Understanding Transgender Identities: Four Views - Softcover

Beilby

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1540960307 ISBN 13: 9781540960306

Publisher: Baker Academic, 2019

Synopsis

One of the most pressing issues facing the evangelical church today involves dramatic shifts in our culture's perceptions regarding human sexuality. While homosexuality and same-sex marriage have been at the forefront, there is a new cultural awareness of sexual diversity and gender dysphoria. The transgender phenomenon has become a high-profile, battleground issue in the culture wars.

This book offers a full-scale dialogue on transgender identities from across the Christian theological spectrum. It brings together contributors with expertise and platforms in the study of transgender identities to articulate and defend differing perspectives on this contested topic. After an introductory chapter surveys key historical moments and current issues, four views are presented by Owen Strachan, Mark A. Yarhouse and Julia Sadusky, Megan K. DeFranza, and Justin Sabia-Tanis. The authors respond to one another's views in a respectful manner, modeling thoughtful dialogue around a controversial theological issue. The book helps readers understand the spectrum of views among Christians and enables Christian communities to establish a context where conversations can safely be held.

About this title

About the Author

James K. Beilby (PhD, Marquette University) is professor of systematic and philosophical theology at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has written or edited numerous books, including Thinking about Christian Apologetics. Paul Rhodes Eddy (PhD, Marquette University) is professor of biblical and theological studies at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the author or editor of a number of books, including Across the Spectrum. Beilby and Eddy are coeditors of five other successful multiview volumes, including Understanding Spiritual Warfare: Four Views.

From the Back Cover

"A groundbreaking book"

Owen Strachan, Mark A. Yarhouse and Julia Sadusky, Megan K. DeFranza, and Justin Sabia-Tanis offer a full-scale dialogue on transgender identities from across the Christian theological spectrum.

"A groundbreaking book that will support Christians in deepening their theological and biblical understanding and their reflections on pastoral care. The presence of four perspectives shows there is no simple for-and-against binary here; rather, Christian certainties, worries, concerns, and joys intersect and diverge across these four views. While this may frustrate those already solidly committed to a point of view, it may delight the intellectual and curious mind. The most grateful readers will be those sincere Christians who wish to love their transgender neighbors as themselves but are bewildered or uncertain about the linguistic, scientific, biblical, theological, and pastoral complexities associated with transgender identities. Understanding Transgender Identities will honor that sincerity while stretching readers to consider a broad range of information and viewpoints."
--Jenell Paris, professor of anthropology, Messiah University

"Every Christian leader needs to think through questions related to transgender identities and experiences. Every Christian leader, therefore, needs to read this book and humbly and critically consider the various views. Paul Eddy and James Beilby have put together a thoughtful team of scholars addressing some of the most important ethical questions facing the church today."
--Preston Sprinkle, president of the Center for Faith, Sexuality, and Gender

"As an outsider to Christianity and an insider to transgender experience and scholarship, I found this explicitly Christian exercise in 'understanding transgender identities' to be a provocative read. Although none of the authors reference the prophet Isaiah's invitation to come 'reason together' (Isa. 1:18) as an enactment of one's faith, this is precisely what most impresses me about the book--that authors with diametrically opposed views on the compatibility of Christian and transgender identities can argue respectfully about their radically divergent interpretations of the same foundational texts. At a time when transgender issues have become weaponized in the culture wars, this is an orientation toward dialogue and encounter that we would all do well to emulate."
--Susan Stryker, founding coeditor of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly

Edition details

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1540960307
• ISBN 13: 9781540960306
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272