Renewing Gender An Orthodox Perspective

by Larchet, Jean-Claude; Torrance, Archibald Andrew

• ISBN13: 9781942699576
• ISBN10: 1942699573
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2025-09-16
• Publisher: Holy Trinity Seminary Press
• More Book Details

Summary

The explosion of transgender ideology in the last decade has left many Christians bewildered and at a loss as to how to respond. As the tenets of this movement become entrenched in Western society, an acute need arises for a pastoral response that is rooted in an Orthodox understanding of the human person to provide priests, parents, and other counselors with tools to address this phenomenon.

 

Orthodox Christian scholar Dr Jean-Claude Larchet seeks to answer the claims of gender theory with a scriptural and patristic vision of man as God created him, for communion with Him. The author shows that Christianity proposes a transfiguration of gender that goes beyond the limits of both fallen human nature and vacillating social norms.

 

Examining the history of gender theory and its mass promotion, Dr Larchet untangles the complex web of this ideology. He shows that Christianity has always upheld the equality of the sexes and promoted their harmonious union. It does so by advocating a mutual struggle against the passions, the true source of all conflicts between men and women, and the practice of virtues common to both. Such a life allows for a spiritual transcendence that nevertheless preserves difference, a source of mutual enrichment.

 

A translation from the French original, Renewing Gender represents the first major work systematically addressing gender theory from an Orthodox perspective for an English-speaking audience.

Author Biography

Prof. Andrew Torrance graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1968 and obtained a Ph.D. in 1971 from Imperial College, London. After work in France and England he joined the teaching staff at Trinity College, Dublin in 1980, where he became an Associate Professor, Head of Mechanical Engineering and Fellow of the College. In 2002 he was Visiting Professor at INSA de Lyon. Since his retirement in 2008 he has lived in France with his wife Marie-Christiane where he regularly translates from French to English for Orthodox Monasteries and engineering research. Dr Jean-Claude Larchet is one of the most notable living theologians and authors on Orthodox Christian Patristics. He holds a Ph.D in philosophy from the University of Nancy and a Ph.D. in theology from the University of Strasbourg. A teacher of philosophy for nearly thirty-five years, he is an author of over thirty-five books and countless articles whose work has been translated into nineteen languages. His magnum opus, Therapy of Spiritual Illness, and several other works have been translated into English to wide acclaim.

Table of Contents

Introduction Part I: Gender Theory And Associated Ideas In The Modern World — A Critical Analysis. Chapter 1— The Definition And Roots Of Gender Theory Definition Origins and Development of Gender Theory Chapter 2— The Promotion Of Gender Theory In The Modern World: Its Supports, Its Rationale, Its Forms. Chapter 3— Criticisms Of Gender Theory The First Reason for Criticism: Gender Theory’ s Desire to Dominate An Intellectual Construct Divorced from Reality The Basic Error: Uniquely Cultural with Nature Excluded The Denial of the Body as a Concrete Fact so as to Change or Deny It The Refusal to See That Natural Factors Are at the Root of the Reality of Sexes and Their Difference Cultural Factors and Individual Choice Do Not Destroy Sexuation Though They May Modulate in Some Cases Unchanging Facts The Physiological and Psychological Dangers of Gender Confusion: Another Kind of “ Gender Troubles” Extrapolating from Pathological or Deviant Cases to Generalize and Normalize Them Ambiguous Cases Confirm the Reality of Two Different Sexes The Schizophrenic Character of Gender Theory Rejection of the Difference and Narcissism Hatred of the Male in the Radical Feminism Which Promotes Gender Theory The Consequences for Feminine Sexuality and Procreation of Rejecting Heterosexuality, Seen as a Means of Masculine Domination Confusing Difference with Inequality and Discrimination, and Equality with Sameness and Lack of Difference A False Idea of Freedom Part II: Gender And Its Transfiguration In Christian Anthropology And Spirituality Chapter 4— Christianity And Gender Theory Faced with Chaos, Preserve the Basic Values of Christianity The Misconceptions of Christian Teachings The Legitimate Aims of Gender Theory Points of Contact between Christianity and Gender Theory and Their Limits Chapter 5— The Creation Of Man And Woman In The Image Of God. Chapter 6— The Divine Plan For The Harmonious Synergy Of Man And Woman Chapter 7— Sin And The Fall The Respective Roles of Man and Woman in the Process and Act of Sin The Effects of Sin on Sexuality The Consequences of Sin on the Relations between Man and Woman Original Nature and Fallen Nature Chapter 8— The Recapitulation And Reunification Of Genders In Christ Chapter 9— The Transfiguration Of Gender In The World To Come. Chapter 10— The Transfiguration Of Gender In Christian Spirituality The Work of Reunification Continence, Chastity and the Love of Neighbor (Agape): Three Paths to the Ordering of Relations between Persons of Different Genders Chapter 11— The Transfiguration Of Gender In Married Life The Foundations of Christian Marriage The Status of Husband and Wife in Marriage Transfiguring Gender through Common Ascesis Chapter 12  — The Status Of Woman In Christianity The Asymmetry of Man and Woman in the Epistles of St Paul and of St Peter, and in the Writings of the Church Fathers The Relativization of This Asymmetric Concept The Christian Revolution Chapter 13— The Transfiguration Of Gender In Monasticism Chapter 14  — A Kind Of Gender Fluidity As The Fruit Of Christian Spirituality Manliness as an Ideal for Woman The Feminization of the Christian Male The Transfiguration of Gender in the Practice of Shared Virtues Notes Bibliography Index