Original sin and the evolution of sexual difference / Megan Loumagne Ulishney.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ulishney, Megan Loumagne, author.

Series:

Oxford theology and religion monographs

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sin, Original.

Sex differences--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Feminism.

Evolution (Biology)--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Physical Description:

xiii, 216 pages ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2022.

Summary:

Original Sin and the Evolution of Sexual Difference develops an interdisciplinary conversation between evolutionary biology, feminist philosophy, and theology in order to illuminate the entanglement of Christian thinking about original sin with theologies of sexual difference. It then assesses the opportunities for rethinking original sin and its implications for theologies of sexual difference in light of developments in evolutionary biology and feminist theology and philosophy. Despite some resistances in the present age to conceptions of both original sin and meaningful sexual differences, this study argues that both can provide essential insights that help to make sense of some of the features of human life in the twenty-first century, especially the stubborn persistence of inequality, poverty, environmental degradation, and the pernicious patterns of sexual violence and abuse that have been uncovered by the #MeToo movement. To this end, Megan Loumagne Ulishney marshals resources from a variety of places-Augustine of Hippo, feminist theology, the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, John Paul II, and a new group of feminist philosophers known as the New Feminist Materialists-to develop an analysis of original sin and sexual difference that is grounded in both scientific and theological insights about creaturely life. The project cultivates a sense of wonder at the diversity and unpredictability of human biology, a value for the role of creativity in the human biology, a value for the role of creativity in the human participation that partially shapes our ongoing evolution, and humility about the extent to which we can predict and control the future of the evolution of our species. It illuminates the interdependencies that define creaturely life, the persisten entanglement of nature and culture, the centrality of desire to human identity and behaviour, and the role played by biology in the transmission of sin. It develops a vision of material life as evolving, generative, and imbued with activity, but also simultaneously infected with sin and saturated with the divine.

Contents:

Introduction

PART I : HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THEOLOGIES OF SIN AND SEXUAL DIFFERENCE

1. Evolution of a Doctrine

1.1 Ecclesial Articulations of the Doctrine of Original Sin

1.2 The Sex of Sin

1.3 A Doctrine Crashing Down

1.4 A Doctrine Resurrected

1.5 John Haught's God After Darwin

1.6 Raymund Schwager's Banished from Eden

1.7 James Alison's The Joy of Being Wrong: Original Sin through Easter Eyes

1.8 Conclusion

2. Augustine on Original Sin and Sexual Difference

2.1 Augustine in Context

2.1.1 Augustine and Manicheanism

2.1.2 Augustine and the Pelagians

2.1.3 Augustine and Scripture

2.1.4 Augustine and Women

2.2 Theological Explanation and Development

2.3 Original Sin and Augustine's Theological Priorities

2.4 The Motif of Unity in Augustine's Theology

2.5 Augustine on Sexual Difference and Sin

2.6 Conclusion

3. The Human Situation: Sin and Sexual Difference in 1960

3.1 Valerie Saiving on Sex, Sin, and Love

3.2 Cultural Anthropology, Sexual Difference, and 'The Human Situation'

3.3 Ruth Benedict's Patterns of Culture

3.4 Margaret Mead-Sex and Temperament and Male and Female

3.5 Conclusion: Reception, Analysis, and Development of 'The Human Situation'

PART I I : CONTEMPORARY RESOURCES FOR RETHINKING THE DOCTRINE OF ORIGINAL SIN AND SEXUAL DIFFERENCE

4. The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis and the New Science of Sexual Difference

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Darwin and Evolution

4.3 Darwin and Sexual Difference

4.4 The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis

4.5 The New Science of Sexual Difference

4.6 Conclusion

Interlude

5. John Paul II, New Catholic Feminists, and the Vatican Response to 'Gender Ideology'

5.1 A Theology of Sex and Sin after #MeToo

5.2 John Paul II's Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body

5.2.1 The Body as Biological and Sacramental Reality

5.2.2 The 'Spousal' Meaning of the Body

5.2.3 'Original Innocence', Nakedness, and Sexual Difference as Gift

5.2.4 Original Sin, Shame, and Sexual Difference as Opposition

5.2.5 The 'Threefold Concupiscence'

5.2.6 The Sexually Differentiated Nature of the Fall

5.2.7 The Human Call to Communion

5.3 John Paul II and the New Catholic Feminists

5.4 Radicalizing John Paul II's Theology of the Body and New Catholic Feminism

5.4.1 The Body as Biological and Sacramental Reality

5.4.2 The 'Spousal' Meaning of the Body

5.4.3 'Original Innocence', Nakedness, and Sexual Difference as Gift

5.4.4 Original Sin, Shame, and Sexual Difference as Opposition

5.4.5 The 'Threefold Concupiscence'

5.4.6 The Sexually Differentiated Nature of the Fall

5.4.7 The Human Call to Communion

5.5 The Vatican's 2019 Response to 'Gender Ideology'

5.6 Conclusion: Theology of the Body through a New Feminist Materialist Lens

6. New Feminist Materialism and a Theology of Sex and Sin after #MeToo

6.1 New Feminist Materialism-General Themes

6.2 Elizabeth Grosz: Darwinism, Sexual Selection, and the Limits of Materialism

6.2.1 Darwin, Sexual Difference, and Sexual Selection

6.2.2 The Limits of Materialism

6.2.3 Conclusion

6.3 Anne Fausto-Sterling: Dynamic Systems Theory and the Development of Desire

6.3.1 Dynamic Systems Theory and Sex/Gender Development

6.3.2 The Development of Desire

6.3.3 Conclusion

6.4 New Feminist Materialism as a Resource for Theologies of Sex and (Original) Sin

6.4.1 Creaturely Life as Dynamic and 'In Between'

6.4.2 The Centrality of Desire

6.4.3 Rigorous Engagement with Scientific Discourses

6.4.4 The Importance of Corporeal Practices

6.4.5 Conclusion

6.5 Theological Anthropology and New Feminist Materialism

6.5.1 A Metaphysical Grounding for Materialism

6.5.2 A Concept of Systemic, Inherited Sin

6.5.3 A Value for 'Norms'

6.6 Conclusion: Theology of the Body, New Feminist Materialism, and a Theology of Sex and Sin after #MeToo

Conclusion: Towards a Christian Feminist Materialism

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-214) and index.

ISBN:

019287070X

9780192870704

OCLC:

1329419985