Is it time to ditch ‘The Kingdom of God’?

I’ve never really been in favour of the monarchy and would much rather see a President of the UK. Being a logical sort of person, it means that I’ve had a bit of a problem with ‘The Kingdom of God’ for quite a while, as well. Slightly (but only slightly) tongue in cheek I have suggested to several people that the book I want to see written about Jesus is the one entitled ‘Jesus for Republicans’.
It turns out it has already been written (well, a short essay form of it) about ten years ago by Fr Diarmuid O’Murchu, a priest of the Sacred Heart Missionary Order.
Fr O’Murchu was the speaker at the recent national ACTA (A Call to Action) conference in Manchester. His brief was to give three shortish lectures about a vision for the church of the future. He was brilliant! – He had an engaging style of presentation (even for the after-lunch snooze spot) but what he had to say really made me sit up and think.
He pointed out that the word used for Kingdom in the Greek version of the Gospel is ‘Basileia’ but we had to remember that Jesus spoke in Aramaic
and the word that he most likely would have used is ‘malkuta’. On top of this, in order to understand properly what Jesus was getting at, we have to understand the cultural context in which Jesus lived and in which he used language; According to Fr O’Murchu, we have lost a lot in translation!. He posits that although the literal Aramaic translation of malkuta is ‘right to rule’ he also contends that the feminine form of the word that would have been used signals that it is really ‘the power of vision and leadership that empowers others towards a more empowering future’. So, Fr O’Murchu’s suggestion to replace ‘The Kingdom of God’ is ‘The Companionship of Empowerment’.
The Companionship of Empowerment makes clearer the vision of ‘Kingdom’ that is related in the Gospel parables: it is people in the here and now working together in community, seeking justice and truly behaving in a moral way: “Whereas Kingdom denotes royal power and domination, privilege, exclusion and hierarchical control, the feminine versions used by Jesus denote something much more egalitarian, liberating and empowering, a quality of leadership that enables and empowers others to take the next step(s).”(See his essay on his website http://www.diarmuid13.com/ )
Now, that is a radical vision which attracts me much more than the more traditional interpretations of ‘Kingdom’. His website is well worth perusing!