Feminist Academic: Jesus May Have Been a Hermaphrodite

In a move that will likely elicit ire in some quarters, and perhaps merely scoffs in others, feminist academic and "theologian" Dr. Susannah Cornwall thinks it is impossible to know "with any certainty" that Jesus was male, and that he may have in fact been a hermaphrodite.

She cites "conditions" which would have given Jesus a body which "appeared externally to be unremarkably male, but which might nonetheless have had some 'hidden' female physical features."

According to The Telegraph, her comments were published in response to an ongoing debate in the Church of England about allowing women to become bishops.

In her paper “Intersex & Ontology, a Response to The Church, Women Bishops and Provision,” the feminist maintains that it is impossible to know for certain that Jesus did not suffer from an intersex condition by having possessed both male and female organs.

“It is not possible to assert with any degree of certainty that Jesus was male as we now define maleness.

Dr. Cornwall, of Manchester University’s Lincoln Theological Institute, describes herself on her blog as specializing in, “Research and writing in feminist theology, sexuality, gender, embodiment, ethics and other fun things like that.”

Further, Cornwall asserts that the fact that Jesus is not recorded to have had children was suspect.

She also said that since "we do not have a body to examine" it can only be that "Jesus’ masculine gender role, rather than his male sex, is having to bear the weight of all this authority."

(h/t: Weasel Zippers)