Abstract
Adrian Thatcher’s Redeeming Gender is an original and compelling work of theology. Situated within the extensively researched and innovative field of gender studies in religion and theology, Thatcher’s work introduces an important and new perspective into theological reflections on gender. Thatcher’s work is concerned with the theological implications of Thomas Laqueur’s 1990 book Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University). Although Laqueur’s work has occasionally been cited and engaged by theologians and scholars of religion, its implications for theology have not been properly considered. That is, until now.
In Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud Thomas Laqueur argued that until the 19th century people in the West assumed that there was a single sex (man), and that women belonged to this sex as inferior versions of men. This is what Laqueur calls ‘the one-sex hypothesis,’ and in Making Sex he delineates and analyses the textual and historical evidence, from the Greeks to Freud (as the title suggests), for this claim. The near universal acceptance of the existence of two sexes, i.e. the unquestionable and unquestioned binary of male and female, is, according to Laqueur, a modern invention. He acknowledges that the identification of the precise timing of the transition from a one-sex ontology to a two-sex ontology is not clear, but he insists that the two-sex ontology was well and truly embedded by the 19th century. Thatcher is concerned to assess the persuasiveness of Laqueur’s argument (and its reception by classicists and historians), and to draw out what he regards as the major implications that this has for the theology of sex and gender.
The book is structured in two main parts. Part I is entitled Retreivals, and contains four chapters: 1. ‘Two Seeds, One Sex?’; 2. ‘One Seed, Two Sexes?’; 3. ‘The Arrival of Two Sexes’; and 4. ‘The “Modern Mix”: One and Two Sexes Combined.’ These chapters assess Laqueur’s argument that well into the modern period the major influential classical authors believed that there was only one sex, and that, unsurprisingly, Christian theologians also functioned with this assumption. Moreover, not only did Christians appropriate this model, but through their theological writings they invigorated it, developed and amplified its significance, and imbued it with even more strongly misogynistic overtones. Thatcher argues that this context of the one-sex theory explains much of the bias against women in the early Christian texts. Throughout this section Thatcher expertly exposes the range of developments through which the ‘two seeds, one sex’ model evolved to a ‘one seed, two sexes’ model, and then to the position wherein the two-sexes model was enthroned. Throughout these chapters Thatcher demonstrates how, for the most part, the theological tradition has relied on biblical proof texts combined with the unconscious use of anthropological models that were themselves evolving. Most interesting and illuminating, moreover, is his chapter four, ‘The Modern Mix: One and Two Sexes Combined,’ in which he explains how contemporary, mostly Roman Catholic, theological teaching on sex and gender perpetuates this tendency to rely both on biblical proof texts and on the modern two-sex theory (as opposed to the earlier one-sex model), albeit with similarly misogynistic and heterosexist implications. Throughout these chapters his arguments are compelling and his assessments are nuanced.
The second part of Thatcher’s book, entitled Transformations, attempts to ‘take up the challenge of speaking thankfully and clearly about our desires and our relationships with each other, in the light of God’s self-revelation in Jesus, but without the distorting influences of rigid dimorphic theories either ancient or modern’ (p. 115). In Chapters five and six the focus is on Christology. Chapter five considers the implications of Jesus’ relationships with and treatment of women for a transformed theology. This theme has often been treated by feminist biblical scholars over the years and Thatcher’s analysis mirrors and builds on much of this work. Importantly in this context, he also speaks about the alternative masculinities at play in the gospel texts. Chapter six continues to flesh out the implications of this in the context of a community’s faith in the transforming powers of Jesus Christ, that is, the church. In his final two chapters Thatcher nails his colours to the mast, arguing for an anthropology that is grounded in sexual similarity, and against entrenched assumptions of difference. For Thatcher this anthropology speaks to the essence of humankind, and is grounded in a Trinitarian order. It is cogently argued, beautifully rendered, and, to a certain extent, compelling.
The assumption that sexual difference follows a natural dualistic pattern is clearly incorrect, and this has been shown to be the case both historically and culturally. Moreover, although most societies are familiar with the experiences of individuals and groups who fall outside this supposed natural categorization, the fiction of sexual dualism persists. A great deal of contemporary feminist gender theory attempts to reckon with this, and to create spaces in which the constructed-ness of sex and gender can be considered, in the context of a commitment to equality. Redeeming Gender makes an important, original, and humane contribution to this exciting field. It is a work that demands attention, and deserves to have a considerable impact on future developments in the theology of gender.