Christianity Today 2025 Award of Merit (Academic Theology)"A theologically sophisticated take on contentious contemporary debates about gender."--Christianity TodayIn recent years, the issue of gender has become a topic of great importance and has generated discussion from the kitchen table to the academy. It is an issue that churches and Christian educational institutions are grappling with as well, since gender is a crucial aspect of identity, affecting how we engage socially and understand our embodiment. Upstream from all these conversations lies a more basic question: What is gender?In Gender as Love, Fellipe do Vale takes a theological approach to understanding gender, employing both biblical exegesis and historical theology and emphasizing the role human love plays in shaping our identities. He engages with and explains current theories and debates, but his approach is unique in that it avoids the present impasse between social constructionist and biological essentialist paradigms. His emphasis is on love as identity forming.This fresh, holistic approach makes an important contribution to the literature and will benefit scholars and students alike. Foreword by Beth Felker Jones.

What in the world is gender? Whatever it is, it must be something in the world. That, however, is not how theologians have talked about gender.Much work has been done in recent years on the theology of gender. But unfortunately, much of it is abstract, otherworldly, and largely disconnected from the real lives we live as gendered people interacting with a whole host of concrete, gendered goods. Living a Theology of Gender steps into this gap by analyzing the gendered goods that inhabit our world and shape us, such as politics, marketing, clothing, food, dating relationships, and friendships. Using the tools of moral theology, this book shrinks the distance between gender theory and gendered practice.Fellipe do Vale builds on his well-received Gender as Love, moving from theory and theology to practical moral guidance. He engages the two theological tasks he views as necessary components of thinking about gender: the descriptive (what is) and the normative (what should be). In the latter, he employs both a theology of the resurrected body and a theology of human love. He argues that our loves shape us and that Christian discipleship requires rightly ordering our loves, including in this arena of gender.This much-needed analysis will become a key resource in Christian ethics.

Christianity Today 2025 Award of Merit (Academic Theology)"A theologically sophisticated take on contentious contemporary debates about gender."--Christianity TodayIn recent years, the issue of gender has become a topic of great importance and has generated discussion from the kitchen table to the academy. It is an issue that churches and Christian educational institutions are grappling with as well, since gender is a crucial aspect of identity, affecting how we engage socially and understand our embodiment. Upstream from all these conversations lies a more basic question: What is gender?In Gender as Love, Fellipe do Vale takes a theological approach to understanding gender, employing both biblical exegesis and historical theology and emphasizing the role human love plays in shaping our identities. He engages with and explains current theories and debates, but his approach is unique in that it avoids the present impasse between social constructionist and biological essentialist paradigms. His emphasis is on love as identity forming.This fresh, holistic approach makes an important contribution to the literature and will benefit scholars and students alike. Foreword by Beth Felker Jones.

Christianity Today 2025 Award of Merit (Academic Theology)"A theologically sophisticated take on contentious contemporary debates about gender."--Christianity TodayIn recent years, the issue of gender has become a topic of great importance and has generated discussion from the kitchen table to the academy. It is an issue that churches and Christian educational institutions are grappling with as well, since gender is a crucial aspect of identity, affecting how we engage socially and understand our embodiment. Upstream from all these conversations lies a more basic question: What is gender?In Gender as Love, Fellipe do Vale takes a theological approach to understanding gender, employing both biblical exegesis and historical theology and emphasizing the role human love plays in shaping our identities. He engages with and explains current theories and debates, but his approach is unique in that it avoids the present impasse between social constructionist and biological essentialist paradigms. His emphasis is on love as identity forming.This fresh, holistic approach makes an important contribution to the literature and will benefit scholars and students alike. Foreword by Beth Felker Jones.

What in the world is gender? Whatever it is, it must be something in the world. That, however, is not how theologians have talked about gender.Much work has been done in recent years on the theology of gender. But unfortunately, much of it is abstract, otherworldly, and largely disconnected from the real lives we live as gendered people interacting with a whole host of concrete, gendered goods. Living a Theology of Gender steps into this gap by analyzing the gendered goods that inhabit our world and shape us, such as politics, marketing, clothing, food, dating relationships, and friendships. Using the tools of moral theology, this book shrinks the distance between gender theory and gendered practice.Fellipe do Vale builds on his well-received Gender as Love, moving from theory and theology to practical moral guidance. He engages the two theological tasks he views as necessary components of thinking about gender: the descriptive (what is) and the normative (what should be). In the latter, he employs both a theology of the resurrected body and a theology of human love. He argues that our loves shape us and that Christian discipleship requires rightly ordering our loves, including in this arena of gender.This much-needed analysis will become a key resource in Christian ethics.

Christianity Today 2025 Award of Merit (Academic Theology)"A theologically sophisticated take on contentious contemporary debates about gender."--Christianity TodayIn recent years, the issue of gender has become a topic of great importance and has generated discussion from the kitchen table to the academy. It is an issue that churches and Christian educational institutions are grappling with as well, since gender is a crucial aspect of identity, affecting how we engage socially and understand our embodiment. Upstream from all these conversations lies a more basic question: What is gender?In Gender as Love, Fellipe do Vale takes a theological approach to understanding gender, employing both biblical exegesis and historical theology and emphasizing the role human love plays in shaping our identities. He engages with and explains current theories and debates, but his approach is unique in that it avoids the present impasse between social constructionist and biological essentialist paradigms. His emphasis is on love as identity forming.This fresh, holistic approach makes an important contribution to the literature and will benefit scholars and students alike. Foreword by Beth Felker Jones.