Female Images of God in Christian Worship

Female Images of God in Christian Worship: In the Spirituality of TongSungGiDo of the Korean Church examines problems that arise from the use of exclusively patriarchal images in modern Christian worship. The author asserts that female images in the Bible could help worshippers find a relationship with God and provide encouragement and comfort in difficult situations. As a Korean Christian, MyungSil Kim explores the possibilities of employing God’s female images in the services of the Korean Church, noting that Korea’s native religions, the ancient religions and Muism, had many female deities unlike patriarchal foreign religions such as Buddhism and Confucianism. These female deities have comforted the Korean people when they experienced han, a distinctive emotion of deep sadness and resentment that is characteristically Korean. TongSungGiDo, the unique Korean prayer style of communal lament, provides an opportune space and time for the consideration of female images in the Bible. MyungSil Kim examines how female images could more effectively function in the context of TongSungGiDo in accordance with traditional practices to express the complementarity among the concepts of han, lament, female images of God, and prayer. This book is strongly grounded on biblical studies, feminist studies, Christian ethics, and religious studies, including principles of inculturation. The volume is a valuable resource to pastors who are sensitive about language justice in worship and to those seeking to explore feminist theology and particularly feminist liturgical studies.

«In this volume, MyungSil Kim explores the possibility of recognizing the female dimension of God in Christian worship. She probes the Hebrew scriptures to find traces of the divine female in ancient Israel, in other areas of the ancient Near East, and in Korean history. Kim notes that many of these images appealed to in times of trouble, comforting people who were oppressed and suffering. Therefore she proposes bringing female images of God to the Korean Christian prayer tradition named TongSungGiDo, in which people are able to cry out to God with their deepest feelings, as well as in other worship settings where people pour out their deepest feelings to God. This brilliant interdisciplinary study is a hopeful and faithful contribution to all who seek to renew Christian worship, to hold up women as equal partners with men in relation to God, and to open new ways for people to express their true selves before God. I highly recommend it.» (Ruth Duck, Professor of Worship, Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois) «In this book, MyungSil Kim suggests that in Christian worship female images of God should be provided for worshipping women who are seeking their identities, their self-grammars in God. Kim’s principal concern is how to reveal God’s wholeness and steadfast love to people. If any language diminishes God’s whole image and our identities, we must consider its use in worship critically. Kim’s discovery of the correlation between lamentable situations and divine female images in many religious traditions as well as in the biblical traditions would be appropriate in the practice of TongSungGiDo, a kind of lamenting prayer based on Korean unique emotion, han. Most Korean Christians who are praying within the lamenting spirituality of TongSungGiDo may find the motherly comforts in God’s biblical female images.» (Unyong Kim, Professor of Preaching and Worship, Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary, Seoul, Korea)

MyungSil Kim is Adjunct Professor at Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary in Seoul, Korea. She received her PhD in liturgical studies from Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. At present, she is a member of the local worship committee for WCC 10th Assembly. In addition, she serves as vice-secretary of the Korean Society for Practical Theology and was a past secretary of the Korea Association of Liturgy. She is a member of the Feminist Liturgy Seminar of the North American Academy of Liturgy and the Korean Association of Women Theologians. Before she earned her doctorate, Kim worked as a member of the Board of Directors in the Korean Christian Women Counseling Center for victims of domestic violence and as a parish minister in Korea.