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Adriaan van Klinken, ‘Gender and Sexuality’, in Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global
South, ed. by Mark A. Lamport, p. 302-304 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).
GENDER AND SEXUALITY
Gender and sexuality have become key concepts in the study of Christianity in the global South,
and are indeed vital to understanding the cultural and social dynamics in which Christianity is
embedded in various local contexts. For the purpose of this essay, I take gender to broadly refer
to the context-specific meanings, values and roles associated with the different sexes, that is,
with being male or female. Sexuality refers to people’s expression and orientation of sexual
desire, and the identities based on these. In contemporary scholarship, both categories of gender
and of sexuality are generally perceived as being socially constructed, and as embedded in
structures of power.
It were feminist scholars who introduced and applied gender as a critical concept in relation to
global Christianities, while denouncing the patriarchal (male-dominated and male-privileging)
nature of Christian traditions and institutions. Building on, but at the same time challenging the
work of feminist theologians in North America and Europe, women theologians in the global
South in the last quarter of the 20th century have drawn attention to the particular experiences of
women in their parts of the world. Highlighting the intersection of gender, race/ethnicity, and
class (or in India: caste), they have made women’s experiences of struggle, resistance, and
survival the starting point for the development of what is referred to as ‘third world women’s (or
feminist) theologies’ (King, 1994). The work of Mercy Amba Oduyoye and Isabel Phiri in
Africa, Marianne Katoppo and Chung Hyun Kyung in Asia, and Ivone Gebara and Elsa Támez
in Latin America is exemplary here. Following the postcolonial critique of Western monolithic
Adriaan van Klinken, ‘Gender and Sexuality’, in Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global
South, ed. by Mark A. Lamport, p. 302-304 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).
representations of ‘the third world woman’ as being oppressed and powerless, feminist
theologians from the global South have foregrounded women’s practices of hope and liberation.
In the social-scientific study of Christianity in the global South, gender has been employed to
examine and foreground the ways in which women navigate and negotiate patriarchal traditions
and institutions, and demonstrate agency for example in initiating religious renewal and
innovation. In Africa, for instance, both the African initiated (or indigenous) churches (AICs) in
the first half of the 20th century, and the (neo-)Pentecostal or Charismatic churches in the late
20th and early 21st century, have demonstrated significant levels of women’s involvement not just
in evangelism and leadership, but also in charismatic ministries such as prophecy and healing
(Soothill, 2007). Pentecostalism in various parts of the global South has largely been a women’s
movement. Recent studies have explored the paradox of Pentecostalism on the one hand
perpetuating traditional patriarchal notions of male headship and female submission while on the
other hand empowering women spiritually and socially, both in the church, at home and in
society at large and thus having an egalitarian impulse (Brusco, 2010). Like many Pentecostal
churches, also other denominations such as the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church usually
have large women’s groups where particular gendered norms and styles are being reproduced
and cultivated.
From the initial focus on women, the study of gender and Christianity in the global South more
recently has widened its scope to include an analysis of men and masculinities, that is,
constructions of male gender (van Klinken, 2013). On the one hand, it is critically examined how
mainstream Christian discourses reinforce patriarchal notions of masculinity in local cultures and
societies, and thus may contribute to problems such as the oppression of women, gender-based
violence, and the spread of HIV. On the other hand, it is investigated how Christianity can also
Adriaan van Klinken, ‘Gender and Sexuality’, in Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global
South, ed. by Mark A. Lamport, p. 302-304 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).
bring about positive change in men and masculinities and may help to transform gender
relations. Especially evangelical and Pentecostal forms of Christianity have been associated with
bringing about a domestication of men and a redefinition of masculinity – or, to use a Latin
American term, a ‘reformation of machismo’ (Brusco 2010) – as part of the process of born-
again conversion. Catholic men’s groups, such as the St Joachim Catholic Men’s Organization in
Zambia, sometimes have a patron saint which they present as a model of Catholic manhood to be
imitated by their members. In Africa, Christian theologians and gender activists have recently
engaged in a quest for transformative, redemptive or liberating masculinities in the face of social
challenges such as HIV and AIDS, and gender-based violence (Chitando & Chirongoma, 2012).
