A More Virtuous Understanding of Sex

Abstract

To strengthen a Christian understanding of sex, this article uses the framework of virtue ethics to show how males and females can flourish in distinguishable ways. It shows a positive rather than a negative vision for sexual complementarity since humans tend to gravitate toward beauty. In so doing, it contributes to the complementarian-egalitarian debate which has come to a standstill. Some have tried to bypass the debate by proposing new avenues of conceiving of the divide, yet such proposals fail to convince those entrenched within their exegetical, theological, and social positions. A virtue-centered approach to the debate may breach the impasse and will provide a more accurate account of sex. Specifically, this article argues that motherhood and fatherhood form the essential difference between the sexes and points to humanity’s telos.