Journal: Eikon
Volume: EIKON 06:2 (Fall 2024)
Article: Gender Essentialism In Anthropological, Covenantal, And Christological Perspective
Author: Kyle D. Claunch

Eikon 6.2 (Fall 2024) p. 20

Gender Essentialism In Anthropological, Covenantal, And Christological Perspective

Kyle Claunch

And

Michael Carlino

Kyle D. Claunch is Associate Professor of Christian Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where he has served since 2017. He and his wife Ashley live with their six children in Louisville, KY. He has more than twenty years of experience in pastoral ministry and is an elder of Kenwood Baptist Church.

Michael R. Carlino is the Operations Director for CBMW, a PhD candidate in Systematic Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and an Adjunct Professor of Christian Theology at Boyce College. He and his wife Kylie live with their two children in Clarksville, IN. He is a member of Kenwood Baptist Church where he serves as a Youth Leader.

Eikon 6.2 (Fall 2024) p. 21

In this essay, we seek to provide a clear and robust dogmatic foundation for a distinctly Christian anthropology, one that coheres with critical covenantal distinctions and pressing Christological concerns. We are convinced a lack thereof is plaguing the discourse on this matter in broader Protestant and Evangelical circles. Our thesis is that the classic distinction between essence and existence is the best conceptual tool for articulating an account of gender essentialism, and proves useful in evaluating proper covenant distinctions — between the Creation Covenant, the Covenant of Works, and the marriage covenant — and in understanding the fittingness and necessity of the Son of God’s assumption of humanity as a male.

To prove our thesis, we first demonstrate how the essence-existence distinction for humanity — flowing from the reality that humans are composed of parts, unlike God — is crucial for maintaining a proper perspective on human nature and gender. We then connect the essence-existence distinction to God’s covenantal arrangements to ground male and female equality in the Creation Covenant, and more specifically, the imago dei (essence). Then we show why man is properly and fittingly the covenant head of the woman in the Garden of Eden (existence).

Eikon 6.2 (Fall 2024) p. 22

Significantly, Adam is the covenant head of Eve in two respects: (1) he is the federal head for the entire human race (Eve included) according to the Covenant of Works (CoW), and (2) he is exclusively Eve’s head according to God’s design in the covenant of marriage. Adam’s headship is typological in both respects, as his headship over Eve in marriage is both the norm for all subsequent marriages, and according to the Apostle Paul, is itself a type of the Christ-church union (