The Reformation Fellowship has hosted its second theological conference for women. The subject of the conference was ‘What is a Woman? A Biblical Theology’ led by Dr Ros Clarke, who was the keynote speaker.
Dr Clarke, associate director of Church Society and adjunct lecturer at Union School of Theology, outlined a Biblical theology of woman from creation and revelation to salvation. Clarke carefully defined woman as ‘a human being, created by God for the purposes of revealing (together with men) what God is like, showing us how God loves and saves us, and what the eternal woman, the bride of Christ will be like.’ From this a typology of unfaithful Israel and redeemed Zion as bride of the Lord was developed.
In the second session Matthew Mason, Tutor for Ethics at the Pastors Academy, opened up the subject of ‘Bodies that Matter? Contemporary Challenges to Womanhood.’ Mason highlighted transgenderism’s separation of biological sex from gender, redefining the latter completely as a social construct. Mason helpfully presented shifts in thinking that have paved the way to the transgenderism of today, traced back to 17th-century Romanticism.
