God, Sex, and Gender E-Book

Adrian Thatcher

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 654

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Engagingly and clearly written by a highly respected theologian, God, Sex, and Gender is the first comprehensive introduction to a theology of both sexuality and gender available in a single volume. * Makes a theological contribution to understanding the unprecedented changes in sexual and gender relationships of the last fifty years * Discusses many topics including: sexual difference; sexual equality; gender and power; the nature of desire; the future of marriage in Christian sexual ethics; homosexuality and same-sex unions; the problems of sexual minorities; contraception in a time of HIV/AIDS; the separation of sexual experience from marriage; and offers new arguments for marriage and for chastity * Offers a consistent and engaging introduction at the cutting edge of theological inquiry, which is contemporary, undogmatic, questioning, and relevant to readers' experience, interests, and needs * Written lucidly and engagingly by an established and respected academic who has published widely in this area

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction – Or, a Welcome to My Readers

Who Are You?

Who am I?

My Aims?

What's in the Book?

How to Use the Book

Reference

Part I: Sex, Gender, and Theology

Chapter 1: Sex: Sexuality, the Sexes, Having Sex

1.1 Sexuality

1.2 How Many Sexes are There?

1.3 Having Sex

References

Chapter 2: Gender: Language, Power, and History

2.1 Gender

2.2 Gender, Language, and Power

2.3 Gender in the Time of Jesus

References

Chapter 3: Theology: Sources and Applications

3.1 Explaining the Sources: Scripture, Tradition, Reason

3.2 Applying the Sources

3.3 Using the Sources Well

References

Part II: Being Theological about Sex

Chapter 4: Desiring

4.1 Learning from Lust

4.2 Desiring

4.3 Desiring God?

4.4 God Desiring Us?

References

Chapter 5: Framing Sex: Must the Framework be Marriage?

5.1 The Traditional Framework: Celibacy or Marriage?

5.2 The Case against Marriage

5.3 Alternative Frameworks: Justice and Friendship?

5.4 A New Case for Marriage?

References

Chapter 6: Covenants and Covenant-Makers

6.1 Beginning with God

6.2 God the Father – Maker of Covenants

6.3 Christ – The Bridegroom, Maker of a New Covenant

6.4 The Eucharist – Sharing in the New Covenant

References

Part III: Being Theological about Gender

Chapter 7: God: Beyond Male and Female

7.1 Does God Have [a] Sex?

7.2 Is God the Son a Man?

7.3 Mary – Mother of All the Living

7.4 Womankind in God's Likeness?

References

Chapter 8: “In Christ there is neither Male nor Female”

8.1 Sex in the Body of Christ

8.2 Gender in the Body of Christ

8.3 Masculinity in the Body of Christ

8.4 … Neither … Male nor Female …?

References

Part IV: Being Theological about Same-Sex Love

Chapter 9: The Bible and Same-Sex Love

9.1 What the Churches Teach

9.2 Same-Sex Relations in the Hebrew Bible

9.3 Same-Sex Relations in the New Testament

9.4 What Else Does the Bible “Say” about Same-Sex Relations?

9.5 Finding What We Want to Find? Evaluating Official Teaching

References

Chapter 10: Tradition, Reason, and Same-Sex Love

10.1 Tradition and Same-Sex Love

10.2 Reason, Natural Law, and Same-Sex Love

10.3 Complementarity and Same-Sex Love

10.4 Experience and Same-Sex Love

References

Part V: Learning to Love

Chapter 11: Virginity, Celibacy, Chastity

11.1 Valuing Virginity?

11.2 Virginity “for the Sake of the Kingdom”

11.3 In Praise of Restraint

11.4 Commending Chastity

References

Chapter 12: “Condilemmas”: Sex and Contraception in the Time of HIV/AIDS

12.1 Contraception, Still a Theological Issue

12.2 Lambeth against Rome

12.3 Contraception and Natural Law

12.4 Sex and Love: An “Unbreakable Connection”?

12.5 Moral Deficit Arguments

12.6 Condoms in the Time of HIV/AIDS

References

Chapter 13: Marriage and the “States of Life”

13.1 Betrothal in the Bible

13.2 Betrothal and Tradition

13.3 Spousals, Nuptials, and States of Life

References

Chapter 14: Inclusive Theology and Sexual Minorities

14.1 Sex

14.2 Gender

References

Index of Authors

Index of Biblical References

Index of Subjects

This edition first published 2011

© 2011 Adrian Thatcher

Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell's publishing program has been merged with Wiley's global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Thatcher, Adrian.

