In the beginning, Genesis states  that  God created man in his own image, male and female he created them (Gen. 1:27). This divine design has been further developed by Christian anthropology, which delves into this dual sexual nature of human beings. As Abigail Favele points out in her book,  *The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory*  (Rialp, 2024) , “sexual differentiation is not an accident, but a cause for celebration and wonder. This difference is good; our bodies are good and are an integral part of the created order, good from its origin (p. 36).” We are living beings, dust of the earth and divine breath, body and soul; a substantial unity from which flows the dignity of each person and the dignity of the sexed human body.

The Genesis paradigm conceives of human beings in their sexual difference. The incarnation of body and spirit reveals who we are, in such a way that the body makes the spirit visible. An opposing view is Gnosticism—both past and present—for which the body, matter, is a reality of little consequence, dispensable; the only thing that matters is the spiritual dimension. The anthropology of Genesis, on the other hand, in contrast to this pernicious Gnostic spiritualism, proposes a healthy Christian materialism that highlights the dignity of the flesh, of the body, understood as a gift of creation. There is in human beings a reality of body and spirit received from conception, whose unfolding occurs in time, such that what we are called to be is connected to what we are.

However, in contrast to the Christian anthropological perspective, the  gender paradigm emerges  , for which “there is no creator; we are free to create ourselves. The body is an object without intrinsic meaning; we give it whatever meaning we want, using technology to undo what is perceived as ‘natural.’ We do not receive meaning from God, nor from our bodies, nor from the world: we impose it (p. 27).” This libertarian drift does not recognize the grammar of reality; there is nothing  given  to which the unfolding of personality should conform. We are faced with a mentality steeped in  libertarian emotivism,  expressed in the following sequence: “I want to be, I can do it, therefore I do it.” This pretension is already present in  Goethe’s Faust  , for whom the text of Saint John, “In the beginning was the Word,” is uncomfortable, irritating, and limiting. The libertarian emotivist does not admit a creative reason with a pre-established design and changes the meaning of the Gospel expression, asserting: “In the beginning was the deed.” In other words, what governs and decides is the will, with its emotional underpinnings, such that biology, sex, and procreation become mere accidents of no relevance whatsoever. The body thus becomes a mere object, like clay malleable by drugs or the surgeon’s hands. Transgender anthropology follows these paths.

Who we are, what our identity is, remain pressing questions that we must answer. Abigail Favele’s proposal addresses these questions. She says: “Considering oneself as a created being moves the discussion of identity to new ground, establishing the framework of a transcendent order, an order beyond the natural that sustains existence. Being a creature, rather than an accident, establishes the human person as a being in relation to the divine. We are not alone in the cosmos (…). When we see the world as a created cosmos of which we are a part, this transfigures everything: embodiment, sex, suffering, freedom, desire—these come together in an all-encompassing mystery, a continuous interaction between the human and the divine (…). Once the human person is understood as created, individuality, including sex, becomes a gift that can be accepted, rather than something that must be constructed (p. 218).”

Abigail Favale offers a balanced view—from the perspective of Christian anthropology—of the various theoretical and practical facets that comprise the gender paradigm. Her proposal highlights the goodness of the created order and helps us to view with reverence the gift of our bodies, practicing the free acceptance of our being.