Journal: Eikon
Volume: EIKON 07:1 (Spring 2025)
Article: The Necessity Of A Male Savior: A Dogmatic Account Of Gender Essentialism
Author: Kyle D. Claunch

Eikon 7.1 (Spring 2025) p. 91

The Necessity Of A Male Savior: A Dogmatic Account Of Gender Essentialism

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.

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.1 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 for the following three reasons. First this framework is particularly suited to demonstrate the equality of men and women as sharers of the same essence. Secondly, it allows us to demonstrate that only men are called by God to be covenant heads, as maleness is a precondition to serve in this capacity. Finally, this account of gender essentialism lays a firm dogmatic foundation for upholding the fittingness and necessity of the Son of God’s assumption of humanity as a male for us and our salvation.

Getting Gender Essentialism Right

To begin, it is necessary to give some account of gender essentialism.2 We are

Eikon 7.1 (Spring 2025) p. 92

convinced that a sexual binary of male/female is essential to being human. As such, every individual human person is either male or female. We believe this to be the clear teaching of holy Scripture.

Exegetical Observations: Genesis 1

In the Genesis account of creation, God makes each living thing “according to its kind” (Gen 1:11, 21, 24). Each animal kind created consists of a reproducing pair of male and female. When God cre...