ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the model of God as mother, the author recalls that metaphors of God, far from reducing God to what he understands, underscores by their multiplicity and lack of fit the unknowability of God. The most obvious is that since human beings are male and female, if we seek to imagine God "in the image of God" – that is, ourselves – both male and female metaphors should be employed. The chapter focuses on God as mother in order to balance and provide a new context for interpreting God as father, other divine activities will also be imaged in female form, especially those concerned with creation and justice. Feminine qualities can be given to God so that God the father displays motherly qualities and, hence, God becomes a more holistic "person", having integrated the feminine side into a basically male character.
