During the pandemic, physical church attendance is seen as optional at best. And because of the understandable deconstruction and disgust, many are repulsed at the thought of church.
And that’s why idea of “church as mother” elicits a strong response from people (for and against) (See my recent post and all the response).
This is what I quoted:
“Instead of seeing God our Father wedded to the church our mother, evangelicals have so emphasized a personal and direct relationship with God that we’ve stopped recognizing the church as our mother. When we treat the church as a consumer product whose purpose is to satisfy religious customers, we’ve lost sight of the church as our mother.”
(Dan Stringer, Struggling with Evangelicalism, 5.)
Stringer was referring to St. Cyprian of Carthage, “a North African bishop of the third century” who said, “No one can have God for their Father who does not have the Church for their mother” (4).
So I thought I would briefly explain why this metaphor is so important for the church in the West, why it is indeed biblical, and address a couple of criticisms.
Why “Church as Mother” is important
Mom and Family
“Church as mother” emphasizes the familial nature of the church, that we are all brothers and sisters of Christ within Father God’s family.
This protects against the consumer individualism so often found in the American church. Church is not a choice. It is blood and bodies.
Mom is Necessary
Church as mother means churches is necessary for the proper development of followers of Jesus. Jesus formed his disciples in community, not just 1-on-1. And this discipleship is required for proper growth.
As we know from child development, a neglected child (emotionally and physically) will fail to develop properly (emotionally and physically).
“Church as mother” protects against the stunted discipleship rampant in the churches in America where people think they can follow Jesus all by themselves, read the Bible without reference to anyone else, and decide what is good and true all alone.
Mom Needs to be Remembered
“Church as mother” helps us remember our moms of faith off the stage (because so often it is the men claiming leadership on the stage).
This protects us against the (white Western) that visible power and authority is most Jesus-like, and protects us against the myth of the “self-made man” (disciples).
(I used a picture of African-American “church mothers” to head this post exactly because it is people of color who are mostly likely to still appreciate “church moms” and their spiritual authority).
Mom and Co-laboring
Because nurturing is necessary, the church as mother metaphor reminds us that this nurturing is always a partnership between God and humanity.
Just like Mary co-labored with God in the incarnation of the Son, and just like Paul co-labored with God to spread the gospel, so too all faith formation is a work God and human partnership.
Mom and Where You’re From
“Church as mother” helps us remember our social location (where we are from, who nurtured us in faith).
This protect against abstraction about “the church” as if the church came down from heaven, and exists outside of time.
The church in the West would do well to remember the historical and social location that it comes from (i.e. the protestant and pioneer religious mindset that generally ignores ecclesiology—the “study of the church” as a community and institution).
It is this Protestant/Pioneer mindset that has caused the neglect and opposition against the idea of “church as mother.”
Summary
Along with remembering that the church is the body of Christ, focusing on the church as mother might help us overcome the disembodied church we receive through fundamentalism (a biblicist church ignoring God’s sacred world).
(On not essentiallizing gender: Certainly many characteristics I mentioned above can be expressed by men as fathers, or fatherhood in general. But theologically, the point is that “Our Father in heaven” refers to God who is invisible and intangible (can’t be touched), while “church as mother” refers to what is visible and can be physically touched.)
“Church as Mother” is biblical
The metaphor of church as mother is built up from different texts in scripture that make various allusions to motherhood.
This is different than the direct statements we get for the church as the Body or Bride of Christ (1 Cor. 12; Eph. 5).
Biblical Texts
- Jesus calls himself a mother hen brooding over Jerusalem (Matt. 23:37)
- Paul is in birth pains for disciples: “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” (Galatians 4:19)
- Paul as a nursing mother to disciples: “Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you.” (1 Thess. 2:7-8)
- Paul is breastfeeding disciples: “I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.” (1 Corinthians 3:2)
- Mother Jerusalem: “But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.” (Galatians 4:26)
- Pregnant woman pursued by the Dragon in Revelation 12 as symbol for the persecuted church.
Well before St. Cyprian’s famous phrase (“No one can have God for their Father who does not have the Church for their mother.”), early theologians like Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian used these biblical text to explain the metaphor of church as mother.
Criticisms of “Church as mother”
Trinity Criticism
Some criticize the “church as mother” metaphor as a failure of trinitarian theology, that only God is our Father (the only parent). The idea is that to elevate the “church” as an abstraction as mother alongside the deity of the Father is to do violence to trinitarian theology.
To which I say, it is just a metaphor that should neither be pressed into nor critiqued by trinitarian theology.
Hierarchy Criticism
Some say this metaphor would create hierarchies in the church (based on parent-child relationships) that would be abusive, and that Christ has done away with all of this as our brother and through having only one Father.
Some would say, pointing to St. Cyprian, that he is a product of the increasing centralization of church authority as Christianity becomes the religion of Rome under Constantine.
But, we must remember, people were using the metaphor before Constantine.
In general, this seems to be a very Protestant (anti-Catholic) response that is based in an “anti-hierarchy in all things” mindset (rather than just being against dominating hierarchies like politics and economics), and an anti-sacramental mindset (that God is equally present in all places and people).
But while affirming that God is everywhere, the church also affirms that God specially works at certain times and places. And while affirming the equality of all people, not all people are equally mature in Christ. Those who have walked before us are properly called our mothers and fathers in the faith, and collectively called the “church our mother”.
If you are in the process of deconstructing faith, please check out my 5 fundamental shifts to make while deconstructing.