Understanding emerging gender identities
by Ian Paul, Psephizo:
There is perhaps no more contentious issue in contemporary culture than the issue of transgenderism and the questions around gender identity. As a result, there are few issues which also divide Christians in their response; the culture wars in society cast their shadow across different Christian responses, not only in relation to theology and biblical interpretation, but also in relation to credible pastoral responses.
Mark Yarhouse and Julia Sadusky are well placed to help us navigate this complex set of issues. Yarhouse is best known for his 2015 volume Understanding Gender Dysphoria, and both are part of the collaborative team of the Centre for Faith, Sexuality and Gender, led by Preston Sprinkle.
Readers will need to be aware from the outset that this book is not offering a critique of transgenderism ‘from the outside’, as it were, or offering a philosophical and theological critique of the movement or the social phenomenon as others have done—the major way that Christians have responded. Instead, they are offering an exploration ‘from the inside’, reflecting the fact that they are both deeply committed to the therapeutic and pastoral engagement with individuals and situations in pastoral and psychiatric practice. This gives the book a rootedness in the reality of experience, and doesn’t allow us to be satisfied with simplistic pastoral responses.
Although this will inevitably mean that readers looking for clear-cut, easy-to-apply solutions or critiques might be frustrated, Yarhouse and Sadusky are clear from the outset that ‘we will offer distinctively Christian principles that are in keeping with historic Christian anthropology’ (p 11). One of the enriching features of the book is that, along with patient and serious engagement with professional and pastoral issues, the authors don’t skimp on rooting their reflection in some serious theological engagement.
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