray with such linguistic images, and as a pastoral worker for women it is my task to make it possible for women to celebrate worship in such a way that they can find their way into prayer. This is how the idea for "God's word, female" came about. On this website I offer translations of Bible texts, interpretations and prayers that are more gender-appropriate. After all, God has much more than just male sides. We should not speak in such a godly way as if we knew everything about God.

Question: What do you mean by "God-proud"?

Jantzen: I got the term from Hanneliese Steichele, who had taught at the Catholic University in Mainz, and what is meant by it is: All too often liturgical or theological language is used to lord it over others. For, when I speak of God as ruler, king and almighty, this clearly conveys an image of God that knows everything and asks nothing more. Behind such language images are patriarchal ideas of power and omnipotence. Such texts emphasise not only authoritarian but also violent concepts of God. But how do I imagine God's action and intervention? Is he not also like a loving and protecting father or like a caring mother?

Question: Is it permissible to simply rephrase and retranslate the words of the Bible? After all, there is already the Bible in just language.

Jantzen: It is exactly these Bible translations that I use for my translations. However, I take a closer look at the original text and think about what feminine perspectives can be discovered there? What is feminine in this text? We have a gigantic dictionary of God in the Bible. Why don't we use it in the liturgy? In the Lateran Council (1213-1215) it was already very cleverly formulated: All images of God are always more dissimilar than similar to God. So they always show only a small part of God. They do not capture the larger part of God. So, I understand it like this: the more I limit myself to a few, always similar images of God, the more I miss out on God. I therefore try to broaden the images of God. The few images of God that we currently use in the church shape our faith, and a shaped faith is good and valuable. But they are not everything, they are not God himself. Simply making "Lord" into "Mistress" is too little. It misses the chance to discover other sides of God.

Question: What female forms of address for God have you found?

Jantzen: In my texts I address God as "Godhead", "Eternal One", "God who remains powerful in all", "Shepherdess" and so on. I want people's hearts to be lifted when they hear or read these translations. And this is not new at all. In the Psalter, for example, the image of God as Father does not occur at all, but the image of God as Mother does. Why don't we use such images in the liturgy or in prayer?

Question: How is your offer "God's word, feminine" received?

Jantzen: I get a lot of positive feedback from women who have longed for such a feminine prayer language for a long time. They are mainly multipliers in the parishes, i.e. leaders of liturgies of the word or lectors. These women look for the current texts on my website and then use them to prepare their services. Of course, there is also criticism. Some people don't find this way of speaking about God useful, but I don't force it on anyone. Some priests also get nervous when too many female names of God are used in the liturgy. My texts are an offer to rethink and reformulate one's own praying and thinking. For I am convinced that the language of the liturgy can also be an important key to more gender justice in the church. So many theologians before me have compiled entire compendiums of gender-just, feminist theology and translated biblical texts in a more "feminine" way. Only, it always remains a special knowledge. It does not enter the canon of research. Each generation of women has to painstakingly acquire it again. The gravity of patriarchy crushes this work every time.

"The blessing of God-the-Holy raise you up and make you great. The blessing of God-the-righteous make your hearts wide, for you are enough in the sight of God."

Question: Would men in the church also have to stand up more - for women?

Jantzen: Yes. I know priests who sincerely wish that women could also be sacramentally ordained in this church. Only, this is hardly ever made public. If men who take on responsibility in the church would openly say that it hurts them personally and that it hurts them that women are excluded from church offices, who knows, maybe then something will change? But as long as men go along with it, gender justice will remain an arduous business for women.

Question: Can a more "feminine" language in the liturgy change something about that?

Jantzen: Yes, I think so. If we want to change the ecclesiastical order, we also have to tackle the symbolic order. Gender justice will always remain fragmentary if the symbolic order continues to be constructed in an unquestioned patriarchal way. As long as God is not more than Lord and Father for us, we will hardly find true brotherhood.

Source

1 And it came to pass, that as he was in a certain place praying, when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him: Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. 

Et factum est : cum esset in quodam loco orans, ut cessavit, dixit unus ex discipulis ejus ad eum : Domine, doce nos orare, sicut docuit et Joannes discipulos suos. 

2 And he said to them: When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come 

Et ait illis : Cum oratis, dicite : Pater, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. 

3 Give us this day our daily bread. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie. 

4 And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation. 

Et dimitte nobis peccata nostra, siquidem et ipsi dimittimus omni debenti nobis. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem.

See SHE, our new redeemer

See what the Bible actually says about the feminine in God. Not the hasty scholarship of feminists.