God, sex, and gender : an introduction / Adrian Thatcher.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4051-9369-6 (hardback) – ISBN 978-1-4051-9370-2 (pbk)

1. Sex–Religious aspects–Christianity. 2. Sex role–Religious aspects–Christianity. I. Title.

BT708.T444 2011

233'.5–dc22

2010049297

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This book is published in the following electronic formats: ePDFs 9781444396362; Wiley Online Library 9781444396386; ePub 9781444396379

Introduction – Or, a Welcome to My Readers

Who Are You?

“Hello.” When I write books, I like to envisage who will read them. Writing and reading form a powerful means of communication, but with one defect. A dialogue between the speaker and the reader can never become an audible or spoken exchange. Readers cannot complain to an author's face if he or she is unclear (as we Theology authors often are). Nor can they interrupt if they disagree. And authors miss all those looks of surprise, bewilderment, discovery, or rejection that accompany class discussion. So it helps this author, at least, to imagine who his readers are, why they are reading this book, what they hope to get from it, how much they already know, even the countries where they live and the religious backgrounds (if any) which may already be shaping them.

It is a safe bet that many of you will be students, studying sexuality and gender as part of a larger degree or diploma program which might be in Theology, or Religious Studies, or Ethics, or subjects closely related to these. You may be studying in a Church or denominational seminary, or in a Theology department in a secular or Christian university, or in a secular Religious Studies department in a secular University, or some other institution. Often these places are mixed up anyway (in more senses than one). There is a huge range of approaches out there to questions of belief and practice: some institutions would not permit you to study this book at all. If you have a Church allegiance, your Church will already have firm teaching about sex and gender, but there will be arguments raging, overtly or covertly, about its adequacy or its ability to remain relevant to the sex lives and “gender performances” of Christians (see Section 2.1.2 for more on this). Students of Philosophy of Religion and/or Ethics will be interested in the arguments offered here. The strange theological territory we will pass through may provide unusual features not found among the more familiar landscapes of Ancient, or Enlightenment or Modern Philosophy.

Women students in Theology and Religious Studies now outnumber men (at least in the United Kingdom, by 40%) (HESA, 2007). That fact has not only enriched the study of these subjects: it is a revealing indicator of the breathtaking changes to sex and gender roles in the past 50 years, not only in higher education but nearly everywhere else. Basic theological reflections on these remarkable changes, in down to earth language, are attempted here. Not all readers will be students. That category “general reader,” loved by publishers, includes clergy, ministers, and Church leaders; Christians concerned with sex and gender issues because of pastoral concerns or perplexity about their own sexualities and what their Christian commitment may require of them as sexual persons; or “Church leavers,” who according to some accounts outnumber actual Church attenders, whose membership of Churches has collapsed while their interest in Theology has remained constant or intensified. We are all unavoidably sexual beings. Many of us want to make sense of our sexuality by listening to what religious traditions have to say, or could yet say, about sexuality. Many are curious why there is still such an enormous fuss among Christians about sex.

You can read this book with little or no knowledge of Theology or Religion. Ideally you might have studied either subject for a year or two years as an undergraduate. If you are already in your twenties you will almost certainly have had some sexual experience (whatever that means! – see Section 1.3) and this book will help you reflect on it, however ecstatic, or traumatic, or just boring, it might have been. I worry a lot about potential readers who will never see the book because they, and their countries and colleges cannot afford books. Yet problems to do with sexuality and gender are rife in those countries too. Inevitably the book will be read only by readers who can afford to buy it. We will need to be sensitive to this problem throughout.

Who am I?

I am curious about my readers. They may be curious about me. I have been teaching Theology and Philosophy to students, and they have been teaching me, since 1974, and I am still learning much from them at the University of Exeter, in the United Kingdom. This is not my first book, and several of the earlier ones have been about sexuality, marriage, families, living together, relationships, and how to read the Bible in a very different world from the one in which it was written. I am a Christian, an Anglican (or Episcopalian, depending on where you live). What biases, hidden agendas, can you expect?

