Abstract

Starting from two well-known avian metaphors for Godde, this article explores non-human and specifically avian imagery for the divine in a variety of contexts, including the Hebrew Bible, the Jewish tradition, the ancient Near East and contemporary world religions. The imagery has wide-ranging symbolic reference. It has the advantage of being counter to the androcentric and anthropocentric bias of much language about Godde, and reflecting the potential of birds and animals to image Godde.