Smith’s critique is rigorous yet compassionate. He shows how many, like those with an intersex condition, are harmed when the culture adopts transgender theory. He also recognizes that real people experience gender dysphoria and that the gospel can help. The arguments about transgenderism have real-world implications. This is the most thorough evangelical analysis of transgender theory to date.

Cultural perceptions of transgender theory have shifted recently. Evidence continues to mount that cross-sex hormones have generally negative outcomes for minors. Approval of measures to ensure sex segregation in sports has increased. J. K. Rowling, previously maligned due to her call for single-sex locker rooms, has smoked a victory cigar because the United Kingdom’s highest court affirmed a biological definition of sex. Yet for some activists, transgender theory is as certain as the attractional nature of gravity, despite the theory’s roots in recent and highly debatable philosophical reasoning.

What transgender theorists lack in philosophical consistency, they often make up for with belligerence. The vehemence of their assertions about the nature of sex and gender has moved transgender theory from edgy philosophy to a basic cultural assumption preposterously quickly. This cultural transition happened so rapidly and thoroughly that it’s often difficult to understand where these ideas came from. Though we’re seeing a vibe shift, Christians still need to understand transgender theory because it’s unlikely to disappear soon.

In The Body God Gives: A Biblical Response to Transgender Theory, Robert S. Smith offers an in-depth evangelical engagement with transgender theory to help Christians find their footing in a sexually confused culture. Smith—a lecturer in theology, ethics, and music ministry at Sydney Missionary and Bible College—sets out “to evaluate the central ontological claim of transgender theory,” which is that “the sexed body does not determine the gendered self” (3). Working from an orthodox Christian framework, Smith makes a vital contribution to a biblical understanding of this hot-button cultural issue.

Confronting Transgender Theory

Gender studies scholarship is often confusing. Their essays and books are known for excessive jargon and tortured prose. Additionally, many gender theorists write from epistemological foundations that radically diverge from a Christian worldview or common-sense understanding of reality. Engaging the literature of the field can be daunting, yet Smith has done the heavy lifting to understand before critiquing.

As Smith’s analysis unfolds, the internal tensions within the field of gender studies are quickly apparent. For example, some theorists view gender as performative. Others view it as a product of cultural assumptions. And still others follow Michel Foucault’s theory that gender is based on power dynamics enforced through social regulations. The common theme among these perspectives is that “all aspects of humanity, but especially sex and gender . . . do not have meaning in themselves; meaning is supplied by speech” (88). Thus, reality is an ever-changing liquid shaped by humanity.

Critical theorist Judith Butler’s pioneering work in gender theory exemplifies this liquidity.

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