Well, no one can set aside who they are, especially if they are writing about sex and gender! Feminist theologians, lesbian and gay theologians, evangelical theologians, Catholic theologians (traditional and revisionist), queer theologians, and others are all writing in part out of their experiences. I am no exception. It is often overlooked though, that the Christian tradition about these matters is already profoundly shaped by partisan experience, that of single, powerful, European males who were (in the main) celibate, many of whom were profoundly troubled by their desires and what to do about them. Their often tortuous utterances say as much about their unhappy troubles as they do about the tradition that “informs” them.

This author will not disguise that he is male, straight, and a grandparent. It will become clear his sympathies generally lie with progressive or revisionist themes, as long as these are deeply rooted in traditional theological sources and doctrines. A whole range of issues, perspectives, ideas are presented, as fairly as I can, yet without attempting to hide my own beliefs and practices between the lines or behind the text. I will never claim to be right – only to offer arguments and compare one argument with another. What matters most is that clear reasons and arguments are offered in support of any and every position adopted. Not all of them will convince, but at least they will be open to inspection, criticism, and eventually amendment. Some, of course, will be found wanting.

I hope it will be possible for readers to be intrigued and exhilarated by the strange yet lively material that makes up theologies of sexuality and gender. That is why I have written this book. I am intrigued and exhilarated myself by its themes and their relevance to readers and writer alike.

My Aims?

There are three main aims:

1. To introduce students and general readers to the exhilaration of thinking theologically about sex, sexuality, sexual relationships, and gender roles.

2. To introduce students and general readers to a comprehensive and consistent theological understanding of sexuality and gender, which is broad, contemporary, undogmatic, questioning, inclusive, and relevant to readers' interests, needs, and experience.

3. To offer to university and college lecturers a comprehensive core text that will provide them with an indispensable basis for undergraduate and postgraduate courses and modules in and around the topics of Theology, Sexuality, and Gender.

What's in the Book?

There are five parts. Part I, “Sex, Gender, and Theology”, contains a separate chapter on each of the three topics, Sex, Gender, and Theology. Part I is introductory. An attempt is made to understand the construction of sex, sexuality, and gender in biblical times and in late-modern Western societies (Chapters 1 and 2), and to discover how some of the churches and some theologians identify and use theological sources for thinking about them (Chapter 3).

Part II, “Being Theological about Sex,” contains chapters on Desire, and on Marriage. Chapter 4 analyses desire, distinguishes between different forms of desire, and links sexual desire with desire for God. Chapter 5 raises the question whether marriage must remain the framework within Christian thought for thinking about and having sex. Chapter 6 taps into the rich resources of meaning with which theological thought is able to invest marriage, at least in its egalitarian form.

Part III, “Being Theological about Gender,” occupies Chapters 7 and 8. A crucial issue is whether the God of Christian faith is to be thought of as masculine, and if so, whether the male sex images God in a way the female sex does not. Can Mary, Mother of God help to restore the self-respect of women in a male-dominated Church? Chapter 8 finds the core doctrine of the “Body of Christ” crucial to thinking theologically about gender, and depicting it in such a way that “in Christ there is neither male nor female.”

Part IV, “Being Theological about Same-Sex Love,” closely examines passages in the Bible which have been used to condemn all same-sex contact, and concludes, perhaps controversially, that these passages can no longer be used in this way (Chapter 9). Chapter 10 examines the use of Tradition, Reason, and Natural Law in condemning homosexual practice, and concludes, again perhaps controversially, that these uses are unjustified, and that the public arguments put forward by the churches in support of these uses are frankly poor ones.

Part V, “Learning to Love,” has four chapters, and develops an inclusive theology of sexual love informed by the gender awareness that a contemporary faith can provide. Chapter 11 develops theological understandings of virginity, chastity, and celibacy that may be embraced in the twenty-first century. Chapter 12 handles the practices of contraception inside and outside marriage, and in the time of HIV/AIDS. Chapter 13 shows that marriages do not begin with the ceremony of a wedding, and sketches out how couples who are having “pre-ceremonial” sex may nonetheless behave chastely. The final chapter draws together the theology of the previous chapters and briefly applies it to sexual minorities, and to the further transformation of relations of gender.

