God is Not a Man

The Case for She (Part 2): Language, Spirit, and Sophia

God Is Not a Man

The Case for She (Part 2): Language, Spirit, and Sophia

TL;DR: Reclaiming feminine language for the Holy Spirit isn’t a theological gimmick or a distraction, it’s a gentle step toward healing the way we imagine God. By listening to Scripture, tradition, and our own wounds, we may recover something we’ve long been missing: the voice of Wisdom crying out in a language that sounds like love.

---

Why I Sometimes Call the Holy Spirit “She”

I didn’t write the above post Why I Sometimes Call the Holy Spirit ‘She” to be edgy.
Or controversial.
Or corrective.

I wrote it because something inside me cracked open years ago when I realized how narrow my imagination of God had become,
And how much healing I needed around that.

But not everyone saw it the same way.

Some pushed back, kindly, but clearly:
“Isn’t this just a distraction?”

That question stuck with me.
Not because I wanted to defend myself,
But because I genuinely needed to ask it too:
Is this just a theological rabbit trail?
Does any of this language stuff actually matter?

---

When Naming Becomes Healing

A.W. Tozer once said,

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

It’s not that our language changes God.
It’s that it changes us.

If we only ever imagine God as He, as Father, as King,
It’s not hard to start believing that maleness is somehow closer to godliness.

And then, without even realizing it, we make it harder for ourselves, or others, to see the image of God in anyone who doesn’t fit that mold.

That’s not a distraction.
That’s a wound.

“The Hebrew Bible contains female imagery for God in abundance. To ignore or devalue it is to impoverish theology.” (Phyllis Trible)

---

The Voice We Forgot to Listen To

There’s a voice in Scripture we often skip past.
She doesn’t shout.
But She speaks.

Her name is Sophia- Wisdom.

She shows up in Proverbs, crying out in the streets, dancing at creation’s edge, co-laboring with God.

“The Lord created me at the beginning of his work…I was beside him, like a master worker.” (Prov. 8:22, 30)

The early church listened to her voice.
Some saw her as the Holy Spirit.
Others as Christ.

But over time, Sophia faded from
Our prayers,
Our poetry,
Our preaching.

We didn’t mean to silence her.
But we did.

I wonder if, in recovering her voice,
We also recover part of our own.

“The feminine incarnation of God, which is present in the divine name Sophia or Holy Wisdom, is largely absent in Western Christianity… The loss of the feminine side of God has led to an over-masculinized and often authoritarian image of God.” (Richard Rohr)

---

The Spirit Has Always Been More Than He

The Hebrew word for Spirit, Ruach, is feminine.
The Aramaic word, Rukha, is too.
Even the Greek word Pneuma, though grammatically neutral, spoke of someone alive, mysterious, and close.

Comforter.
Fire.
Breath.
Midwife.
Advocate.
Mothering presence.

She doesn’t replace He.
But She reminds us:

God is not a man.

And maybe that reminder brings healing,
Especially for those who have only ever heard God speak in the voice of their wound.

“Sophia is divine Wisdom personified in female images… the Spirit-Sophia is near, active, empowering, inviting, and transforming.” (Elizabeth A. Johnson)

---

This Isn’t About Being Right

I’m not writing this because I have all the answers.
I don’t.

And I’m not saying you need to start referring to the Holy Spirit as She.
You don’t.

But I am inviting us to be curious.
To listen.
To wonder what we’ve missed because we were only given half the language we needed.

I’m writing this because someone out there, maybe you, has been waiting to hear God’s voice in a way that actually sounds like love.

“Wisdom cries out in the street; in the public square she raises her voice.” (Prov. 1:20)

I think She’s still crying out.
Not with anger.
Not with scorn.
But with an invitation.

To imagine more.
To see differently.
To be held by the Spirit who was there in the beginning…
And who is still here now, whispering our names in a voice that’s tender, wise, and full of love.

“Aphrahat, one of the early Syriac Fathers, speaks of the believer’s love for ‘God his Father and the Holy Spirit his Mother’… And Julian of Norwich affirms: ‘God rejoices that he is our Father, and God rejoices that he is our Mother.’” (Kallistos Ware)

---

For Reflection:

• What names for God have helped you heal?

• Have any metaphors or images ever felt limiting or even harmful?

• Where might the voice of Wisdom be speaking in your life right now?

---

A Benediction

May you hear the Spirit speak,
In the wind, in the whisper,
In the language you never knew you needed.

May you remember that God is not bound by our words,
But God meets us through them,
And sometimes heals us because of them.

May Sophia, the Wisdom of God,
Open your heart to deeper seeing,
Wider naming,
And the kind of knowing that sounds like love.
Amen.

---

Voices Worth Listening To:

“To restrict our naming of God to a few well-worn masculine metaphors is to make an idol.” (Sallie McFague)

“Like a good mother who neither manipulates nor neglects her children, God can be seen like a universal Mother always influencing…” (Thomas Jay Oord & Tripp Fuller)

“As truly as God is our Father, so truly is God our Mother.” (Julian of Norwich)

“There is no reason in principle not to refer to the Spirit with feminine imagery, particularly since the linguistic traditions of early Christianity and the Old Testament allow for this.” (Sarah Coakley)

“When we expand our images and metaphors for God, we don’t lose the old ones—we simply see them as part of a larger whole. God becomes bigger, not smaller. More mysterious, not more manageable.” (Brian McLaren)

---