The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory

by Abigail Favale

The question of gender—who we are as men and women—has never been more pressing, or more misunderstood.

Weaving personal experience with expert knowledge, Dr. Abigail Favale provides an in-depth yet accessible account of the gender a framework for understanding reality and identity that has recently risen to prominence. Favale traces the genealogy of gender to its origins in feminism and postmodern thought, describing how gender has come to eclipse sex, and how that shift is reshaping language, law, medicine, sexuality, and our own self-perceptions.

With substance, clarity, and compassion, Favale teases out the hidden assumptions of the gender paradigm and exposes its effects. Yet this book is not merely an exposé—it is also a powerful, moving articulation of a Christian understanding of a holistic paradigm that proclaims the dignity of the body, the sacramental meaning of sexual difference, and the interconnectedness of all creation. The Genesis of Gender is a vital, timely resource for anyone seeking to better understand the gender paradigm—and how to live beyond it.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Nonfiction, Religion, Philosophy, Gender, Christianity

230 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[Katie Marquette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want everyone to read this book. I worry with the subtitle 'A Christian Theory' and a publisher like the (amazing) Ignatius Press, this book may be relugated to a certain audience. In reality it should be read deeply, seriously, and repeatedly by those of all faiths, or no faith at all. Favale is an engaging, sharp writer, humorous and witty at times, serious and convicted at others. Most of all she is logical, reasoned, and unafraid to follow lines of thinking to their natural conclusions. In a world of so much confusing jargon, Favale's level analysis is a refreshing and needed addition to the gender-theory landscape.

We are taken on a thorough tour through feminist theory, from the early suffragettes to the post-modern era. Favale herself used to teach and advocate for the in-vogue feminist theories and she is able to present these ideas with respect and understanding. There is a reason they are compelling and many of these ideas are rooted in very serious grievances. The conclusions, however, betray some deep misguidings that are threatening to throw not merely feminism, but our foundational cultural ideas of humanity, over a ledge.

Like Favale, I once believed and advocated for many things that I now see as explicitly anti-woman. In our quest to 'save' women from their biology we may be going down a road of self-hatred and self-repudiation. In an effort to sterilize and medicate away female fertility (with the elusive - and false - promise of limitless freedom), we have begun to forget the most basic 'telos' of humanity - unity, love, dependency, creation.

This book is a love story, and many of the chapters (I'm thinking of the one on Genesis) are told as such. A love story toward our bodies and our souls, created by and for Love. If you are a woman (or a man!) reading this review, please read this book, even if you suspect you may have different ideas than the author. We need a society open to debate and discussion, especially with so many foundational ideas at stake.

Eternally grateful to Professor Favale for her clarity, conviction, and courage in confronting these difficult and important topics.

Read this!!!

[Samuel G. Parkison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. If I could, I would put this in the hands of every earnest believer who sincerely desires to be a “Christian Feminist,” as well as every believer in need of some clarity on how to respond to the “trans movement.” Though she writes from a distinctly Roman Catholic vantage, which raises predictable disagreements at points, Favale’s approach seems to me to be the best one Christianity has yet offered. Deeply learned, compassionate, and humane, she gives full voice to the words of Scripture and Nature, showing that you cannot respect a soul (including one’s own) without respecting that soul’s body. She also shows, convincingly, that you cannot be a “Christian Feminist” in such a way that orthodoxy for both words is maintainable. You must either be an orthodox Christian and heretical feminist, or a heretical Christian and orthodox feminist, but you cannot be orthodox for both.

[Anita Yoder · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a long time since I underlined, starred, and wrote in the margins so much as in this book. Favale uses simple, straightforward, clear language to give a brief history of feminism's waves. She unpacks the weaknesses and strengths of post-modernism's definitions of the self and gender.
Favale used to be a feminist and a gender theory professor, so she knows the language and the dead ends, and shows how the current political and social climate that promotes trans rights is driven by ideologies and not by sound evidence. Constantly, gently, she calls readers back to wholeness instead of fragmentation. I can't go along with her Catholic applications of her faith, but I love her call to align ourselves with our "givenness" as she calls it.
The first part of the book sets the stage and explains the backstory to today's tensions and misunderstandings in society. The last part of the book applies theory to the practices of relationship with self, God, and others. In unpacking the Greek definitions of "symbolon" and its antonym, "diabolon" Favale makes a strong case for harmony, communion out of disintegration, creativity out of chaos, balance out of difference. The picture she invites us to live into is powerful, beautiful, and compelling.

[Mark Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, provocatively helpful—provocative because she was schooled in evangelicalism (which makes her like me) and in feminist theory (which makes her not like me)—and is now a Catholic (which makes her both like and unlike me).

Here are just a few quotes I found helpful, out of many I saved:

“There is a profound irony here. Through the vehicle of feminist theory, the concept of gender has displaced manhood and womanhood from bodily sex. Now, unmoored from the body altogether, gender is defined by the very cultural stereotypes that feminism sought to undo. In other words, when a girl recognizes that she does not fit the stereotypes of girlhood, she is now invited to question her sex rather than the stereotype.”

“This leads to another consequence: the denigration of the body, because the body itself is a limit. The concrete reality of the body and sexual difference puts a limit on choice, a limit on self-improvisation, a limit on social construction. The gender paradigm, then, ultimately holds a negative view of embodiment.”

Her feminist pedigree allows her to say blunt things I haven’t earned the understanding to say:

“So-called ‘Christian feminism’ is, too often, secular feminism with a light Jesus glaze on top, a cherry-picked biblical garnish.”

And she pays careful attention to Genesis at the beginning of the book:

“Genesis affirms a balance of sameness and difference between the sexes. This is a delicate balance that is difficult, but necessary, to maintain. Most theories of gender lose this balance, veering into extremes of uniformity (men and women are interchangeable) or polarity (men are from Mars, women are from Venus). Both extremes lose the fruitful tension expressed here in Genesis.”

That’s just a taste. Listen to her talk to Louise Perry on YouTube for more of a taste.

