Transformed: A Brief Biblical and Pastoral Introduction to Understanding Transgender in a Changing Culture, 2nd edition (Evangelical Alliance, 2024)
The topic of transgender is one of the most complex facing churches and Christians today. Part of the reason for that is the many varied facets of the topic. To think about transgender in a rounded way we have to consider individual experiences, biology, psychology, medicine, cultural analysis, ideologies, law and language. As Christians, we can add to that list pastoral care, discipleship and mission. There’s a lot to consider!
Transformed is a short, accessible resource that provides a starting point to thinking about the many facets of the topic of transgender. It has been produced by the Evangelical Alliance with the aim of helping ‘Christians, as individuals and gathered communities, begin to understand and respond well to transgender individuals and the broader ideological movement’ (p.5).
One of the great strengths of Transformed is the amount of ground it covers.
One of the great strengths of Transformed is the amount of ground it covers, ranging from what the Bible says and pastoral care to the scientific, legal and medical aspects of the topic. Some of these aspects have been less talked about in the existing Christian resources on transgender and so it is really helpful to have them included. The resource is deliberately and self-consciously brief, and this has put inevitable limitations on it, but it still provides a really helpful overview of key aspects of the topic and can be supplemented by the further resources mentioned in the final pages.
The authors of Transformed have done a good job of reminding us to separate out the real-life, often painful experiences people have from the perspectives and ideologies some in contemporary western culture would want to link to those experiences. They also illustrate this well throughout the resource. The tone is set well by the opening reminder that ‘transgender is not simply as issue to be debated; it raises fundamental identity questions for people who, like all of us, need to be loved’ (p.5) and by the real-life story that follows the introduction.
Church leaders will find helpful the brief advice about practical matters like baptism, staff and volunteer policies, and single-sex spaces (p.21). Anyone working with young people will benefit from reading the excellent summary of the findings of the Cass Review – the independent review into NHS gender identity services for children and young people (pp.27-28). Though this overview is great, and a little further space is given to discussing children and young people, I wonder if this aspect of the topic deserved a bit more direct engagement given that in pure numbers it is by far the most common facet of the transgender topic that churches might encounter. There are other good resources on transgender among young people which aren’t signposted in Transformed (e.g. Patricia Weerakoon’s book The Gender Revolution and some of the resources here on the Living Out website).
I would like to have seen something a little more substantial in the chapter ‘What does the Bible say?’. Church leaders and other interested Christians will want to delve deeper by accessing some of the recommended resources (such as Preston Sprinkle’s Embodied, and one book not mentioned, Abigail Favale’s The Genesis of Gender). I also worry that many readers will find the cultural trends chapter offers them too little on too much and wonder if the space could have been better used exploring a few of the most significant trends in more detail. Hopefully the brief summaries offered will encourage those interested to find ways to learn more about those cultural trends.
I’m really glad that the Evangelical Alliance have released an updated version of Transformed. It is a very helpful resource that is a great starting point for those wanting to get an initial overview of the breadth of the topic of transgender.
You can read Transformed for free on the Evangelical Alliance website, where you can also find a couple of story videos designed to accompany the resource.
