What Difference Does A Description Make? Some concerns about Francesca Murphy's

Sexual differentiation is a feature of our world and human life that is of great interest to some theorists and should be of interest to more. For those who see such differentiation in a positive light, and not merely as a limitation, grounding sexual difference in a metaphysical-theological framework, such as Trinitarian theology, is quite tempting. But such a project has many pitfalls; the impetus to hasty description and elevation of social prejudices to metaphysical truths is almost overwhelming. The essay tracks some of these pitfalls as they occur in Murphy's paper and in the works of her main inspirations, Hans Urs von Balthasar and Pope John Paul II.