Gender Differences: 3 Views
Is there a difference between female and male? And if there is, why? And how do we explain it?
These are the pertinent questions that our culture casts before the church. Geoff Holsclaw and David Fitch talk about different ways people ground gender differences, and some of the Kingdom guidelines to help us move the conversation forward.
The three different ways are:
- Essentialist: This is the view that gender is the result of nature, evolution, or God’s creation and that we are essentially male or female and therefore gender is fixed.
- Expressivist: This is the view that gender is not essentially determined, but at base is a self-expression of the individual and therefore gender is fluid.
- Cultural: This is the view that gender is neither reducible to biological nature or individual choices, but a cultural determination that is neither totally fixed nor totally fluid.
The Kingdom guidelines are:
- Don’t forget about our bodies.
- Gender relations are alway mutualistic (we mutually submit to one another)
- Jesus started a revolution, and we need to carry it forward.
Please jump in with your comments here or on our Theology on Mission Facebook Page.
If you are interested in this topics, please consider coming to SHE LEADS, a conference for women and men working together in ministry.
Date: Oct. 29th, at Northern Seminary.

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