[Alex Strohschein · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seemed like just yesterday the normalization of homosexuality was dramatically reshaping relationships, popular culture, and our politics, but today transgenderism is sweeping across society. More and more people, particularly youth, are claiming that they experience a traumatic disconnect between their physical body and their gender. Skeptics of transgender ideology have been rebuked with the usual epithets - reactionary, bigot, TERF, transphobe - but curiously, even LGB individuals like Kathleen Stock, Douglas Murray, and Andrew Sullivan have voiced opposition to transgender ideology. Conservative Christians find themselves peculiarly allied with secular voices like Sam Harris and the Religious Right now touts the courage and nobility of J.K. Rowling. In a confusing age of gender fluidity, Abigail Favale's 'The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory' is a welcome addition to the current Christian canon of cultural engagement and apologetics.

Favale offers an informative genealogy of the roots of gender theory, chronicling the various waves of feminism and how the goals of feminism(s) have shifted over time. Women have largely attained equality and legal rights in the West but certain radical factions continue to push for more change. Feminists complain about inequalities in marriage; the “second shift” is a well-established concept and feminism has been correct in advocating that men take on more of an equal load in domestic duties. Entirely warranted as the critique is, one mustn’t point to the worst situation as emblematic of all marital arrangements and Favale shares a colleague’s advice to marry a committed partner who is reliable and capable of sharing domestic and family duties; this kind of arrangement is never considered or put forward by feminist thinkers like Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault, and other radicals who sought to undermine the family unit (p. 66-67, 76-77).

Favale aptly notes the omnipotent persuasive power of “intersectionality” and how individuals compete in the oppression Olympics to prove they have been the most victimized and thus, most deserving of power and influence. Favale points out that:

Too often, feminism has revolved around the lives of middle- and upper-class white women, which has been a problem for the movement historically. Second-wave feminism, after all, erupted in response to the bleak depiction of suburban American housewifery in ‘The Feminist Mystique.’ Intersectionality has the potential to add needed complexity to the idea of a diffuse, omnipresent patriarchy that ensures women are always and everywhere disadvantaged in relation to men. Unfortunately, that’s not how the concept is typically used in contemporary feminist rhetoric (p. 79).

Now, the disabled, bisexual, Afro-Caribbean refugee has more legitimacy than the white man through the lens of intersectionality but intersectionality also blithely dismisses class as a factor so the nonbinary Japanese lawyer has more legitimacy through the lens of intersectionality than the white working class woman (p. 81).

In the chapter entitled “Sex,” Favale deals with some of the recent science and psychological data on transgenderism. In these strange days many have trouble defining “What is a woman?” Favale offers a good discussion grounded in biological reality. Particularly compelling is the notion of potentially (p. 119-121). She explains:

Potentially solves this problem. A woman is the kind of human being whose body is organized around the potential to gestate new life. This POTENTIALITY that belongs to femaleness is always present, even if there is some kind of condition, such as age or disease, that prevents that potential from being actualized. The very category of "infertility" does not undermine this definition, but affirms it. A male human who cannot get pregnant is not deemed "infertile," because he never had that potential in the first place. A woman who cannot get pregnant does have that potential, and so she is considered infertile. Infertility names the often painful and devastating inability to actualize one’s procreative potential (p. 120-21).

Favale also critiques the methodology that results in gross overcounting of the intersex population that pioneering sexologist Anne Fausto-Sterling makes, noting that “Rather than the inflated rate of 1.7 out of 100 births, [congenital conditions of sexual development] occur in fewer than 2 out of 10,000 births. This is a crucial point to understand: THE VAST MAJORITY OF INDIVIDUALS OFTEN CATEGORIZED AS INTERSEX ARE UNAMBIGUOSLY MALE OR FEMALE, even if the presentation of maleness or femaleness is atypical in some way” (p. 126-27). For Favale, sex isn’t purely about genitalia but about whether the body overall is organized to produce gametes or not (p. 128-29).

Favale asserts that too much of contemporary discussions of gender focus on gender stereotypes. Now if a biological boy likes dancing, the colour pink, and is deeply sensitive some might suspect he is in fact a girl; meanwhile, tomboys and lesbian bars are rapidly declining (Favale is apparently disappointed in the disappearance of butches, p. 202). Favale writes, “There is a profound irony here. Through the vehicle of feminist theory, the concept of gender has displaced manhood and womanhood from bodily sex. Now, unmoored from the body altogether, gender is defined by the very cultural stereotypes that feminism sought to undo. In other words, when a girl recognizes that she does not fit the stereotypes of girlhood, she is now invited to question her sex rather than the stereotype” (p. 158).

For Favale, people who experience gender dysphoria clearly have a psychological illness and should be offered compassionate care and treatment (p. 196). This care should NOT seek to strip one’s biological sex away from one’s gender for every human being is both body and soul; our bodies are gifts and we ought to be thankful that we have been given them to steward. Too often, the medical industry seems eager to acquiesce to a confused person’s desire to undergo “gender-affirming” care (Favale is keen to point out how language subtly changes our perception of an act or practice; “gender affirming” is such much more innocuous than “genital mutilation”) without thorough safeguards in place; the growing number of “detransitioners” are evidence that mutilating the flesh to purportedly align it with one’s gender identity (a social construct so often based on stereotype) doesn’t always lead to bliss but to intense regret and decimated bodies that no longer function as nature intended. As Favale succinctly puts it, “The lie – I HAVE TO FORCE MY BODY TO REVEAL MY TRUE SELF – supplants the truth: THE BODY I AM IS ALWAYS REVEALING MY PERSONHOOD” (p. 199). Elsewhere she adds, “The affirmation model cannot offer true self-acceptance, unless the body is no longer considered part of the self. Choosing a lifetime of medicalization in order to maintain an illusion of cross-sex identity is not ‘being who you really are.’ The affirmation model is self-denial masquerading as self-acceptance. Because OUR BODIES ARE OURSELVES, what is being ‘affirmed,’ ultimately, is the patient’s self-hatred” (p. 200).

