Sex, Gender, and Christian Ethics

by Lisa Sowle Cahill

• ISBN13: 9780521578486
• ISBN10: 0521578485
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-08-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book endorses feminist critiques of gender, yet upholds the insight of traditional Christianity that sex, commitment and parenthood are fulfilling human relations. Their unity is a positive ideal, though not an absolute norm. Women and men should enjoy equal personal respect and social power. In reply to feminist critics of oppressive gender and sex norms and to communitarian proponents of Christian morality, Cahill argues that effective intercultural criticism of injustice requires a modest defence of moral objectivity. She thus adopts a critical realism as its moral foundation, drawing on Aristotle and Aquinas. Moral judgment should be based on reasonable, practical, prudent and cross-culturally nuanced reflection on human experience. This is combined with a New Testament model of community, centred on solidarity, compassion and inclusion of the economically or socially marginalised.

Table of Contents

General Editor's preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xiv
Sex, Gender, and the problem of moral argument	1	(13)
Feminism and foundations	14	(32)
Particular experiences, shared goods	46	(27)
``The body'' -- in context	73	(48)
An interlude and a proposal	108	(13)
Sex, gender, and early Christianity	121	(45)
Sex, marriage, and family in Christian tradition	166	(51)
The new birth technologies and public moral argument	217	(38)
Concluding reflections	255	(3)
Notes	258	(59)
Index	317