Sex Difference in Christian Theology: Male, Female, and Intersex in the Image of God

DeFranza, a visiting researcher at Boston University School of Theology, considers how taking intersex persons seriously might make conservative Christianity more welcoming for all believers. After she lays out the history and meaning of intersex and unpacks the cultural and scriptural meaning of eunuchs, the bulk of her work examines Catholic and evangelical theological views on the sexual and social implications of what it means to be created in the image of God. She analyzes the works of theologians such as Pope John Paul II and Stanley Grenz in an attempt to counter views that uphold a conservative gender binary. The presentation of these other thinkers often obscures some of Defranza’s intriguing ideas about, for example, the gender of Jesus, and at times the dense, academic language of her argument is too close to her original doctoral dissertation, which gave rise to this book.. Nonetheless, she brings clarity to this contentious issue, and her conclusion—that including intersex people in Christian communities and thought decenters differences without erasing them—makes a powerful case for the future of Christian sexual ethics. (May)