A senior Anglican bishop has made an outspoken attack on the notion that God is a man. In a book out next month, the Rt Rev Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford, criticises "outdated and chauvinist" views that, he claims, have no place in the modern world.
His call for the faithful to give greater recognition to God's "feminine" side has already angered traditionalists who fear that support for the Church will be further undermined.
The bishop advocates a notion of God "which is beyond gender" and claims that failure to recognise His feminine side is an insult to women struggling to get to grips with the teachings of the Bible. The book, God Outside the Box, also argues that the idea of the "all-powerful boss man" has more to do with attempts at social control rather than educated interpretations of the Bible.
The bishop, who is the chairman of the Church of England Board for Social Responsibility, defends attempts by feminists to assign to God feminine attributes.
"God in Himself is neither male nor female and in His perfection includes in sublime, perfected form all that we associate with concepts of the masculine and feminine," he states in the book.
While accepting that the "irrefutably masculine" language of God is something that cannot be sidestepped, he claims that "it is perfectly orthodox to qualify this language with images associated with the more feminine".
The bishop's comments will be welcomed by Christian feminists who have spent the past 30 years trying to drum up support for the idea of a female God. He writes that each age fashions an image of God to suit its needs. A world which seeks to encourage the participation of women needs to "alter our language and mental image of God".
In a subsequent passage the bishop refers to descriptions of Christ as mother and the Holy Spirit as feminine and says "progress is being made in the personal pronouns which are used".
MPs and fellow Christians have attacked his ideas as dangerously misguided.
Ann Widdecombe, the former shadow home secretary who left the Church of England to become a Roman Catholic, said: "I think the bishop should remember that Jesus himself referred to God the father. I have no time for arguments like this which simply empty the pews."
John Roberts, an evangelical preacher who is also the secretary of the Lord's Day Observance Society, told The Telegraph: "I think its a load of rubbish and it is the bishop not the Bible who is behind the times. It is ideas like this which are costing the Church of England supporters on a daily basis."
He added: "The evangelical wing of the Church is blooming because we appeal to those people who have faith in the basics such as the idea that God is a man.
"This sort of argument may sell books but it won't win anyone over to the Church of England."
A spokesman for Forward in Faith, a campaign group set up to oppose the ordination of women, said: "There is nothing in scripture to support this argument. Creation may be male and female but God is not. He is outside creation."
Recent attempts to change the image of God have proved equally controversial. In 1996, the Theatre Royal in York was heavily criticised after it cast a woman as God in the York mystery plays.
Three years later, the singer Alanis Morissette provoked similar outrage when she played God in the American comedy film Dogma. The film poster became the target of protests by the Catholic League. Bishop Richard's ideas will, however, be welcomed by some in the Church.
Last year, the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds told 150 clergy not to assume automatically that God was male.
The bishop is no stranger to controversy and has often spoken out on political issues. In recent weeks he has attacked the Government's policy on Iraq and called for the minimum wage to be raised to at least £5 an hour.