I agree with the vast majority of Favale's points but inevitably as a Protestant (and as some kind of feminist) I have some critiques. Favale herself grew up evangelical, seemingly of the Reformed complementarian kind, and while I am glad she shed her complementarian beliefs (even conservative Catholicism seems slightly more liberating in ways for women), I think evangelical egalitarianism has some important critiques and contributions to make to her project. Favale claims that “neither feminism nor gender theory successfully uphold the notion of a woman’s intrinsic value and identity. Only the Catholic Christian paradigm provides this” because it is based upon a sacramental framework (p. 234). On page 237 she posits that the male's generative seed is akin to God's transcendent, life-giving power while women are analogous to humanity's receptive nature; in doing so she is nodding to Christopher West's popularization of Pope John Paul II's 'Theology of the Body' (which has even been making inroads into evangelicalism thanks to the kerfuffle over Joshua Butler's new book) but Wesleyan theologian Beth Felker Jones offers a salient rebuttal of this line of thought ).

Favale lays a lot of the blame for our culture’s sexual and gender revolutions at the feet of contraception (which often is a catch-all phrase that needs teasing out - i.e. what kind of contraception?). She frames the chapter “Control” around two early transgender figures, Einar Wegener (1882 – 1931) who was born a man and who underwent a series of surgeries in hopes of changing his gender and to ultimately become pregnant but who died from complications related to a uterus transplant and George William Jorgensen (1926 – 1989) who simply wanted to look like a woman with no intention of bearing children. To Favale, this is indicative of a culture that downplays and even rejects the inherent nature of procreation in favour of contraception, yet this seems like too much of a reach for me (but is a cute way to frame the chapter); I don't think by the time Jorgensen transitioned in the early 1950s that culture believed womanhood could be divorced from procreative potentiality.

When Favale is at her most Catholic I find she fails to adequately consider an “evangelical middle ground.” She describes the effects of various contraceptive methods on the body, particularly those in pill form and she notes that in some cases these treatments actually REDUCE the risk of some diseases while INCREASING the risk of other types of disease (p. 93-94). Most evangelicals agree that abortifacient forms of contraception like the pill or abortions themselves are morally wrong, that once the sperm fertilizes the egg that that is an inchoate human life that must be defended and given dignity. Catholicism goes even farther, forbidding the use of more innocuous forms of contraception like condoms; the only permissible form of birth control is "Natural Family Planning.”

Liberal feminists like Margaret Sanger see female fertility as a threat to a woman’s autonomy and flourishing. Instead of placing the blame largely on female fertility, Favale writes, “I would shift it elsewhere: to the lack of social support for these women, the cultural expectations that women should always be sexually available to men, and limited awareness about a woman’s fertility cycle” (p. 97). Favale then launches into an impassioned advocacy of Natural Family Planning (which is more sophisticated and precise now than in the past, thanks largely to technology, and I can appreciate Favale’s point that proper training in NFP allows women to become more attuned to their bodies). Favale mentions the barrier method on p. 98 but throughout the chapter she largely ignores the ways that men relate to their body and sexual practice; she never closely considers the use of condoms and how this might be an acceptable way of avoiding the horrors of abortifacients on the one hand while loosening the demands of Catholic strictures when Scripture is silent on licit forms of contraception. The technological transfiguration and medicalization of human life ought to be resisted in many cases and often Christians are prone to ignorant acquiescence in some way, but there are cogent, faith-informed reasons for not blindly refusing ever form of contraception. Indeed, I would critique Favale’s complete rejection of contraception using her reliance upon the notion of “potentiality” since a couple using something like a condom still has the “potential” for their bodies to function in a procreative way (for a much more well-thought out discussion of licit contraception for Christians see Zach Hollifield's excellent piece ).

Favale is also highly critical of using a person’s preferred pronouns (p. 159-60, 206). She insists that she should not be forced to tell a lie, to have to acquiesce to someone else’s illegitimate redefinition of reality, but that she must “speak the truth in love” (p. 207). Favale tries to avoid using pronouns when possible; I think using a person’s name can be a good solution (p. 208). I can understand Favael’s critique, I am very sympathetic to it, I can see myself bristling at being forced to call a biological man passing as a woman a “she.” Yet I also wonder, “What would Jesus do?” How many non-Christian transpeople have been led into the Kingdom of God by having their first dialogue with a Christian begin by having the believer refuse to use a person’s preferred pronouns when the transperson has invested much of their identity (idolatrously to be sure, as many of us invest our identities consciously and unconsciously in things that are not God) in being a “he” or “she” or “they?” What if using a transperson’s preferred pronouns are an act of Christian hospitality extended to someone who is not yet in the Church (1 Cor. 5:12)?

Despite these evangelical cautions or critiques, I really enjoyed reading this book. Favale is a gifted writer who offers deep reflection, empathy, and clarity while grounding her case in Scripture and theology. 'The Genesis of Gender' has been one of the Regent Bookstore's bestsellers since its release and I highly recommend it.

[Mark Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really excellent.

Fascinating personal story:

So-called “Christian feminism” is, too often, secular feminism with a light Jesus glaze on top, a cherry-picked biblical garnish.

Perceptive readings of Genesis:

Genesis affirms a balance of sameness and difference between the sexes. This is a delicate balance that is difficult, but necessary, to maintain. Most theories of gender lose this balance, veering into extremes of uniformity (men and women are interchangeable) or polarity (men are from Mars, women are from Venus). Both extremes lose the fruitful tension expressed here in Genesis.

Insightful comments about our current contretemps:

This leads to another consequence: the denigration of the body, because the body itself is a limit. The concrete reality of the body and sexual difference puts a limit on choice, a limit on self-improvisation, a limit on social construction. The gender paradigm, then, ultimately holds a negative view of embodiment.

Fausto-Sterling is the fairy godmother of the intersex gambit, that tokenizing reference to intersex people used to dismantle the idea of a sex binary.

There is a profound irony here. Through the vehicle of feminist theory, the concept of gender has displaced manhood and womanhood from bodily sex. Now, unmoored from the body altogether, gender is defined by the very cultural stereotypes that feminism sought to undo. In other words, when a girl recognizes that she does not fit the stereotypes of girlhood, she is now invited to question her sex rather than the stereotype.

Even a great insight about language wars (loved this):

A transgender identity is not primarily rooted in material reality, but in language. This is why there is so much fervor over words, a concerted effort to use language in a way that reflects transgender anthropology.

