The research is mainly on digging into the history of the metaphor of “Nursing Mother” for Jesus in Church History timeline. I am laying down church history periods with key church father figures. The idea is to research their writings, find out what they said about the metaphor if any. How this metaphor was interpreted in those days.
Note: 1. It is not that all the mentioned church fathers wrote something on the metaphor, “Jesus as a Nursing mother.” Research on, at least, 2 church fathers. It may also happen that at a given age the metaphor of “nursing mother” was not a subject of debate.
2. As you can see, I am trying to be out of the feminist debate of whether God is Father or Mother. The emphasis is on the use of “Nursing Mother” as a metaphor of Jesus Christ’s love, compassion, care and protection.
The Age of Early Christianity (70-312)
Justin Martyr
Polycarp
Irenaeus
Tertullian
Origen
Cyprian bishop of Carthage
Julian of Norwich
Age of the Reformation (1517-1648)
Martin Luther
Ulrich Zwingli
John Calvin
John Knox
Teresa of Avila
Arminius
George Fox
Age of Reason & Revival (1648-1789)
Jonathan Edwards
George Whitefield
John and Charles Wesley
Age of Progress (1789-1914)
Schleiermacher
Wilberforce
Finney’s Lecture
Kierkegaard
Phoebe Palmer The Way of Holiness
Schweitzer’s Quest of the Historical Jesus
Age of Ideologies (1914-Present)
Karl Barth
C. S. Lewis
Niebuhr
I graduated 6 years ago. I’m trying to gather some research in the various images of God.