The Metaphor of Gender
Identity in a Sacramental Universe
- Theology
- Publisher: Resource Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2025
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Publisher's Description
"Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed." Luke 1:48 "Trying to suppress sexual difference is to invite a genocide more radical than any destruction that has ever existed in History." Luce Irigaray Gendered identity--always a sore spot in church history--looks set to become a major thorn in the cultural flesh. Mary has played more than one part in that history, often in constricting ways. Is something missing here? Where are the generations who call her blessed? Where are those who celebrate the interactions of divinity and humanity, female and male, in the announcement of a pregnant woman--with God in utero? This book follows The Wizard's Illusion, revisiting the Land of Oz. Traveling companions range from Elizabeth A. Johnson to Paul Ricoeur and C. S. Lewis; from Augustine and Karl Barth to Grace M. Jantzen and Catherine Keller. The quest is the imago Dei with its interweaving motifs, in which there is room for the other, in which gender is a metaphor for something far greater. Identity, meaning . . . or postmodern ambiguity? Vive la difference or vive la differance? That is the question for our generation.
Endorsements (2)
“In The Wizard’s Illusion, Katherine Abetz explored what it means for woman to be made ‘in the image of God,’ engaging with Sallie McFague’s Metaphorical Theology. The Metaphor of Gender focuses on the ‘metaphor of gender’ itself. The conversation with others is open, intense, and engaging, from Dorothy L. Sayers and Janet Martin Soskice through Rosemary Radford Ruether, Luce Irigaray to Daphne Hampson—and men worth reading. The Metaphor of Gender will stimulate anyone exploring seriously what it means to be human as female and male.”
“Katherine Abetz has written a groundbreakingly significant book for those seeking to understand women’s identity, especially concerning the imago Dei. The book is exquisite, whimsically weaving together the Wizard of Oz with feminist writers, theologians, and biblical narratives. Katherine digs deeply, encouraging feminist writers to beware of self-creation traps in the poppy field and to return to the Yellow Brick Road, where they might discover a narrative identity birthed from historical belonging, including with the Divine.”
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