On Friday, Ariana Grande released God is a Woman, the third track previewed from her forthcoming album Sweetener. The music video features a feminist reimagining of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam, starring Grande as God.

There’s also a memorable cameo halfway through the video when Madonna’s disembodied voice appears, like the voice of God, reciting a gender-flipped version Samuel L Jackson’s Ezekiel 25:17 speech from Pulp Fiction: “I will strike down upon thee, with great vengeance and furious anger, those who attempt to poison and destroy my sisters, and you will know my name is the Lord, when I lay my vengeance upon you.”

God is a Woman

God is a Woman has a lot of Grande fans singing “Hallelujah!”, referring to the Christian God in female rather than male terms – which has long been considered by many to be borderline blasphemous. God is still very much gendered male in religious discourse and most versions of the Bible. The Catechism of the Catholic church pretty much says it all with the proclamation “God is neither man nor woman: he is God”. Grande’s song, then, is sure to touch a misogynist nerve.