This is a great and really important interview. Author Danielle Strickland talks with Joe about patriarchy – ‘the male-centring and male-ordering of the world’.
This is something we’re always keen to discuss, but being two blokes of a certain age, it feels like it could so easily tip over into mansplaining. So it was great to have Danielle talk about the challenges of calling it out, the heretical concept of the male-ness of God, and the way in which it affects our world and, of course, our church. Most importantly, they talk about some practical things we can all do to make a difference.
One of the things which people always get slightly ‘disoriented’ by is the idea that God has no gender. We talk about God with a lot of male pronouns, but those are just metaphors. As the Catholic Catchesim states, “God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: no one is father as God is Father.” 1 So, as Danielle points out, claiming that God is male is actually heretical.
Talking of mansplaining, I posted earlier this week a quote from Rebecca Solnit’s new blog: Meditations in an Emergency. Solnit’s book, Men Explain Things To Me was one of the first things I read on the topic of patriarchy and is highly recommended.
Do listen to the interview. This stuff matters.