I'm not a Catholic; can't quite go here—but I get this:

The supreme meaning of the sexed body is to be a living, visible icon, one who gestures continually toward the world beyond the veil.

A writer I'll stay alert to.

[Davis Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like 3.5 due to brief but annoying affirmations of higher criticism and Side B, but overall a fine personal account and clarion declaration of the orthodox, catholic Christian position on the topic. If nothing else, it serves as a definitive exposé of the monstrous moral and anthropological threat to the West that the transgender movement really is. Favale also does us a solid by handily summarizing the impenetrable thicket of academic feminist thought for lay readers in the same way that Carl Trueman does for the Frankfurt School et al. I wish Favale had written from a slightly more ecumenical Christian perspective that was more generous toward non-Roman Catholic approaches, but it's forgivable since she has the convert's zeal that all of us have who've migrated from the evangelical world.

[Drake Osborn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly an achievement. Favale writes with class, nuance, clarity, and conviction. It's also highly readable. Part history, part expose, part sacramental theology, I was often audibly shocked at the severity of shameful weight placed on women in our culture and also wept for our inability to see it. A fresh understanding for me on the feminine condition. Please read.

[Yasmin Clouser · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would recommend this book to every Christian I know, primarily young Christian women.
I went into this book assuming it would solely be about gender theory and the Christian response - but it was so much more than that.
As the title implies, the overarching theme of the book is how the full, and perfect story of man, woman, and the body presented in Genesis, is the best & most true. The book IS about the gender paradigm, for sure. She even goes into extensive biology, so that may turn some Christian’s who aren’t as interested in the topic away, but everything she writes points to a greater truth of our existence- of our design. That I think are crucial to know & understand as a young woman navigating a Christian life in our current culture. She is very thorough in her grievances with feminism, and explains so well the danger it has done and continues to do on the minds of women.
Her writing is easily digestible for non-scholarly minds (like mine), despite the book being GENIUS, her writing isn’t the “boring kind” of smart. I walked away with a lot of good foundational knowledge not just towards the culture war, but about God, and the order He created in the world.

Side note: I also loved that she is careful not to clump all trans experiences together. She is very transparent about the nuances, and differences in each persons story (without being woke) and I think it gives her writing a lot of integrity. It makes it clear the real heart & motive behind the book: to present the truth, the full truth, in sincerity.
I am Protestant so at times she gets a little ~too~ Catholic for me, but that’s just a personal preference.

Read it. It’s great.

[Matt Pitts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compelling, compassionate, intelligent, truthful, and just plain hard to put down. I disagreed at times, even strongly, but on the whole was helped and encouraged.

[Bob O'Bannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't say I've read a lot on the transgender phenomenon, but of all the material I have read, this book is the best. Abigail Favale was brought up evangelical, but left the faith because of its anti-historical and non-doctrinal emphasis (p.19), and eventually became a committed postmodern feminist scholar. But before long, the "self defeating" cracks in that movement became more apparent and she found herself moving back to the church, this time to Catholicism. In this book she tells her story, and also offers beautifully written explanations of how feminist theory has led to transgenderism, and how the Christian faith offers a better way forward.

Favale (pronounced like Fa-"volley") gives us the history of the different waves of feminism, moving from the fight for the right to vote in the first wave to the separation of women from their biology in the fourth wave; explains the long-term effects of the use of birth control, which she claims "prompted a cascade of disconnection that has brought us to the gender bedlam of the present" (p.114); and discusses with clarity the way biological sex relates to gender, explaining that the existence of intersex people does not deny the gender/sex binary, because "sex is readily recognizable at birth for 99.98 percent of human beings" (p. 127). The highly unusual exceptions are not examples of additional genders, but "variations within the binary" (p.135). Men and women can express themselves differently "within the boxes of male and female for a diverse range of body types and personalities. We do not need to abolish the boxes altogether." (p.135)

One of the major problems with the transgender movement is that the men who want to be women, and the women who want to be men, often are only longing to fit themselves into cultural stereotypes of what male and female are. Think of the picture of Caitlyn Jenner on the cover of Vanity Fair -- Bruce has simply appropriated all of the superficial stereotypes of what a woman is supposed to be like, and against which the feminists have fought so hard. "If girlness and boyness no longer reside in the body, there is no other ground for these concepts except stereotypes." (p. 158).

To be clear, Favale is not on an angry rant against progressives. Frequently in the book she pauses to note what she believes to be good about feminism and postmodernism. For instance, she observes that those with gender dysphoria are expressing a desire to feel "at home with oneself and home in the world," which in itself "needs to be named and recognized as good." (p.232). This is what everyone longs for! By this I don't mean that Favale is ambiguous or weak in her position. In fact, she won't even use gender-based pronouns that conflict with a person's biological sex because she believes it would be "actively participating in a lie" (p.206). But Favale is always compassionate and gracious, encouraging us to listen to people and to be slow to make quick judgments based on appearance (p.215). "The church is not for ready-made saints," she writes on p. 216. "The church is for sinners, doubters, half-brewed Christians, conversions-in-process, tipsy wagon-riders who tumble off and climb back on again."

Sometimes Favale's Catholicism comes across a little too strong. I wish she would refer more to the "Christian view" rather than the "Catholic view" (after all, we Protestants have a doctrine of creation, embodiment and the sacraments too). And her emphasis on the "yes" of the Virgin Mary as the "fulcrum of redemption" (p.239) gets very close to a dangerous distortion of the Gospel. My hope is not on Mary's "yes," but on Jesus' "yes" to go to the Cross in obedience to his Father, which ultimately is where we find our true purpose and our true freedom, and the grace to be content with who God made us to be.

[Lonita Shirk Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful truths in an era that tries to refute truth.

[Andrew Silagi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most important books I've read. When I say important, I mean that it tackles an urgent issue at the perfect time in a truly charitable, Christian way. I've been a huge fan of Favale's work since the fall of 2021 when I heard her speak at Hope College, her address having the same title as this volume. While many students and even non-student organizations protested and contested her lecture, it was extremely well-intended and led to much consideration among the leadership in creating an official statement on civil discourse, which I am overall grateful for (despite some ambiguities). I then read her memoir Into the Deep, which was a huge part of my own conversion to a belief in the Real Presence, baptismal regeneration, and eventually Lutheranism.

