By Harrison Perkins - Posted at The Heidelblog:
Recently, I have been removing a large stump from my back yard. The task has required more than one tool at different phases of the process. At times, I need a chainsaw to get deep cuts on certain sections. Other times, I need a shovel to expose lower sections of the roots. I also have needed an axe to strike at those roots and parts that are buried in the dirt or particular chunks that just need a little more blunt force to dislodge. Although each facet of the job requires one specific tool, the task holistically demands a host of tools and approaches to accomplish it.The same is true for the church’s response to the rise of transgenderism. We have needed crisp, accessible statements that reaffirm Scripture’s basic position about sexuality and sexual identity.1 We also profit from wider ranging cultural analysis that helps us understand what prevailing presuppositions enable such a movement to gain traction in so many people’s minds.2 Space remains for treatments that are more in-depth and respond to the academic discussions that have allowed transgenderism to gain acceptance in elite circles.3 Robert Smith’s The Body God Gives: A Biblical Response to Transgender Theory comes as a tool fitting into this third category.
“Defining” would be quite an ascription. Nevertheless, Smith has likely earned it in this book. It is a tour de force in addressing an issue of tremendous magnitude with rigor, conviction, and pastoral care. Rarely do these features hold together so well and so seamlessly as in Smith’s excellent book.