Gender and Our Humanity

There is no question that gender has moved toward the centre of the culture war in North America. But do we understand what is at stake when gender becomes one more choice among many?

This issue of Comment desires to re-enchant the gift of maleness and femaleness as each is bestowed, mysteriously, at the very beginning of the Genesis creation narrative. We have chosen to shake up the conversational Boggle board on gender, not for the sake of subversion or transgression, but so that people of faith might be reoriented toward that which is real, fleshly, human, and true. What our authors have knit together is a shimmering iconography of masculinity and femininity, one that goes back to the Jewish origins of our faith, that dwells for an important spell with the Holy Family, that interrogates ancient origin mythologies in the shadow of today’s self-making ones, and that celebrates the many different ways in which we each learn to be human, in part, but crucial part, through the burdens and blessings of our given sex. This issue of Comment, contrary to what our progressive friends are taught to assume, affirms the created goodness of male and female. And contrary to what our more conservative friends might be comfortable with, it acknowledges that the divine purpose for reality often includes overturning our received assumptions about how the gifts of maleness and femaleness manifest themselves in our common life.