Now, after reading The Genesis of Gender, I am happy to put this on my list of the most important Christian books of the last ten years with Carl Trueman's The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. Both of these books are so good at using the most charitable interpretation approach and engaging with the cultural zeitgeist rather than using straw man arguments and arrogant polemics, but they still maintain a faithfulness to scripture, reason, history and in Favale's case, biology. Favale's background in postmodern feminism allows to her engage with this issue in a much more human way; she has talked with many of those who tout gender-affirming care as the panacea for all those suffering with gender dysphoria rather than only about them. She roots her thesis in incarnation and creation, rejecting the mind-body dualism and gnostic constructivism that many modern people subscribe to regarding the nature of reality. She finds the purpose of sex difference rooted in Love, God's creative potential and nature. If men and women are icons of God and His creation, we can learn so much about how to love Him and each other from the very nature of our bodies and how He has created them.

Please read this book! Favale's commitment to solid scholarship, personal testimony, scriptural and sacramental worldview, and interpenetration of truth and love combine so well in this work. I cannot recommend it more.

[Darryl Friesen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book does the seemingly impossible: it discusses the philosophy, ethics, ideology, and cultural practices surrounding gender with total compassion, Biblical truth, and love, without ONCE descending into mockery, sarcasm, or cheap rhetorical shots. Favale is utterly qualified to write this book, and does so with incredible insight, logic, and clarity. Highly, highly recommended reading for anyone interested in a truly Christian response to the ongoing “evolution” of gender.

[Laura Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most astounding, stunning books I have ever read.

The quality of the writing is wonderful. Favale's personal anecdotes are integrated so naturally with the philosophical exploration of two ways of seeing the world: the gender paradigm, and the Christian paradigm. Some of my favourite moments were when Favale would lay out the philosophy of some cutting edge postmodern thinker, and then describe her experience of studying under that very figure while writing her PhD. These anecdotes ground the text in the grit of real life, and propel the story forward with an urgency: this is actually happening.

Favale also weaves in colourful myth and literature; from the Babylonian creation story to Ovid's Metamorphoses to Flannery O'Connor. Her word choice and turn of phrase are richly beautiful and delightfully surprising. She clearly could have been a writer of fiction, or poetry. Amid the beauty of her writing and the complexity of the philosophies she explores, Favale never reads as pretentious or self righteous - this book is not beyond the grasp of the ordinary reader. It is written for all people of good will, and we need it more than ever.

To use Helen Alvare's words, this work is "intelligent, factually honest, respectful of every human being, and unafraid of where reason and dialogue and empirics lead it...timely, balanced, and brilliant." If only all scholars thought and wrote with this integrity and commitment to truth, goodness and beauty.

[Ivy Greenwood]

One the best books I’ve read this year. Genesis of Gender is profound, and her insight is so helpful as the conversation around sex and gender becomes more and more weaponized.

I felt challenged as a woman, challenged to truly be the embodied self that is made good in the image of God. I felt challenged to view my entire body as a gift, not just the parts of myself I love already or feel confident I can change.

I was reminded of the power of words and language over and over again. The shift from sex to gender is a large one, and it’s implications are massive. If I can create and name myself with only words, then the words of others are just as powerful to destroy my new self. I’ve never read such a compassionate assessment of gendered pronouns and their power for someone who is actively trying to rename themselves. Favale is also quick to point out that naming ourselves (and our gender) is overbearing and impossible.

I learned so much from this book. She discusses hormones, transgender teens, fertility, feminism, and so much more. But I came away mostly with a deeper love for the way God has created men and women. I feel less tied to stereotypes and more free to be an embodied soul. There’s a lot to think through still, but it’s been so encouraging.

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deep and honest consideration of sex and gender as defined in the Christian worldview, from the perspective of a formerly third-wave feminist, now Roman Catholic convert. Favale takes the reader through her personal story, showing the progression of her own beliefs as she discovers flaws in modern feminism. She helpfully defines the different waves of feminism and discusses ideas from influential feminist thinkers of the 20th century (e.g. de Beauvoir, Butler, Irigaray, Sanger).

In later chapters, she touches on a lot of work already done by Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters and When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment. But my favorite chapters were the earliest ones, where she gets philosophical and defines terms.

Recommended on the Faith and Reason podcast, with Francisco and Andersen: https://www.1517.org/podcasts/faith-a...

For similar books, see:
--Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality
--Sexy: The Quest for Erotic Virtue in Perplexing Times
--Sex Matters: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch with Science, Love, and Common Sense
--The End of Woman: How Smashing the Patriarchy Has Destroyed Us
--Rethinking Sex: A Provocation

Quotes:

"There is no sense, in this statement, that there is a givenness to the world, to which we are accountable, that an unborn human being might exist whether we like it [or] not, and the fact of that existence might demand a particular ethical response from us. Gone is the ancient view that meaning exists inherently in the world and can be recognized by human beings. Gone is the understanding of a shared human flourishing or eudaimonia that is achieved by living in accordance with our nature. Gone, in fact, is the idea of human nature altogether. The only telos is an open-ended freedom, an endless journey of self-creation with no particular destination. One's telos is to define one's telos."

"First and foremost, this paradigm is a godless one. This is taken for granted. We are not created beings; we are products of social forces. Reality, gender, sex--everything, even truth--is socially constructed. A denial of God leads to a denial of nature. By "nature," I do not mean the natural world of plants and animals, but rather the idea of "human nature," the notion that some aspects of human identity are pre-social and intrinsic--influenced by social forces, yes, but not wholly created by them. Because telos is connected to nature, what we are meant for is connected to who we are. A rejection of God and nature entails a rejection of teleology. Freedom no longer means being free to live in harmony with our nature, to fulfill our inherent potential; freedom is simply the pursuit of unfettered choice, endlessly pushing past limits and norms. This leads to another consequence: the denigration of the body, because the body itself is a limit. The concrete reality of the body and sexual difference puts a limit on choice, a limit on self-improvisation, a limit on social construction. The gender paradigm, then, ultimately holds a negative view of embodiment."

