GENDER IDENTITY THEORY AND CHRISTIAN ANTHROPOLOGY.

This essay traces the genealogy of the concept of "gender" through the twentieth century, from its origins in the existentialist philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir through Judith Butler's gender theory, and into the contemporary emphasis on gender as a subjective identity. After sketching the origins and key claims of this gender paradigm, the essay compares these claims with the underlying worldview and theological anthropology of Genesis, showing points of contrast in the two paradigms' understandings of creation, reality, embodiment, sexual difference, language, and freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]