{"id":30476,"date":"2023-01-26T05:54:52","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T13:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=30476"},"modified":"2023-01-26T05:54:52","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T13:54:52","slug":"speaking-the-truth-in-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/speaking-the-truth-in-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaking the truth in love"},"content":{"rendered":"

Based on a Catholic perspective to scripture including the theology of Aquinas, The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory<\/em> highlights the extreme views of secular feminism on gender and, on the other end of the continuum, sadly, evangelicalism. It then proposes what may be considered a balanced, Biblical perspective on the subject. Written by Catholic author and professor Abigail Favale, the book chronicles Favale\u2019s journey from postmodern feminism to moderate evangelicalism, and ultimately to the catholic tradition. After teaching on gender at college from a secular feminist perspective for a decade, Favale realized how confusing her ideas were. She said \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve been giving my students poison to drink,\u201d noting that \u201cfor so many years, I\u2019d been careless, careless with their [her students] minds and, most disturbingly, their souls.\u201d[1]<\/a> Taking her lament a step further, Favale decided, \u201cI didn\u2019t want to keep teaching gender theory as a set of value-neutral ideas, without giving any attention to the worldview operating in the background.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

This turning point in Favale\u2019s spiritual journey does not only highlight the need for sound doctrine but also the significant influence teachers wield in forming the worldview of future leaders. This is a privilege and responsibility shared by anyone occupying the space of a mind-moulder: talk-show hosts, actors, sportsmen, religious leaders, the list is endless. It brings to mind the need for Biblicism to remain a defining trait of Christianity, as Bebbington observes in his study of 18th<\/sup> \u2013 20th<\/sup> century British Evangelicalism.[3]<\/a> I wonder how much repenting I may need to do, if I reflect seriously on how my unscriptural views may have mislead my listeners in the past, or is misleading current listeners in my context even now.<\/p>\n

In nine chapters Favale examines this important subject of gender, discussing topics like Heretic; Cosmos; Sex; Gender;<\/em> and ultimately challenging her readers to speak the truth in love, especially when engaging with those they may differ with.[4]<\/a> This reminds me of a conversation I had last year with a respected Christian leader who mentioned how she\u2019s prayerfully and patiently journeying with her brother who is in a relationship with someone who has transitioned from identifying with his biological sex. Coming from a very conservative background, I was quite uncomfortable. Yet, deep inside I knew God was in this conversation and wanted to teach me an important life lesson. Ultimately, this encounter helped me realize that although I was not aware, I\u2019d unconsciously taken a similar approach in my relationship with a dear family member experiencing a similar situation. I was struggling with whether my stance of journeying slowly with my relative was being overly liberal with this family member and thereby toying with their spiritual destiny. I then realized that if God is patient with me, I can also be patient with others.<\/p>\n

So, reading The Genesis of Gender<\/em> was very enlightening. But it also triggered unexpected feelings in me. Given Luther\u2019s 95 theses and my little experience as a former Catholic, I was inclined to believe Evangelicals corrected Catholics, and not the other way round. Therefore, I\u2019m sad to say that my initial thoughts towards The<\/em> Genesis of Gender<\/em> was one of resistance owing to my bias against Catholic theology. But to my pleasant surprise, I enjoyed reading the book and found its theology to be sound and extremely helpful in understanding the gender debate. It has definitely changed my opinion about the value of Catholic theology and helped me appreciate, again, the beauty of God\u2019s grace in using frail vessels like us all.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Favale, Abigail. The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory<\/em>. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2022), 10.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Favale, The Genesis of Gender, 11.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Bebbington, D. W. Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s<\/em>. (London: Routledge, 1989), 269.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Favale, 181.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Based on a Catholic perspective to scripture including the theology of Aquinas, The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory highlights the extreme views of secular feminism on gender and, on the other end of the continuum, sadly, evangelicalism. It then proposes what may be considered a balanced, Biblical perspective on the subject. Written by Catholic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2543,2551,2550],"class_list":["post-30476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-favale","tag-speaking-truth-in-love","tag-the-genesis-of-gender","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30477,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30476\/revisions\/30477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}