"Rather than curbing our will to live in harmony with nature, we contort nature to unleash our will."

"When freedom-as-choice becomes the open-ended telos of human existence, the body quickly becomes a problem, particularly for women, because our fertile physiology ties us intimately to other bodies and to the rest of creation. In adopting this telos, feminism's march toward freedom has simultaneously been a flight from embodiment."

"There is a profound irony here. Through the vehicle of feminist theory, the concept of gender has displaced manhood and womanhood from bodily sex. Now, unmoored from the body altogether, gender is defined by the very cultural stereotypes that feminism sought to undo. In other words, when a girl recognizes that she does not fit the stereotypes of girlhood, she is now invited to question her sex rather than the stereotype."

"Love divorced from truth descends into mere flattery. It is not loving to validate a lie. It is not loving to participate in someone 's self-deception. To learn how best to love someone, we must be willing to reckon with the truth of the human person."

"We are confronted in our time with two divergent understandings of freedom: on the one hand, freedom according to postmodernity, a open-ended process of self-definition whose only limit is death; on the other, freedom as an ever-deepening sense of belonging and wholeness, not only within oneself, but in relation to all that is."

"To be Christian is to regard oneself in relation to the cosmos and the cosmos in relation to God."

"I cannot truly honor creation if I do not honor my own body, which is itself a part of creation."

"Our bodies are not aesthetic objects; they are modes of belonging. Our bodies are continual reminders to us that we are not autonomous, that the fantasy of self-creation is no more than a fever dream, a symptom of underlying illness. 'There is, in practice, no such thing as autonomy,' writes Wendell Berry, 'there is only a distinction between responsible and irresponsible dependence.'"

"Bodily sex is not made purposeful through mandated tasks, restrictive temporal roles, or fashionable aesthetics. The supreme meaning of the sexed body is to be a living, visible icon, one who gestures continually toward the world beyond the veil."

[Alix · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow—this is an incredibly valuable book for our day.

As a Christian I’ve struggled with how to navigate or even understand the ever-changing discourse around gender in our cultural moment. The Genesis of Gender is what I have been yearning to find: a resource that articulates the difference between Christian and postmodern views of gender, and how we got here.

To begin, I had no idea how much everyday language and ideas—let alone my very worldview—has been shaped by historical feminist agendas (see chapters 2 & 3). I underlined more ideas than I can count in this book, because I learned so much about the history of the postmodern feminist worldview.

This was distinctly helpful to me as a believer. To see the roots of our postmodern society means I can also examine them (and yes, refute them) against the narrative of Scripture. Up until now, I was only able to sense but not articulate these differences. I love the range of topics discussed through this lens, too—the creation story, feminist waves, contraceptives, sex, gender, transgenderism, language, etc.

On one hand, The Genesis of Gender is heady and distinctly Catholic (sometimes unnecessarily so, as “Christian” could easily stand in for “Catholic Christian,” or been effective without explicit references to Eucharist, Annunciation, etc). But even for this happily-convinced Protestant, it offered an accessible and invaluable foundation for the God-created order of biological sex, contested with the history of oft-misguided feminist/gender agendas.

Overall, I ended this book with a deepened, profound sense of gratitude for my female embodied nature—a gift. I would absolutely recommend to anyone wanting to learn how to approach the topic of gender from a Christian perspective.

[Abby Agan · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars! Finished this a few days ago and have been kicking thoughts around about it—overall, I’m so refreshed by a thoughtful, biblical, compassionate, dignifying, scientific, and thoroughly researched approach to a complex topic that usually just receives fire and brimstone or dismissiveness. Favale’s writing is accessible and lively, and her entire argument is rooted in the inherent dignity, wholeness, and divine holiness of the body, which is beautiful to get to bask in.

There are sections I disagree with or struggle with, and some things I wished she’d fleshed out more. Maybe that means she’ll write another book, and I’ll read it in a heartbeat.

[Erin Nugent · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would give 6 stars if I could. Favale clearly has a powerful intellect but she also writes with beautiful vulnerability. I was abundantly blessed.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

While reading this book there were many times I was tempted to rate it 5 stars, but I will stick with 4.

This book wasn’t really quite what I was expecting going into it, but it was good and thought-provoking and quite helpful for me, whether or not I 100% agreed with everything.

The pathos was pretty important to how I took in this book. At least for me, I found the author to have the perfect background and approach to be able to write about this (broad) topic. I felt a certain amount of trust that I wouldn’t have felt with other authors given her background (growing up conservative evangelical as a woman, then becoming agnostic(?) feminist academic, and then becoming theologically-knowledgeable Catholic convert), and I found her lack of using black and white sometimes-typical-evangelical speak on female and male roles to be helpful as well.

As a Protestant+Presbyterian, sure there were some theological instances of disagreement or (most often) unfamiliarity, but I was still able to take in and chew on some of her theological arguments that shed a unique light on the topics she was writing about.

I appreciated how she often anticipated objections to her arguments, it helped her to provide nuance and a certain amount of grace in her own argumentation.

I think I would’ve liked to see her engage with conservative evangelical Christian views on sexuality and gender (or as she seems to prefer, “sex-lived-out”) roles a bit more, but I learned that wasn’t the point of this book. I would love to see her write about that sometime.

Overall, so much of this book was thought-provoking. Some of this book made me feel seen. Sometimes she put into words things I’ve been feeling about current cultural movements/views for a while. Sometimes she gave me a new perspective to at least ponder. Would highly recommend.

[Aidan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written, truth-filled, and love-centered Christian critique of the secular view of sex and gender is something I've craved for years, and this book provides exactly that. My thoughts on/summary of some of the chapters:

HERETIC
One problem with some attempts at critiquing gender theory is that they lack a deep understanding of what it is. It's easy to make an idea look absurd when you fabricate an inaccurately flimsy version of it so you can easily discredit it (definition of strawman fallacy). When Abigail shared her academic journey in this chapter I got excited because I felt that if I could trust anyone to understand gender theory at its core and be honest about it, it would be her.

