Volume 1.1
ESSAYS ON SEXUALITY AND GENDER
2014

In 2014,  the fellows of the CPT, led by Dr Peter Leithart of the Theopolis Institute, responded to John Paul II’s teaching on the meaning of the human body, sex, gender, marriage, and singleness in Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body. In a sexually giddy world that is spinning faster and faster out of control, these themes could not be more relevant to pastoral ministry, Christian discipleship, and the mission of our congregations. John Paul II’s rich biblical and philosophical explorations provided stimulating conversation, some of the fruits of which are here presented. We hope that they will calm our giddiness and re-orient our thinking so that we can help dizzy people get off the floor to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives.

In what follows, Christopher Bechtel explores the metaphor of church as body to consider how John Paul’s spousal anthropology might inform our ecclesiology; Gerald Hiestand considers the pressing pastoral issue of sexual boundaries in dating;   Matthew Mason examines what Theology of the Body might have to say on issues of same-sex sexuality and contemporary gender confusions; David Morlan offers some theologically informed exegetical notes on Ephesians 5:22-33; and Owen Strachan expounds a theology of womanhood that pays close attention to the meaning of the female body.