Sex Otherwise: Intersex, Christology, and the Maleness of Jesus
Intersex conditions manifest in atypical physical sex and raise important theological questions about the significance of human sex. This paper examines the significance of Jesus’s sex, suggesting that Christian theologies grounded in his undisputed maleness require rethinking in light of intersex....
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Indiana University Press
2014
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| In: |
Journal of feminist studies in religion
Year: 2014, Volume: 30, Issue: 2, Pages: 23-39 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | Intersex conditions manifest in atypical physical sex and raise important theological questions about the significance of human sex. This paper examines the significance of Jesus’s sex, suggesting that Christian theologies grounded in his undisputed maleness require rethinking in light of intersex. This includes the insistence by some Christians that priests must be male and not female because Jesus was male. The paper draws on constructive Christian theologies, including that of Karl Barth, and interviews with intersex Christians. It concludes that, while all humans are irreducibly sexed, sex is a human rather than a divine attribute and that maleness is not a necessary carrier of Jesus’s soterio-logical capacity. Human sex does not in itself image God, but is a channel for other divine characteristics, such as generativity and relationality, imaged in humans. Maleness is not a quality of God imaged in Jesus, so also need not be a quality of Jesus which Christian priests “represent.” |
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| ISSN: | 1553-3913 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of feminist studies in religion
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