God S Own Gender

Throughout the history of religions, their holy texts and norms have been sources of images of men in societies around the world and have presented forms of masculinity that have found expression in religious acts and rituals. This volume examines how this reciprocal influence has shifted over time by bringing together research on different religious traditions from noted experts in the field, such as Bjorn Krondorfer, Yvonne Maria Werner and John Powers. It analyses similarities and differences in the interwoven relationships between specific religions and between concepts and practices of masculinity in different societies and cultures, such as Western forms of Christianity during the 19th and 20th centuries, European Judaism and Arabic Islam during the Middle Ages, and South Asian Buddhism and Hinduism. This book is the first to compare research on a variety of religions and forms of masculinity, and thereby contributes to the steadily growing field of interdisciplinary research on (critical) men's studies in Religion.

In 2014, Time magazine announced that America had reached the transgender tipping point, suggesting that transgender issues would become the next civil rights frontier. Years later, many peopleeven many LGBTQ alliesstill lack understanding of gender identity and the transgender experience. Into this void, Austen Hartke offers a biblically based, educational, and affirming resource to shed light and wisdom on this modern gender landscape. Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians provides access into an underrepresented and misunderstood community and will change the way readers think about transgender people, faith, and the future of Christianity. By introducing transgender issues and language and providing stories of both biblical characters and real-life narratives from transgender Christians living today, Hartke helps readers visualize a more inclusive Christianity, equipping them with the confidence and tools to change both the church and the world.

Kevin Giles has been writing on women in the Bible for over forty years. In this book, What the Bible Actually Teaches on Women, he gives the most comprehensive account to date of the competing conclusions to this question and the issues surrounding it. To understand the bitter and divisive debate among evangelicals over the status and ministry of women, it needs to be understood that those who since 1990 have called themselves "complementarians" argue that in creation before the fall God set the man over the woman. Thus, the leadership of the man and the subordination of the woman in the home, the church, and wherever possible in the world (the whole creation) is the God-given ideal that is pleasing to God. It is this "theology" that Kevin Giles deconstructs and shows to be without a biblical foundation. Giles shows that he is fully conversant with the complementarian position and yet is unpersuaded by it. He sees it as an appeal to the Bible to preserve male privilege, similar to the appeals to the Bible to validate slavery and Apartheid; appeals to the Bible made by some of the best Reformed and evangelical biblical scholars, and now seen to be special pleading. Carefully studying the limited number of texts on which complementarians predicate their theology of the sexes, Giles finds not one of them actually teaches what complementarians claim. Furthermore, complementarians too often ignore the texts that are very difficult for them. In this book the ordination of women gets only passing mention. The constant focus is on whether or not the Bible subordinates women to men as an abiding theological principle.

Helps Christians engage lovingly, thoughtfully, and biblically with discussions on gender identity. Originally released in 2017, this version has been updated and expanded. In the West, more and more Christians are coming across the topic of gender identity in their everyday lives. Legislative changes are impacting more and more areas of life, including education, employment, and state funding, with consequences for religious liberty, free speech, and freedom of conscience that affect everyone. So it’s a crucial moment to consider how to engage lovingly, thoughtfully, and biblically with one of the most explosive cultural discussions of our day. This warm, faithful, and compassionate book that helps Christians understand what the Bible says about gender identity has been updated and expanded throughout, and now includes a section on pronoun usage and a new chapter challenging some of the claims of the transgender activist movement. Andrew T. Walker also answers questions such as: What is transgender and gender fluidity? How should churches respond? What does God's word actually say about these issues?

Most women in the church don't aspire to "lord" it over men, nor do they want to scramble for position. Instead, they want to be accepted as full participants in God's work, sharing in kingdom tasks in ways that use their gifts appropriately. In Gender Roles and the People of God, author, radio host, and professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Alice Mathews surveys the roles women have played in the Bible and throughout church history, demonstrating both the inspiring contributions of women and the many hurdles that have been placed in their path. Along the way, she investigates the difficult passages often used to preclude women from certain areas of service, pointing to better and more faithful understandings of those verses. Encouraging and hopeful, Mathews aims for an "egalitarian complementarity" in which men and women use all of their gifts in the church together, in partnership, for the glory of God.

Between 1860 and 1940, Anglican missionaries were very active in northern British Columbia, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. To date, histories of this mission work have largely focused on men, while the activities of women – either as missionary wives or as missionaries in their own right – have been seen as peripheral at best, if not completely overlooked. Based on diaries, letters, and mission correspondence, Women and the White Man’s God is the first comprehensive examination of women’s roles in northern domestic missions. The status of women in the Anglican Church, gender relations in the mission field, and encounters between Aboriginals and missionaries are carefully scrutinized. Arguing that the mission encounter challenged colonial hierarchies, Rutherdale expands our understanding of colonization at the intersection of gender, race, and religion. This book is a critical addition to scholarship in women’s, Canadian, Native, and religious studies, and complements a growing body of literature on gender and empire in Canada and elsewhere.

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