Editors note: the following book review appears in the Spring 2022 issue of Eikon.
Paul C. Vitz, ed. The Complementarity of Women and Men: Philosophy, Theology, Psychology & Art. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2021.
In his encyclical Familiaris Consortio, Pope John Paul II stated that there was a “natural complementarity that exists between man and woman.”[1] That idea was further developed in his sermons which were published as the Theology of the Body. This new collection of essays, edited by Paul Vitz, now comprises the most succinct, up to date, and intellectually robust defense of this idea of Roman Catholic “complementarity.” It is a view that is initially attractive to complementarians since it begins with this arresting insight: men and women are fundamentally equal, but they are not the same. Vitz writes, “The purpose of this book is to carry out what we see as the urgent task of exploring and elaborating the…
