An Analogical Anthropology of Sex Difference: Erich Przywara, William Desmond, and the Imago Dei in Intersex Persons

Abstract

This article argues that an analogical approach to the metaphysics of bodily sex difference, such as that found in Erich Przywara and William Desmond, offers a fruitful way forward in a fraught global discussion on sexed embodiment and the imago Dei. After discussing the unique ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ dimensions of Przywara’s anthropology of sex difference, I discuss the common intersex condition called Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome and how Przywara’s system accommodates it as an authentic form of human being imaging God. I then draw from William Desmond’s metaxological approach to sexed bodies to show the great flexibility provided by analogical anthropologies and suggest that theology begin to rely more heavily on these models in future inquiries into sexed embodiment.