Why Is God traditionally referred to with Male Pronouns?

A good response to the question "Is God male?", "Is God a woman?" in a classical philosophical viewpoint is this:

From the viewpoint of classical theism, or the traditional conception of God in a lot of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish thinkers (Aquinas, Maimonedes, and Avicenna to name a few),God is immutable, or unchangeable, immaterial, or incorporeal, eternal, or infinite, and purely actual. Considering this divine attributes, it would be very misleading to call God a "woman" or "she". Here's why.

An analogy from procreation would be helpful: In procreation, the role of the male is active insofar as he's the one impregnating. The role of the female, on the other hand, is passive insofar as she's the one being impregnated. After procreation, there is nothing in the male's physique that would apparently change due to procreation, only the woman will have changes in her physique (say, the stomach getting bigger). 

Now, when we apply this analogy in understanding the relationship of God to the universe, God's role is active insofar as He's creating. The universe, on the other hand, has a passive role insofar as it's being created. And it would be important to note that Classical theism in general, and Aristotelian-Thomism in particular, emphasizes on what we call the "Doctrine of Divine Conservation", or the doctrine that says God's creation of the universe is ongoing, or that the universe is being preserved in existence here and now, as opposed to the fact that He only created the universe at one point in the past only (a good way of introducing this is diving deeper into Aquinas' 5 ways in proving God's existence. More on that next time probably). And also, since God is an unchangeable Being, His active role in creating the universe does not affect Him. Only the universe, which is being preserved in existence here and now, is changeable (This is self-evident from our experiences. The hot coffee becomes cold, our hair grows longer, etc.)

So, the point is: it would be very erroneous to refer to God with female pronouns, or calling Him 'mother', because we have Philosophical evidences that prove God's role and His relationship to the universe is a 'masculine role' while the universe is more of 'feminine' in relation to God.

Just as the woman cannot impregnate herself, The universe cannot create itself. The woman need someone from without to act in order for her to be impregnated, and the universe would need someone from without in order to be created.

- Matthew Luis Antero

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