WAVES
To establish her credibility even further, Abigal provides the reader with a history of the waves of feminism while focusing on some of the key players in the rise of gender theory. The historical narrative here was very interesting but the main idea that sticks out to me in this chapter was hinted at in the previous chapter, Cosmos. There she says, "the body reveals the person." In Waves, the idea behind this maxim is given a name: essentialism. Essentialism is the idea that objects, including people, have intrinsic, unchangeable qualities that are essential to their being. Of course, Christians, believing that God created us with certain qualities, are inherently essentialists. The philosophical antonym of essentialism is existentialism, which asserts that nothing has an inherent meaning, including humans themselves, and that we must find define our own meaning and nature. To put it succinctly, existentialism claims that, "We are not created; rather, we create ourselves". One can easily see how these philosophical concepts affect one's view of sex, which is obviously an integral part of human identity. In all the confusion surrounding gender theory and sex, I think understanding these two concepts as the root of disagreements between Christians and the secular world is so helpful.

CONTROL
Wow. This chapter came out of nowhere. I was not expecting to learn so much, anything at all in fact, about birth control when reading this book. This chapter answered so many questions I had regarding the topic and, in the end, what I learned from it will probably affect my personal life more than anything else in the book. Most importantly, Abigal does well to make it clear why this topic is very relevant to her thesis.

SEX
In this chapter, Abigail presents a unique approach to defining what "sex" is. Traditionally, sex was defined simply by which sex chromosomes are present in our bodies' cells. She correctly points out that in recent years sex has been redefined to include so-called "secondary sex characteristics" such as genital appearance, hormones, body shape, etc. and that this inclusion has conveniently made it possible to change one's sex via hormone treatments and surgeries. However, she also becomes somewhat "guilty" of this convenient change in definition. She challenges the assertion that the existence of intersex people proves sex isn't binary by redefining "sex" such that a heavy majority of those that are intersex do fit into the binary. Instead of saying that intersex people don't fit into the binary because they have different or extra sex chromosomes, they do fit into the binary because they often, from my understanding, still produce one of the two gametes even if they are infertile. Her reasoning for this change in definition is that it centers sexual identity around the idea of "potentiality" or the potential for reproduction which exists even when someone is infertile. The reason why this idea of potentiality should trump the traditional definition based on sex chromosomes is not so clear to me even after re-reading sections of the chapter. However, I don't think that Abigal is hypocritically changing her definition of sex to suit her needs and any disagreement one might have with it doesn't undermine the thesis of the book in my view.

GENDER
One of Abigail's arguments in this chapter is that splitting humans up into sex and gender is actually over-simplistic. She says, "Humans are both social and biological beings; our neuroplastic brains respond to our environment, and our biological abilities and limits shape cultural norms. We are formed through an ongoing and ultimately mysterious interplay between nature and nurture." In my own words, we cannot be so sure that any given characteristic of men or women is simply caused by culture or biology. I thought this was a profound critique and it reaffirms a belief of mine that Abigail shares: we should always question stereotypes before we question our sex. Absurd cultural gender norms that have no basis in scripture are entirely too constraining and, in my opinion, have undoubtedly accelerated the popularity of gender theory. If Christians had fostered more healthy views of sex a century ago, oh how differently things might have played out.

There's a lot more worth saying, but what I should point out is that the love of Christ is ever-present in Abigail's critiques which is incredibly important when dealing with this topic. If nothing else, I hope that this book leads Christians to approach those who are struggling with their identity with love rather than contempt as is too often done in society.

[Beth Easter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahh, just perfect. I started reading this sort of haphazardly, thinking that I probably 'got' it without needing to actually read it. But, Abigail drew me in with a twitch upon her thread. It's a lovely, compelling, evocative argument that gender, irrevocably, receives its substance from the body. Thank goodness that God has made it so! I will remember her line about the female body being designed to extend hospitality to the stranger in her womb before the will has a chance to assent to the stranger's arrival all my days. Boys should read this book, too!

[Bailey Cowen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edited review August 6, 2025.
My second read of this book allowed me a more open minded reading. Favale voices a lot of reason and thoughtful and helpful ideas around this topic. She’s completely right, our bodies are a gift, and thinking through what it means to be a woman, to be created in a particular way with a particular body and sex was helpful for me. The story of human history is one of fragmentation and denigration of the human body, what does it mean to be whole, to be called to holiness? I’m not really sure, I’m still learning and wrestling with these topics.
In particular the conversation surround birth control and the major health drawbacks was interesting, I still am not all for natural family planning but it did help me consider what we’re doing to our bodies.

While there are still some points upon which I definitely disagree, or would desire significantly more nuance, I’d ask anyone who reads it to hold a lot of space for multiple things being true, and feeling the freedom to disagree with some things and also agree with others.

Grateful to be given the chance to re-engage with this work with the benefit of more theological training and less black and white thinking.

————


So… okay. There are parts of this book I liked, and I really did make a conscious attempt to read with an open mind and heart and be open to learning.
Favale doesn’t mince words, sometimes to an extreme. I appreciate the analytical way she goes about this conversation, and also the way she pushes in and asks questions. Some of her critiques of currently conversation around cultural conversations of gender and sexuality are well founded. I love her deep thoughtful engagement, her willingness to ask question, and her tracing of history, feminist thought, and culture.

I didn’t love some of the tone she took, at times it felt flippant in an attempt to make a point. she went really hard Catholic on contraception lol (and at the end of the book too), but it did raise a lot of good questions for me about how access to contraceptives has changed culture in good and bad ways. I think her brief conversation about intersectionality could have been fleshed out a lot more, there’s so much depth to be engaged there and it felt missed. And I disagree with her views surrounding pronouns / affirmative language- but she challenged me in a good way. I appreciate her conversation around what it means to be a woman, and really challenging and offering in equal parts.

My tendency (and I’d argue all of our’s today) is to read people who I’m more prone to agree with than not. I think that’s a flaw, and I want to diversify my reading in all directions. Favale’s thoughts are well crafted, they challenged me and made me uncomfortable. I really think it’s necessary to be challenged or else we will never grow, and none of us should be in political or religious echo chambers. I don’t agree with everybody she wrote here, and that’s okay. As she says in the last paragraphs of her book, she’s had room to meander, grow, and ask.

