Abigail Favale is the last person you’d expect to write a Christian book about gender. A Post-modern gender theorist, Favale had transitioned (so to speak) from evangelical feminist to revisionist feminist to heretical feminist. Her conversion to Catholicism prompted her to rethink her academic perspective. She tells her story in the first chapter of her thought-provoking book, The Genesis of Gender.

To be clear, Favale is not anti-feminist. Rather, she’s against “letting it become a totalizing worldview” (30). She provides a clear overview of the history of feminist thought in chapter three, ultimately arguing that gender theory has co-opted the feminist movement.

At the core of Favale’s argument, framed in theological perspective, is that there are only two human genders. You might question whether I meant to say “sex” there in place of “gender.” Favale argues that our modern separation of gender from sex “oversimplifies the complexity of human personhood” (148).

Favale roots gender identification biologically in large or small gamete production. Almost every human being has the potential to produce either egg or sperm. While Favale acknowledges a category of intersex, she claims it is overused due to equating sex with secondary characteristics rather than potential gamete production.

This is a crucial point to understand: the vast majority of individuals often categorized as intersex are unambiguously male or female, even if the presentation of maleness or femaleness is atypical in some way. (127)

As a Protestant, one emphasis of Favale’s book deeply challenged my presuppositions. She challenges widespread normalization of contraceptive technologies. “Through normalizing contraception, we have erased fertility from our consciousness. This has reshaped—how could it not?—our shared understanding of the purpose of sex, which in turn has altered our behavior” (105). Some forms of birth control, including the pill, essentially pathologize fertility.

Favale’s perspective sits uneasy with both her own background and the direction of western society as a whole. It’s important to know that her tone, while passionate, is never crusading or harsh. She writes:

It is possible to judge whether an ideology is true or false—but we cannot judge persons; we have not been granted access to the inner chambers of the human heart. (214)

She sympathizes with trans-identifying people, telling their stories as well as the often suppressed stories of detransition.

The Genesis of Gender is a theologically, biologically, and philosophically rich look at gender. Agree or disagree, it deserves to be reckoned with. It should be essential reading for Christians trying to find their way in shifting cultural gender discussions.

Favale, Abigail. The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory. Ignatius, 2022.