metaphor and theology in the understanding of Elizabeth Johnson.

Introduction

The use of metaphor in making speech about God is one that as long as we remain in this limited realm of the physical and finite world we cannot do without the use of metaphor. But there may be a somewhat problem that accrue from the use metaphor in talking about God. There is a kind of preference we may tend to take based on our biases and prejudices. Elizabeth Johnson, an American Catholic feminist theologian comes to the fore with her work, She Who Is, to tackle the innate problem in the use of metaphor in theological discourses. Johnson observes that though, God is acknowledged as a spirit beyond recognition with either male or female gender and the names with which we address God are shaped by the experience of the faith-community; these names are, however, discriminatory since they are confined only to masculine terminology. She tried to solve the question of how rightly we are to speak of God. To do this she examined the importance of speech about God, the classical way in which God is spoken of, and then the right way to speak about God.

 In addition, Johnson averred that “Speech about God shapes the life orientation not only of the corporate faith community but in this matrix guides its individual members as well.” Such speech sums up, unifies, and expresses a faith community’s sense of ultimate mystery, the world view and expectation of order devolving from this, and the concomitant orientation of human life.

Her argument is that when we say that God is spirit, it means that God is “beyond identification with either male or female sex”. But daily language of preaching, worship and teaching theology betrays this consistent conclusion and portrays God as male, or at least more like a man than a woman. This is where she drew the strength of her feminist theology by identifying their task as engaging in the traditional theological task of reflecting on God and all things in the light of God by shaping new speech about God that are discourses of total emancipation and transformation, pointing to new ways of living together with each other on earth.

Having given the above synopsis of the work we are about to embark upon with our intellectual compass, we shall state by methodology, the procedure we are about to follow to achieve our desired goal in this paper. For the start, we shall make a conceptual clarification of the two main concepts we shall we engaging in the course of this essay, namely, theology and metaphor. After this we shall delve into the main issue which is to expose the idea of metaphor and theology in the understanding of Elizabeth Johnson. The evaluation and conclusion shall proceed the work thereafter.

Basic Conceptual Clarifications

What is theology? Taking an etymological look at the word theology, it means “talk about God.” However, this does not mean that everything we say about God should be considered as theology. (Cf. J. J. Mueller, What is Theology? (Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1990), p. 11). Looking at the definition of theology according to Anselm of Canterbury, who defined theology as “faith seeking understanding”, one sees that it somehow encompasses the very nature of theology. By subjecting our faith to rational enquiry in order to understand what we believe, it does not just terminate at the level of seeking to understand rather our understanding should contribute to faith; this is what we see in the harmony of faith and reason. Theology begins with human experience of faith, and tends to make it explicit by understanding all it signifies, means and implies. (Cf. J. J. Mueller, What is Theology? (Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1990), p. 11).

What is metaphor? We see in human expression, an instinct that poses a necessary act to the human mind in the exploration of reality and ordering experience. Aristotle in his Poetics states that the greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor. It is the only thing that cannot be learned from others and in fact a mark of genius. (Cf. Michael Polanyi, Harry Prosch, Meaning (London: University of Chicago Press, 1975), p. 75).Metaphor is indigenous to all human learning from the simplest to the most complex. In our own beginnings, all that we are acquainted with is bodily sensation but we use this sensation to stand for something else. We employ signs to stand for symbols. The very idea of symbol is a thing that stands for and represent something else. The human mind has an incredible metaphorical capacity. One of these features which the human mind harbours is its mobility, its constant instantaneous power of association, its ability to be constantly connecting this from that. (Cf. Sallie McFague, Metaphorical Theology: Models of Godin Religious Language (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982), p. 33).

Metaphor and Theology in Elizabeth Johnson

Any kind of theological reflection must have a centre of gravity that unifies, organizes and directs its attention. (Lucretia Yaghjian, Writing Theology Well: A Rhetoric for Theological and Biblical Writers (London: Continuum, 2006) p. 122). Johnson takes a feminist stance in her idea of theology, in fact, she defines the Christian feminist liberation theology as thinking on religious mystery from a position which makes an a priori option for the human flourishing of women. (Cf. Elizabeth A. Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in the Feminist Theological Discourse (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company), p. 17.) Although she opines that this act of making a fundamental option is not unique to feminist theology but to every theological reflection. She seems to suggest an approach in theology in which women’s faith seek understanding in the matrix of historical struggle for life in the face of oppression and alienating forces. But this kind of theology can become somewhat critical and repudiates the traditional speech about God. There is a historical manipulation and subjugation of women in the speech about God, it is both humanly oppressive and religiously idolatrous. She opines that the traditional theology draws imagery about God that is almost exclusive to the world of the ruling men. The metaphorical allusions and characters given to God have a gender stamp on them. It is as if God has been masculinized. This is nothing but oppressive. She affirms that this sexist God language undermines the human equality of women made in the image and likeness of God, the ideal egalitarian state of nature crumbles at this notion of a masculine God. She calls traditional theology idolatrous in the sense that there is a great deal of male dominant language which is honoured as the only or supremely right way of speaking about God. This makes absolute a single set of metaphors and obscures the height and depth and length and breadth of divine mystery. (Cf. Elizabeth A. Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in the Feminist Theological Discourse (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company), p. 17.)