“The church is for sinners, doubters, half-brewed Christians, conversions-in-process, tipsy wagon-riders who tumble off and climb back on again. Our parishes must be places where the truth is preached, yes-and also places where people are allowed to fumble their way toward it, gradually being made new.”
I think I’ll read it again in years to come to help me evolve and grow.

[Bailey Edrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is rich, challenging, and compassionate. Favale reaches deep into the philosophical origins of prevailing secular views of our day, and adeptly exposes them for the dead idols they truly are, while at the same time, unearthing and pointing us to the compelling beauty of the theology of the body.

This is a must read.

This topic is a treacherous one. It is so laden with emotion, pain, and, at times, pure vitriol. It can be easy to wave off the gender conversation for one of two reasons: 1. Gender is nothing — collectively, we’re overthinking this, it’s no big deal, just love everyone and embrace who you are and all will be well, or 2. Gender is everything — and unless you subscribe to the ever-changing gender paradigm of the day, you’re a hateful, un-enlightened bigot. These are treacherous waters to wade into, but after this book, I am more convinced than ever that these are waters well-worth diving head first into.

Favale expertly and academically makes the case that trying to understand gender without consideration for the body is reductive, overly simplistic, harmful, performative, anemic, and lacking in transcendent meaning. We cannot begin to understand gender without first understanding incarnation.

To be completely candid, my own fear at the start of wading into this conversation was that Christianity might not have more to offer on the subject of gender than performative roles or shallow, hazy ideals for men and women to live up to. Favale proves nothing can be further from the truth. There is a transcendent purpose tied up in our sexed bodies. Our embodiment is imbued with deep theological and teleological meaning—we were made for loving union with God. We were made to give and receive love, to be transformed by it, and to ultimately let that love bear fruit. God wrote this reality into our very bodies.

What’s been lacking in this conversation (and perhaps the secret these brilliant Catholics have been keeping to themselves) is a meaningful theology of the body. Understanding gender through the reality of embodiment is the only meaningful way to disentangle from the superficial web of stereotypes and roles and get to the heart of the matter: why we were even made in the first place. We are living, breathing icons of the divine, and our sexed bodies are where the story was first written.

[Crosby Cobb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m thankful this book exists and would recommend it! Especially the first few chapters! A really helpful resource that felt like a breath of fresh air in many ways. I really appreciate the way Favale approaches faith, the academy (specifically critical and postmodern paradigmatic approaches), pluralism, and teaching. She’s someone I’d love to have a meal with and chat through a lot of the niche nuances being a Christian woman in academia presents : )

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favale is a truth seeker and truth teller during a time and of a topic that is in desperate need of her compassionate honesty. She’s so smart but also very accessible. An absolute must read.

[Sarah Greene · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been hoping for a book like this for years that combines further application of John Paul II’s masterful Theology of the Body into the arenas of feminism and transgenderism. With a phd in gender studies and a background in teaching it, as well as a background as both a Protestant and now a Catholic, Favale is uniquely suited to address such topics.

I really appreciated the foundation she lays in a doctrine of creation and how careful she is to define feminism, postmodernism, and the current model of thinking she calls the “gender paradigm.” She knows the territory and is careful to define and engage with these ideas respectfully.

As a Protestant in love with the ideas of new catholic feminism, her critiques of current mainstream feminist thinking as well as her call for an embodied feminism and definitions of sex rooted in biological potentials stood out to me. I have wanted a book that makes a case for gender as rooted in the goodness and gift of the body and its biological realities for a long time while making space for different expressions of femaleness or maleness beyond both the culture’s and so often “biblical manhood and womanhood’s” strict stereotypes. Although I am not wholly convinced of every Catholic teaching on contraception, her case for second wave feminism creating a culture of contraception which made way for the breaking apart of sex and procreation that we now culturally, even as Christians, live and move and have our being, is something I will be considering in more detail.

For the second half on transgenderism, the author is careful to balance the tensions between believing in a biologically based definition of sex and also acknowledging that the world is broken and often our bodies are broken. She was careful to include stories of trans people who have detransitioned, as well as one in particular who hasn’t, even after coming to know Jesus. She was also careful to balance the ideas of transgenderism being an ideology with the fact that real people are struggling and suffering as a result. I don’t hold to the same convictions against using preferred pronouns as the author, but her case for balancing truth and love in this issue was far better than a lot of other Christian manifestos against using preferred pronouns that I have read.

Overall, this is a wonderful read, whether or not you are a fangirl of John Paul II like I am. And even if you are not Catholic, there is much Protestants can glean from this book about navigating the cultural moment we find ourselves in and accompanying those who are also seeking answers.

[Ben Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful perspective. Favale highlights the reality that gender and sex are grounded in the human body irrevocably and irreversibly. Noteworthy is her central thesis that successfully overcomes the extreme and small-percentage "exceptional circumstance" excuses thrown at Christians sometimes: to be female is to have the physical potential for reproduction.

Favale is raw and open about her struggles and anxieties personally, as she views her own body and the roles God has designed for women. I appreciate her honesty. Favale is academically qualified, and builds the case for the male and female dichotomy on the natural order of the universe first and foremost. She then highlights that the Bible declares and upholds the observable reality of the natural world.

The chapters where Favale is evaluating the psychological and spiritual searching that goes on in the LGBTQ movement, as well as sharing conversations and personal examples are interesting and helpful. Ultimately though, Favale lacks what I would understand to be true, transformative and relation faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. She is quick to identify with the Catholic Church, and very rarely mentions Christianity or Jesus Christ, for example. Her observations while true end up being hesitant and timid, which I assume is because she has yet to find the peace and victory of a heart truly redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

I agree with the her ontological conclusions but do so in joyous conviction. God created humanity in His image, with full dignity and eternal worth, and male and female.
"So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him. Male and female He created them." Genesis 1:27

In Christ alone the lost and searching soul may find rest and peace.

[Jeff Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic book. While I don’t subscribe to her Catholic theology, Abigail Favale has written an incredibly helpful work that explores our postmodern gender paradigm and how it leads to a fragmentation of self. We are embodied creatures and receiving this as a gift leads to true freedom. I can’t recommend this book enough. One of the best books I’ve read in a while.