In the area of sexuality, crucial questions are concerned with the ways in which Christianity
regulates and disciplines certain forms of sexuality, while politicizing and prohibiting other
sexual practices and identities, in the context of broader socio-cultural dynamics and political
economies of sexuality. In Africa and other parts of the global South, missionary Christianity
typically came with a set of puritan values that often were alien to traditional sexual cultures, for
example introducing strict norms of monogamy, sex within marriage, and exclusive
heterosexuality. These values and norms are still upheld and in fact actively promoted in most
Christian churches and organizations to date. Thus, in the face of the HIV pandemic many
Christian leaders have struggled to include the use of condoms in their prevention messages as
they felt this would be a way of allowing for ‘promiscuity’ – they rather emphasized sexual
abstinence and marital fidelity. In particular evangelical and Pentecostal forms of Christianity
tend to have a dominant notion of ‘sexual purity’, which they promote through youth groups,
marriage courses, women’s and men’s fellowships, as well as through modern media.
Adriaan van Klinken, ‘Gender and Sexuality’, in Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global
South, ed. by Mark A. Lamport, p. 302-304 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).
In much of the global South, and especially so in Africa, the past decade has witnessed an
increased politicization of homosexuality (Chitando & van Klinken, 2016). This started in the
late 1990s with the increasingly public controversy within the global Anglican Communion,
where church leaders from the global South mobilized and voted overwhelmingly against
provisions for the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy, and the blessing of same-sex
relationships, in more liberal Anglican churches in the global North (especially the US). With the
globalization of discourses of lesbian and gay identities and rights, and the subsequent increased
visibility of lesbian and gay activists and communities in the global South over the past decade,
many a Christian leader has invoked a strong religious rhetoric to oppose homosexuality –
which, they believe, is a practice that is against the Bible and against their culture, and is
imposed by the West if not by the Devil himself. In this context of an ever-expanding
politicization of homosexuality and controversy over sexual rights, in various societies within the
global South also an emerging counter-discourse can be observed: of lesbian and gay people who
claim to be Christian and find ways to negotiate their sexuality and faith, and of lesbian and gay
right advocates using Christian-inspired arguments to make their case. They critically denounce
the hetero-normativity characterizing much of Christianity, and the subsequent exclusion of
sexual minorities, and they contribute to the development of what are called ‘queer’ spaces and
theologies within global Christianity.
Most recently, two new categories have begun to receive attention in societies in the global
South: intersex – referring to people whose physical make up does not fit in the male-female
binary – and transgender – referring to people whose gender identity is not congruent with their
biological sex. It is yet to be examined what the relation between these gender and sexual
minority groups, and Christian churches exactly is.
Adriaan van Klinken, ‘Gender and Sexuality’, in Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global
South, ed. by Mark A. Lamport, p. 302-304 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).
To conclude, issues of gender and sexuality are at the heart of processes of cultural change and
social transformation in the various contexts of Christianity in the global South. Given their
deeply political nature, they will continue to give rise to controversy and debate. It is important
to prevent generalizing accounts, and instead to take into account the rather wide-ranging
attitudes towards, and opinion about, issues of gender and sexuality across various Christian
denominations and movements as well as in different contexts. It is equally important to not only
look at the formal discourses and politics, but also at what is actually happening at a grassroots
level in local contexts.
References and Resources
Bong, Sharon A. 2014. “Gender, Sexuality and Christian Feminist Movements in Asia.” In The
Oxford Handbook of Christianity in Asia, edited by F. Wilfred, 182-194. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Brusco, Elizabeth. 2010. “Gender and Power.” In Studying Global Pentecostalism: Theories and
Methods, edited by Allan H. Anderson, Michael Bergunder, Andre Droogers, and
Cornelis van der Laan, 74–92. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of
California Press.
Chitando, Ezra, and Sophie Chirongoma, eds. 2012. Redemptive Masculinities: Men, HIV and
Religion. Geneva: WCC Publications.
Chitando, Ezra, and Adriaan van Klinken, eds. 2016. Christianity and Controversies over
Homosexuality in Contemporary Africa. London and New York: Routledge.
Adriaan van Klinken, ‘Gender and Sexuality’, in Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global
South, ed. by Mark A. Lamport, p. 302-304 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).
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King, Ursula, ed. 1994. Feminist Theology from the Third World: A Reader. London: SPCK.
Soothill, Jane E. 2007. Gender, Social Change and Spiritual Power: Charismatic Christianity in
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van Klinken, Adriaan. 2013. Transforming Masculinities in African Christianity: Gender
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ADRIAAN VAN KLINKEN
