THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD
IN JOHN CALVIN’S THOUGHT
By Karin Spiecker Stetina
Paternoster. 130 pages. £14.99
ISBN 978 1 842 279 687
In the last few decades feminist theologians have been busy reimagining God in female terms. For them, masculine language denotes power, aggression, and oppression of women. So God has been renamed goddess, womb, mother and the like, for to speak of God the Father is hateful and oppressive.
With this as the backdrop, Stetina, Associate Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Biola University, argues correctly that Calvin sees the Fatherhood of God on the basis of his selfrevelation in Scripture, not as an extrapolation from human experience. In keeping with the prior tradition, Calvin uses feminine metaphors for God when Scripture does, but in his biblical commentaries, not in his theological treatises. He considers it impermissible to replace God’s self-given personal name of Father.
