Abstract
Abstract Chapter 3 examines critiques of aspects of Augustine’s thought in a more contemporary key. Valerie Saiving’s article ‘The Human Situation: A Feminine View’ (1960) is arguably the most influential treatment of the relationship between sexual difference and sin. Saiving critiques a tendency she perceived in Christian theology in the 1960s to define sin as pride and dominating self-assertion. She argues that this description of sin does not adequately encompass women’s experience. This chapter analyses Saiving’s argument, and it illuminates the anthropological context that shaped her thought. This chapter offers a fresh consideration of Saiving’s work as it illuminates the reality that ‘The Human Situation’ is an interdisciplinary project that integrates the work of prominent anthropologists of her time with theology. Her contribution is thus also important for this project as it is an example of an early effort in feminist theology to consider sin and sexual difference from the perspectives of both science (anthropology) and theology. Saiving’s influence remains pervasive today, even as her thought has been critiqued and expanded.
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