Theology
Gender as Love A Theological Account of Human Identity, Embodied Desire, and Our Social Worlds Fellipe do Vale Foreword by Beth Felker Jones
In recent years, the issue of gender has become a topic of great importance and has generated discussion from the kitchen table to the academy. It is an issue that churches and Christian educational institutions are grappling with as well, since gender is a crucial aspect of identity, affecting how we engage socially and under- stand our embodiment. Upstream from all these conversations lies a more basic question: What is gender? In Gender as Love , Fellipe do Vale takes a theological approach to understanding gender, employing both biblical exegesis and histor- ical theology and emphasizing the role human love plays in shaping our identities. He engages with and explains current theories and debates, but his approach is unique in that it avoids the present impasse between social constructionist and biological essentialist paradigms. His emphasis is on love as identity forming. This fresh, holistic approach makes an important contribution to the literature and will benefit scholars and students alike. “This book is everything theology should aspire to be: elegant in its argumentation, accessible in its prose, brilliant in its content, and unreservedly devoted to the God of the gospel.” —DANIEL LEE HILL, George W. Truett Theological Seminary “The joining of confidence in Christ with an epistemic humility that results in godly patience makes this author and this work a timely gift and a necessary read.” —AMY PEELER, Wheaton College FROM THE FOREWORD “If there is one clear thing to be said about gender in this time and place, it is that gender is a source of pain. We see cultures and individuals struggling with the meaning, implications, and practical consequences of ideas about humans as gendered beings. Some preach God’s creational intention for the goodness of male- ness and femaleness but fail to see that maleness and femaleness are enmeshed in sin and that those sinful constructs are hurting beloved children of God. Others preach the goodness of an endless diversity of gendered possibilities but can account neither for the real ways real bodies suffer in a specifically patriarchal world nor for the longstanding Christian claim that we must treasure bodies because we are pro-creation. . . . [Do Vale] offers care for hurting human beings and care for all that is at stake theologically.” —Beth Felker Jones
NOVEMBER 2023 • 272 pp. • paper • $34.99 • 9781540966971
Fellipe do Vale (PhD, Southern Methodist University) is assistant professor of biblical and systematic theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He specializes in the juncture where theological anthropology and moral theology meet and has published widely on gender, ethics, and systematic theology.
3
Made with FlippingBook. PDF to flipbook with ease