Embodied Persons, Male and Female. Thoughts on the Body and Personal
identity
In the present article, the author offers an answer from a Christian
perspective to the current and global issues of gender identity and also to
those who support gender theory. For the author, the biological complementarity
of male and female is a strong and undisputed truth that our identity as male
and female is always related to our sexual biological body. As he argues in the
text, it is hard for each of us to think of our fathers or mothers without
taking into account their biological body. The fact that conceiving a child
always implies two persons of opposite sex is also an obvious argument that the
human identity as male and female is related to the biological body. In fact,
this truth is in accordance with the Christian anthropological teachings about
the human beings created as embodied persons males and females (Gen. 1:27). In
His turn, Jesus Christ also cited the creation of male and female in speaking
about marriage (Mt. 19:4). The salvation brought to us by Christ means,
according to Fr. Ph. LeMasters, „the fulfillment of our identity and vocation
as those created male and female in God’s image and likeness”. Regarding those
who struggle with gender identity issues, the author considers that we must
show compassion towards them, but without encouraging them to adopt self-
definitions that ignore the physical dimension of human personhood.
PHILIP LEMASTER
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