The sexual definition of the father's role plays no part To bring sexual differentiation into the understanding of God would mean polytheism, it was thus ruled out for the God of Isreal The fact that God's care for Isreal can also be expressed in terms of a mother's love shows clearly enough how little there is any sense of sexual distinction in the understanding of God as Father. ( McGrath 266 ).
In an attempt to bring out the fact that God is not Male, a number of recent writers have explored the idea of God as "mother-, or as friend.
Sallie McFague recognized that soeaking of "God as Father- does not mean God is male,she writes: God as Mother does not mean that God is mother (or father). We imagine God as both mother and father, but we relize how inadequate these other metaphors are to express the creative love of God Never the less, we speak of this love in language that is familiar and dear to us, the language of mothers and fathers who give us life, from whose bodies we come, and upon whose care we depend. ( McGrath 266-267).
A similar point is made by 1994 Catechism of the Catholic Church, which stresses the way in which parental imagery, particularly that of fatherhood, brings out central themes of the gospel. By calling God "Father-, the language of faith indicates two main things; that God is the first origin of everything snd trsnscendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children. God's immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. The language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman; he is God.