God is not a boy, an author interview
God is not a boy, an author interview
In which Amy Peeler talks with us about her book Women and the Gender of God
Gentle reader,
Today, it’s my privilege to bring you an interview with priest and New Testament scholar Amy Peeler about her new book Women and the Gender of God. The book is “A robust theological argument against the assumption that God is male” and has won the Crux Sola Best NT Book Award Top Book of the Year.
The interview follows:
BFJ: I love the image of Mary with baby Jesus on the cover, but a lot of Protestants get nervous about pictures of Mary. How do you think about this kind of image?
AP: I understand that images of Mary can elicit hesitancy or even fear of idolatry. I would invite someone looking at images of Mary to approach with the confidence that since God took on flesh from her it is good for both our minds and our eyes to contemplate the way in which God came to us, by being born of a mother. Images of Mary remind us of the startling grace that God became human for us.
Women and the Gender of God, Eerdmans, 2022.
BFJ: Why did you write Women and the Gender of God?
AP: In the beginning this research was an intellectual question for me, to reconcile the riches I found in Scripture through God’s name as Father with fitting critiques I read in theology, largely from feminist and womanist interpreters. At some point, though, I became committed to the life-transformation that can happen when we consider God’s valuing of women. I wrote this book because I wanted to glorify God and encourage women and men who are struggling with faith.
BFJ: Give us the short version; what’s the book about?
AP: The title really does describe it well. It concerns the place of women in Christianity, by paying close attention to the life of Mary as revealed in the New Testament. It also investigates gendered Scriptural and traditional language for God, namely, Father and Son. Right in line with the tradition, I support the claim that God the Father is not embodied and is therefore not gendered, but the Son came as a human male, Jesus of Nazareth.
BFJ: Share a detail you’re fond of from the book?
AP: Actually, I adore the cover image. It is an icon of Mary and Jesus within the burning bush, a common icon that was often interpreted to point to Mary’s virginity. Like the bush that was burned but not consumed, so too was she a mother but remained a virgin. That was not my intent with the image. Instead, since I was interested in how we can speak of God correctly, it was the perfect icon because my argument is that we learn to name God rightly when we attend to the Incarnation. God’s name (“Father”) is revealed with most clarity when we look at the way in which God’s Son came, through Mary.
Amy Peeler is Associate Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College. She holds the Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary and is an ordained priest in The Episcopal Church. Photo courtesy of Amy Peeler.
BFJ: What do people mistakenly assume when they hear about your book?
AP: Many have assumed that I am arguing that “Woman” is the gender of God.
BFJ: How does the book relate to or come from your experience as a priest and a teacher?
AP: My role as a teacher was motivating the book in ways even I did not initially understand. It was through hearing the questions and struggles of my students (female as well as male) that I came to the conviction that this content matters for people’s faith and therefore for the health of their lives. My role as a priest sustained me in the process of writing. As I state in the conclusion, in the years in which I was reading hard things and wrestling with these concepts, weekly worship kept me grounded in God’s goodness, my own human worth, and in the evidence of my call.
Those who argue for, or assume, a male-like first person of the Trinity fall short of the truth and goodness of the God revealed in the biblical text. God as both Creator and sovereign resists masculinization. When that resistance is ignored, great harm comes to humans, females as well as males. A theological assumption that is both false and damaging should be put to rest.
BFJ: Are there difficulties in the spiritual life that Women and the Gender of God can help to address?
AP: Yes: doubt in the goodness of God. The deeper I press into the Biblical account and the deeper I learn from the tradition, the more I see the power and grace of God and the inestimable value of all human beings.
BFJ: If you could gift every person in your congregation with one insight from the book, what would it be?
AP: If you or those in your family and friend circle have deep questions concerning gender, the Bible and the Christian tradition have even deeper answers. Our God is not unaware of the difficulties faced generation by generation and has so inspired the Word that those answers lie ready at hand when we are ready to discover them.
Amy recording the audio book version of the book, which will be available soon. Photo courtesy of Amy Peeler.
BFJ: How has your spiritual life and prayer life changed as you’ve matured?
AP: It has, praise be to God, remained consistent, but it has become less and less performative. I spend time with God because I want to and need to, not because it is a thing on my to-do list.
BFJ: What would your 10-year-old self say if she learned you’d grow up to write about this stuff?
AP: Oh my. 10 year old Amy loved theater above all things and desired to be famous, as I’m sure many kids do. That I have some degree of influence beyond my personal circle because of my studies of Scripture, rather than singing, would be a shock. I hope she would see that the God who she only thought about rarely at church had become the source and center of my life.
BFJ: Besides Women and the Gender of God, do you have a top reading recommendation for folks who want to think more deeply about these matters?
AP: I recommend, Sarah Coakley’s, God, Sexuality, and the Self. It’s a rigorous and beautiful treatment of these issues solidly grounded in the orthodox theological tradition.
Many thanks to Amy for sharing with us today!
You can buy Amy’s book here.
Grace & peace,
BFJ
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