(De)Constructing Gender Politics in Contemporary Christian Discourse

Nicole M. Bauer, J. Andrew Doole

• Publisher: V&R Unipress
• Year: 2026
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9783847020080
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender & The Law
• Index: Social Sciences

For many religious groups today, issues of gender identity, gender equality, gender roles, sexuality, sexual ethics, abortion, and equal marriage are the subject of much debate. Roman Catholic and evangelical groups – traditionally theologically opposed – share certain perspectives on social values and moral beliefs. Cooperation between these groups on political issues is well-attested in various societal contexts around the world concerning, for example, feminism, abortion, homosexuality, and "gender" politics. Groups are challenged to renegotiate values and norms, an undertaking which entails potential for conflict. Ideological and religious debates no longer necessarily run along confessional or denominational lines, rather are reflected in processes of negotiation of values. This collection of case studies on issues of gender and sexuality in Christian groups includes critical reflections on both the Roman Catholic gender discourse and non- and inter-denominational groups, movements, publications, and personalities.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Body
• Introduction
• The Dance of Doctrine and Context: Catholic Discourse on Sexual Behavior and Women’s Ordination
• Gender’s Holy War: Identifying the Battle-Lines and Scavenging for Seeds of Hope
• Gender, Queer, and Radical Diversity
• Only Two Sexes with “Equal Dignity”, Heterosexual, and Monogamous? Challenging Conventional Concepts in Biblical Exegesis and Tradition
• The Enlightenment Gap: How Catholic Clergy Connect Historical-Critical Bible Interpretation with the “Consensual Hallucination” of Not Being Discriminatory
• “Male and Female He Created Them”? The Construction of Gender in Roman Catholic Groups in Austria
• The Sanctified Life: Seventh-day Adventists’ Perspectives on Health and Sexuality
• “We Pray With Women, Not For Them”: Contextual Biblical Hermeneutics in the World Day of Prayer
• “I am my Beloved’s, and his Desire is for Me”: Desire as a Category for Researching Evangelical Phenomena
• The Role of Women in Austrian Free Churches: Three Case Studies
• Beauty and the Beast: Biblical Intimacy according to Bernadette Lang and Mark Driscoll
• The Cost of Complementarian Theology: Donald Trump, White Evangelicals, and the Normalization of Sexual Violence Against Women
• Concluding Remarks
• Short Biographies
• Index