The Mother Heart of God: A Study on the Pneumatic Role of the Woman (Stivers, 2nd Edition, 2003) (128 pgs. paperback). An introduction to the Esoteric Tradition of the Early Church. The Holy Spirit as the feminine member of the Trinity. Includes an extensive and inductive study of the feminine role in God's Kingdom. Price . . . $15.00
From the
PREFACE
Christianity is a fertility religion. It teaches that the Creator gave to mankind this primary directive: "be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:26). Jesus Christ commanded His disciples "to bear much fruit" (John 15:8). The blessings promised for obedience to Biblical Law are blessings of the fruit of the field and of the womb (Deuteronomy 28). Fertility is a theme which can be found throughout the Scriptures.
Archaeologists have mislabeled the pagan religions of ancient times as "fertility cults". The ancients were anything but adherents of fertility religion. They were proto-Malthusians. They were sexual, but not fertile. Their life styles were abusive of their fertility. Out of panic during times of famine, they did design rituals to appease the gods (for their infertile ways) and restore times of plenty. Pleasure-seeking in a static cosmos was their vision of Paradise. Contrary to this view, the Mosaic law made it clear that vain rituals do not produce abundance, but blessings from a Sovereign Creator who rewards compliance to our created design. Paradise requires a growing, bustling cosmos.
This book presents Christianity as a fertility religion - the only fertility religion. It claims that Classical Christianity has been dominated by men who fear sexuality and the female. Yet, this book does not surrender its solidly orthodox faith and doctrine. Nor does it advocate immoral ways.
While I have relied heavily upon the Patristic writings of the Church (Ante-Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), there is an important fact about the Early Church that people do not know. There were two apostasies (apostasy: falling-away) among the early Christians. One of them is commonly known. It is generally held that there was an apostasy during the time of Constantine, when the Church became a state church and dogma became a matter of public policy. It was a different Church from the one of the Apostolic era.
But there was another apostasy, and this apostasy was poorly documented. It occurred after the Bar Kochba revolt close to the middle of the second century. During this revolt, Messianic Jews attempted to prevent the Romans from erecting a temple to Jupiter on the old site of the Davidic Temple. The Christianity of the Jamesian Church (referring to the first leader of Christianity: James the brother of Jesus) was dominant in Palestine at this time. These Jamesians were sympathetic to this revolt and may have been active participants in it. The Gentile churches were neutral.
The result was the defeat and virtual extermination of the Jewish people. So devastating was the defeat, there were no survivors to tell the story. Survivors were carted off as slaves. Family life was destroyed.
It was at this time that both Christianity and Judaism were completely changed. Shedding their Messianic mantles, both religions sought accommodation with Roman power. To survive, they both became like Greek mystical cults: other worldly religions which offered no threat to the established order. In fact, Christian apologists during this period always claimed that Christianity made better Roman citizens. Both religions waited for the coming of a future Messiah. For the Jews, they were still waiting for his first coming; for the Christians, of course, the second. Both taught the "sweet bye and bye".
Cut loose from its Mosaic roots in the Jamesian Church, the Gentile churches pushed Paul's polemic to extremes. A disciple of Justin Martyr, Tatian, introduced the Encratite heresy: a view which taught that marriage was fornication. A misogynist and sexually repressive ethic began to settle into the churches. The result was a steady leavening which inverted Biblical values. If some of the material in this book shocks you, it is only because you have been brainwashed with those inverted values.
The information in this book represents the esoteric tradition of the Jamesian Church. It was forced underground during times of repression. Often confused with the Gnostics (and persecuted with them), its tradition survived, finally, at the extremities of the earth: the British Isles. Converted Druids and the Celtic Church carried the torch which has revived in the Twentieth Century at the waning of the Latin tradition (both Roman Catholic and Protestant). Lacking an adequate historical context and relying upon a heavily sanitized Bible, leaders of organized Christianity will see this book as strange, perhaps even pagan. But that will only be because they failed to read the book in its entirety, to witness its commitment to the Creeds and the Scriptures.
There is a bibliography at the end of this book which will provide a list of resources to aid the reader's research.
I first wrote on the Pneumatic Role of the Woman during the late 1980s for a fledgling magazine called The Family Spokesman. I was heavily criticized for flirting with heresy. In 1995, I taught a college-level Bible class on this topic. It was well-received by the students. Perhaps, now the time is ripe.
James Wesley Stivers, Author
CHAPTER HEADINGS
HUMANITY AS A SYMBOL OF GOD
THE TRINITY AS A CULTURAL SYMBOL
GOD'S FEMININE ATTRIBUTES IN THE BIBLE
THE HOLY SPIRIT AS THE FEMININE ROLE MODEL
THE MOTHER AS THE PNEUMATIC ICON
AN INDUCTIVE STUDY