By and large, Johnson tried to locate the root of the language about God back to the scriptures– the Greek and Hebrew origin– and she is confident that the speech about God is gender neutral. Aquinas defends the use of person­ (an extra-biblical language) for God because the “urgency of confronting heretics” made it necessary. She agrees with Augustine, Anselm and Aquinas that God is transcendent and an immanent history. So the male-cantered language of God that has come to be the “classical way to talk of God” emerged from the perspective of men’s experience. She believes that we need equivalent imagery for God in male and female terms. She wishes to examine women's experience for hints of God because the God of the Bible is a God who acts in human history and God's presence and revelation are evolving. She opines that the wisdom carried in Aquinas argument supports in a striking fashion patterns of speaking about the mystery of God that are emerging from the perspective of women’s experience.

It is very pathetic and in fact seemingly cruel to delineate women or feminine connotations in the speech about God. We cannot speak about God as he really is and this is the reason for the birth of metaphor theology. We can only explain and in the word of Thomas Aquinas, know him through his effect in nature. Johnson decries the fact that androcentric language has taken the entire theological milieu. She argues that feminity is given an idea of inferiority and so when such is attributed to God, it demean the idea of a sovereign omnipotent God. Even among the patristic and mediaeval theologians, this idea is prevalent. She alarmingly cited Aquinas who affirmed the fact that masculinity is a perfection of creation and by chance a father (who is the fullness of creation and should reproduce his own perfection) begets a female child, it is as a result of either debility of the active power of some suitability of the material or of some change effected by external influence. (Cf. Elizabeth A. Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in the Feminist Theological Discourse (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company), p. 24.)

Hence in theology, Johnson brings out criterion for testing the truth and falsity of any speech about God (Theology). The outstanding criterion is the emancipation of women toward human flourishing. We look at any religious symbol or custom and access it according to its effects. A thing cannot be affirmed a religious truth if it consistently results in the denigration of human beings. We can likewise say that whatever denies and demean the full humanity of women cannot be associated to the divine or the redemptive work. (Cf. The Practice of Theology: A Reader eds. Colin E. Gunton, et al (SCM Press, 2001), p.397). She goes on to argue that the root metaphor in the speech about God has always been patriarchal. This patristic ideology inevitably sustains men’s dominance over women. Since God is given a masculine nature and viewed as man, it gives men the authority to claim divine birth right and lordship over everything, including their female counterpart. A notion well formulated by Aristotle in his Politics, where men are naturally leaders and women relegated to the background.

The effect of this idea of naming God is enormous and she gave hints to these effects. Whenever such metaphor about God extends its horizons shutting out other metaphors, it becomes literalized to the extent that the distance between it and the divine reality is collapsed, an idol emerges in effect. The metaphor instead of disclosing mystery becomes the reality and the divine mystery is cramped into a fixed image. Hence the idea of a static religious idea of God has to be shattered. The normative imaging and conceptualization of ruling men alone should be abolished. We cannot presume or argue to speak rightly about God when we continue to subjugate and delineate one of his most beautiful aspect of creation. From the feminist perspective, the right way to speak about God must take cognizance to weave the stories of women and women’s ways of being into the stories of God that we habitually tell in Jewish and Christian tradition. (Cf. Elizabeth A. Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in the Feminist Theological Discourse (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company), p. 244.)

Conclusion

Metaphor is no doubt an almost perfect means to discuss comprehensively and pragmatically about God. As the word metaphor suggests, it accepts any form of expressions that is ‘suitable’ to talk about God. In this sense, we can say that in the use of metaphoric language in theology both male and female attributes can be used to attribute to God. The central argument in this essay is based on the idea that God is a spirit. And as a spirit, he has no bodily components or attributes. Hence, the only way to speak about this “unseen” and “incorporeal” being is to use metaphor.

Historically, the idea of male dominance in politics, science, society and even religion is conspicuous and alarming. There is a subjugation of the female gender in every aspect of life and recently women have risen to challenge this age-long inhumanity. The stream of this revolt is what is typified in the Elizabeth Johnson’s She Who Is. She speaks from a religious stance and decries the dehumanization done to women by delineating the metaphorical language used in the theology all through the past ages and even in recent times. These have been our major preoccupation in this essay.