Kingdom of God Metaphors: College, Marriage, and Scripture
This paper examines metaphors used to describe the Kingdom of God, drawing on Kathryn Tame's 2005 article in Expository Times as well as biblical imagery. It analyzes Tame's college metaphor — in which admission, instruction, and graduation parallel entry into, growth within, and departure to God's Kingdom — and evaluates its strengths and limitations. The paper then presents the marriage relationship as a personal metaphor, grounded in Ephesians 5, arguing that the union between husband and wife mirrors the relationship between Christ and the Church. Together, these metaphors illustrate how familiar human experiences can make theological concepts more accessible and meaningful.
- Introduction to Kingdom Metaphors: Overview of biblical and contemporary Kingdom metaphors
- The College as a Metaphor for the Kingdom: Tame's college analogy and its theological parallels
- Faculty, Students, and Spiritual Growth: Instructors and peer learning within the Kingdom metaphor
- Graduation and the Heavenly Kingdom: Death as graduation and entry into God's presence
- Marriage as a Metaphor for Christ and the Church: Biblical marriage as image of Christ and Christians
- Conclusion: Scripture as the best source of Kingdom metaphors
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper moves logically from an external source (Tame's college metaphor) to a personally introduced metaphor (marriage), creating a clear two-part analytical structure.
- It acknowledges the inherent limitations of metaphor — that no analogy perfectly captures its referent — which demonstrates critical theological awareness rather than naive acceptance.
- Direct scriptural citation (Ephesians 5:25) grounds the marriage metaphor in authoritative textual evidence, strengthening the argument's credibility.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates comparative metaphor analysis: it introduces a published metaphor, evaluates its correspondence to the theological concept, identifies where the analogy breaks down, and then proposes a supplementary metaphor. This technique shows students how to engage critically with secondary sources rather than simply summarizing them.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a brief framing introduction, then devotes three sections to unpacking Tame's college metaphor across its stages (admission, instruction, and graduation). It pivots to a personal biblical metaphor — marriage — supported by Ephesians. The short conclusion synthesizes both metaphors and affirms scripture as the primary source for Kingdom imagery. The paper is appropriate for undergraduate-level theology coursework.
Introduction to Kingdom Metaphors
The Bible contains many metaphors describing how the Kingdom of God will appear and what characteristics God displays within it. The essay "And Finally…The Kingdom of God is Like…" by Tame (2005) offers several contemporary examples of what people have perceived of the Kingdom and its inhabitants — including, for instance, the Holy Spirit as a guiding star. This paper examines one of the metaphors from Tame's essay and also presents a personal metaphor for the Kingdom.
Metaphors are meant to provide a familiar picture that helps people understand something they wish to grasp more fully. They are, by nature, approximate: they resemble the thing they describe without being identical to it. With that in mind, two metaphors are considered here — the college and the marriage — each illuminating a different dimension of life in God's Kingdom.
References
Tame, K. (2005). And finally…The Kingdom of God is like this…. Expository Times, 116(7).
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