How to Use the Book

Because I am writing both for students and general readers I have tried to incorporate features that both readerships expect. The five parts are arranged in a sequence that can be easily followed. But the book need not be read from the beginning. Each of the chapters is self-contained. There are many cross-references so moving forwards and backwards through the book should be easy.

There are plenty of subheadings to identify themes and arguments. The definitions of key terms are clearly set out in the margins. Key quotations are also clearly displayed. There are also questions for discussion or an activity, sometimes followed by a comment. There are several ways of using these. They can be ignored. If the book is used in a class they can be used to generate class or group discussion. If the book is used for pre-reading prior to lectures, responses to the questions may be written down beforehand. Some of the questions may make good essay questions. If you want to use the questions as a prompt for your own thinking, you might like to use a masking card initially in order to prevent the comments being seen.

Reference

HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) (2007–2008) www.hesa.ac.uk/index.php/component/option,com_datatables/Itemid,121/task,show_category/catdex,3/#subject (accessed November 12, 2010).

Part I

Sex, Gender, and Theology

Chapter 1

Sex

Sexuality, the Sexes, Having Sex

This chapter is about sex. It asks how the terms “sex” and “sexuality” are used (Section 1.1). It shows that until recently men and women thought of themselves as united in a single sex, even with the same sex organs, but disunited by belonging to two different genders (Section 1.2). Since there are many sexual activities in which people engage, it asks what “having sex” amounts to (Section 1.3). These topics prepare the way for a similar analysis of gender in Chapter 2.

1.1 Sexuality

Nothing can be taken for granted in the theology of sex and gender. Take for example the truism (something that looks obvious) that we are either women or men. There are at least three reasons for doubting even this.

First, if we are adults, we have become either men or women, as a result of a comprehensive process. It may take half a lifetime to discover the pervasive influences on us that helped to make us the men and women we now are. We are more than our biology.

Second, there are many adults who are unable to identify with either label. There are intersex, and transsexual or transgender, people who cannot easily say they identify with this binary (twofold) division of humanity into separate biological sexes (see Section 1.2).

Third, for most of Christian history, people were inclined to believe that there was a single sex, “man,” which existed on a continuum between greater (male) and lesser (female) degrees of perfection (see Sections 1.2 and 2.3). That is something quite different from the now common assumption that there are two, and only two, sexes. If we are to understand the biblical and traditional sources for thinking about sex and gender, we will be well advised not to smother them with our modern assumptions.

Defining Terms

In a moment I will be suggesting a definition of sexuality, but first it may be helpful to say something about what we are doing when we define something. Throughout the book we will notice that experts sometimes disagree even over the meaning of basic terms. When coming to define sexuality, it is important to tackle the problem of definition head-on. Experts disagree about what sexuality is. Within psychology and psychoanalysis, there is a large diversity of influences and schools, and new sub-disciplines such as evolutionary psychology and sociobiology have become popular. Philosophers of language have something to teach us about how to manage this problem. They might advise us not to worry too much about definitions, that is, to look not for the fixed meaning or meanings of a word but for its use within its “language-game” or context where it is employed. That is what I shall be doing with definitions. I shall follow the philosopher Wittgenstein (1889–1951) in his dictum “For a large class of cases – though not for all – in which we employ the word ‘meaning’ it can be defined thus: the meaning of a word is its use in the language” (Wittgenstein, 1972, p. 20, para. 43; emphasis in original).

Sometimes it is helpful to offer a stipulative definition, that is, a description of the meaning of a general term combined with the author's stipulation of its meaning or use. Some of the definitions in the book, found in the margins, are stipulative.

Sex: Sex is the division of a species into either male or female, especially in relation to the reproductive functions. Whatever else sex is, it is about the ability of species to reproduce.

However, even the link between sex and reproduction can be sensibly doubted, can't it? For most people most of the time, having children is the last thing on their minds when they are “having sex” (see Section 1.3). There is much more to sex than biology. It is OK to begin discussing sex from a biological or reproductive point of view, provided it does not end there. Sex, or being sexed, is a condition we share with fish, insects, birds, and other animals. Sometimes the term refers to the biological drive within species to reproduce. Since that drive can be overwhelming it requires regulation. That regulation is sexual morality.

Our sexuality is more interesting. In the margin, there are two stipulative definitions of sexuality provided by churches, one Roman Catholic, the other Lutheran, both of them American.