Understanding Gender Dysphoria: Navigating Transgender Issues in a Changing Culture
Overview
In the fog of the culture war, complex issues like gender dysphoria are reduced to slogans and sound bites. And while the war rages over language, institutions and political allegiances, transgender individuals are the ones who end up being the casualties.
Mark Yarhouse, an expert in sexual identity and therapy, challenges the church to rise above the political hostilities and listen to people's stories. In Understanding Gender Dysphoria, Yarhouse offers a Christian perspective on transgender issues that eschews simplistic answers and appreciates the psychological and theological complexity. The result is a book that engages the latest research while remaining pastorally sensitive to the experiences of each person.
In the midst of a tense political climate, Yarhouse calls Christians to come alongside those on the margins and stand with them as they resolve their questions and concerns about gender identity. Understanding Gender Dysphoria is the book we need to navigate these stormy cultural waters.
- Challenges the church to rise above the political hostilities and listen to people's stories
- Offers a Christian perspective on transgender issues that eschews simplistic answers and appreciates the psychological and theological complexity
- Educates so that people can lead wisely, pastor compassionately and build community that lives out the great commandment to love God and others.
- Gender Identity, Gender Dysphoria and Appreciating Complexity
- A Christian Perspective on Gender Dysphoria
- What Causes Gender Dysphoria?
- Phenomenology and Prevalence
- Prevention and Treatment of Gender Dysphoria
- Toward a Christian Response: At the Level of the Individual
- Toward a Christian Response: At the Level of the Institution
Top Highlights
“Christians may affirm that sex is dichotomous, but it becomes more complicated when we move to assert that gender identity is also fundamentally dichotomous, that ‘there is an essential female and male mind and spirit that complement and complete one another.’38 How much of what we think of as essential is acculturation as male or female?” (Page 41)
“In the end, Christians who rely solely on the integrity framework may shore up borders within the local church, but we will actually fail to engage those within the broader culture who are watching these exchanges, and I suspect we will drive gender dysphoric persons away from Christ and away from Christian community.” (Page 53)
“The most concise answer to the question of causation is this: we do not know what causes gender dysphoria. The reality is that while there are several theories for the etiology of gender dysphoria, the cause(s) is still unknown.” (Page 61)
“If you are working really hard to make sense of a passage that is relatively clear, it might be that you are looking to justify something rather than really apply the obvious meaning of the text to your present circumstances.” (Page 34)
“Transgender is an umbrella term for the many ways in which people might experience and/or present and express (or live out) their gender identities differently from people whose sense of gender identity is congruent with their biological sex.” (Pages 19–21)
This work is a tour de force. With his unique combination of Christian evangelical theological sophistication, clinical sensitivity and compassion, and scientific acumen and mastery, Yarhouse establishes in this compelling book why he is the most important voice reflecting on the complex challenges of sexuality today.
—Stanton L. Jones, provost and professor of psychology, Wheaton College
Understanding Gender Dysphoria is a deeply practical and timely book. Many of the variables surrounding the transgender community are nuanced and intense, yet completely unknown to the evangelical world. Mark provides helpful working knowledge of key terms, concepts and relevant issues. And with humility and great care he directly addresses how individual Christians and the broader evangelical church can respond. Although this book is academic in nature, it should be required reading for all church leadership. This is my new go-to book for the Marin Foundation's work with evangelicals on the topic. Mark's research must be paid attention to.
—Andrew Marin, author of Love Is an Orientation
This book is a must-read for pastors, educators and those who want to engage the cultural discussion around human sexuality. Yarhouse is a first-rate scholar, educator and therapist who also loves Jesus and Scripture. He deeply cares for people and the church. His approach to this complex topic is not to tell the reader what to think, but to teach the reader, who then can wisely discern how to apply the information to their particular context. This book educates so that people can lead wisely, pastor compassionately and build community that lives out the great commandment to love God and others.
—Shirley V. Hoogstra, president, Council for Christian Colleges Universities
- Title: Understanding Gender Dysphoria: Navigating Transgender Issues in a Changing Culture
- Author: Mark A. Yarhouse
- Publisher: IVP Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2015
- Logos Release Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Gender identity › Religious aspects--Christianity
- ISBNs: 9780830898602, 9780830828593, 0830898603, 0830828591
- Resource ID: LLS:9780830898602
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:04:24Z