2. Is the Holy Spirit God the Mother? Introduction

Genesis is clear from the beginning that both male and female humanity are made in God's image. What might it mean to take this description seriously?

Genesis does not present God's image as belonging to men alone. Yet traditional Trinitarian language presents the three divine persons as Father, Son, and a Spirit almost universally referred to as “He.”

Are women less made in the image of God than men? If not, then why does Christian theology so often represent the divine persons exclusively through masculine language?

Some may respond that God transcends gender—which is certainly true in the sense that God is Spirit and not biologically male or female. But that cannot mean femininity is foreign to God, because women as well as men are made in God’s image.

Surely, something feminine is inherent to God as females are made in God's image as well. What does the Bible say about this very important topic?

This is not a peripheral issue. Who the Holy Spirit is strikes at the heart of who God is—and Jesus declares that knowing God is eternal life. In John 17:3, he prays to God: “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

Understanding who God is—including the Holy Spirit’s divinity and feminine identity—is part of experiencing the fullness of eternal life God has given us in Christ Jesus. This is well worth considering and studying.

The Bible is not silent on this topic. I believe a close study of Scripture reveals that God is Father and Mother, God the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Divine Feminine.

The majority Church believes that the Holy Spirit is God. Biblical Unitarians, who likewise reject Christ’s deity, generally understand only the Father as God and do not identify the Holy Spirit as a distinct divine person.

I have always been personally convinced based on Scripture that the Holy Spirit is God, but the Unitarian stance, given that I agreed with them concerning Jesus’ deity, pushed me to Scripture to consider more deeply who the Holy Spirit is.

Does the Bible say the Holy Spirit is a person? A force? If God is the Father, and Jesus is God’s Son, but not God—does Scripture give us any reason to understand the Holy Spirit as masculine or feminine?

I discovered historical evidence that some very early Christian traditions understood or described the Holy Spirit as Mother.

I believe this to be true because I think God reveals this in Scripture and in creation.

Despite seeing this in Scripture, it took me time to accept because the idea of God being feminine was so foreign to me. I do not need this to be true. But in embracing it, I have been deeply encouraged, particularly as a woman.

I hope you are also encouraged.