4. “If God is male, then the male is God.”

“Male monotheism reinforces the social hierarchy of patriarchal rule through its religious system…God is modeled after the patriarchal ruling class and is seen as addressing this class of males directly, adopting them as his “sons.” They are his representatives, the responsible partners of the covenant with him. Women as wives now become symbolically repressed as the dependent servant class…They relate to man as he relates to God. A symbolic hierarchy is set up: God-male-female. Women no longer stand in direct relation to God; they are connected to God secondarily, through the male.”

-Ruether 1983, 53.