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ABIGAIL FAVALE

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ABOUT

Abigail Favale, Ph.D., is a writer and professor in the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. She has an academic background in gender studies and feminist literary criticism, and now writes and teaches on topics related to women and gender from a Catholic perspective. 

Her latest book The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory was just released in June 2022 by Ignatius Press. 

Abigail was received into the Catholic Church in 2014, and her conversion memoir, Into the Deep: An Unlikely Catholic Conversion, traces her journey from birthright evangelicalism to postmodern feminism to Roman Catholicism.

Abigail's essays and short stories have appeared in print and online for publications such as First ThingsThe Atlantic, Church Life, and Potomac Review. She was awarded the J.F. Powers Prize for short fiction in 2017. 

Abigail lives with her husband and four children in South Bend, Indiana. 

Piles of Books
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THE GENESIS OF GENDER

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NEW FROM IGNATIUS PRESS

The question of gender—who we are as men and women—has never been more pressing, or more misunderstood.


Weaving personal experience with expert knowledge, Dr. Abigail Favale provides an in-depth yet accessible account of the gender paradigm: a framework for understanding reality and identity that has recently risen to prominence. Favale traces the genealogy of gender to its origins in feminism and postmodern thought, describing how gender has come to eclipse sex, and how that shift is reshaping language, law, medicine, sexuality, and our own self-perceptions.


With substance, clarity, and compassion, Favale teases out the hidden assumptions of the gender paradigm and exposes its effects. Yet this book is not merely an exposé—it is also a powerful, moving articulation of a Christian understanding of reality: a holistic paradigm that proclaims the dignity of the body, the sacramental meaning of sexual difference, and the interconnectedness of all creation. The Genesis of Gender is a vital, timely resource for anyone seeking to better understand the gender paradigm—and how to live beyond it. 

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PRAISE FOR THE GENESIS OF GENDER

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INTO THE DEEP

An Unlikely Catholic Conversion

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FROM CASCADE BOOKS

Into the Deep traces one woman’s spiritual odyssey from birthright evangelicalism through postmodern feminism and, ultimately, into the Roman Catholic Church. As a college student, Abigail Favale experienced a feminist awakening that reshaped her life and faith. A decade later, on the verge of atheism, she found herself entering the oldest male-helmed institution on the planet—the last place she expected to be. 

With humor and insight, the author describes her gradual exodus from Christian orthodoxy and surprising swerve into Catholicism. She writes candidly about grappling with wounds from her past, Catholic sexual morality, the male priesthood, and an interfaith marriage. Her vivid prose brings to life the wrenching tumult of conversion—a conversion that began after she entered the Church and began to pry open its mysteries. There, she discovered the startling beauty of a sacramental cosmos, a vision of reality that upended her notions of gender, sexuality, identity, and authority. Into the Deep is a thoroughly twenty-first-century conversion, a compelling account of recovering an ancient faith after a decade of doubt.

PRAISE FOR INTO THE DEEP

“There are events in life that leave you changed forever, right down to the very roots and heart of your being, because they go ‘into the deep.’ Like this book. Reading it is bound to be an event like that in the lives of two classes of readers if they dare to read it with open minds and hearts: those who call themselves Evangelicals and those who call themselves Christian ‘feminists.’ The theology is profoundly Christ-centered, the psychology trustably honest, and the style winsomely alive.”

PETER KREEFT
Boston College
Best-selling author and apologist

Into the Deep is a beautifully written story of conversion. In this raw and compelling narrative, Favale reminds us that, in the most mysterious of ways, God's grace can reach all of us.”

CARRIE GRESS

Best-selling author, 

The Marian Option

“Religious conversion narratives tend to be unrealistic, focusing on single epiphanies that are rare to most human beings. Not Into the Deep. Abigail Favale has written a conversion memoir that focuses on the slow process of conversion, one that unfolds through a union of practice and intellectual inquiry . . . She is more like a tour guide, bringing even cradle Catholics like myself into a deeper appreciation of the mystery of the Church. Into the Deep is Augustine's Confessions written for our own age.”

TIM O'MALLEY

Notre Dame

Author, Bored-Again Catholic 

"With sympathetic and smart satire that is reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor, Favale finds both sincerity and shallowness in the waves of ideological affiliations that tided her youth. Favale, the unlikely convert, persuades us that by sacramental grace and the communion of saints, the Church can see the meanest sinner hold her breath long enough to work out Her shared salvation in fear and trembling."

JOSHUA HREN

Belmont Abbey College

Author, This Our Exile: Stories

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CULTIVATING CATHOLIC FEMINISM

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Writing by the Water

Cultivating Catholic Feminism is a free self-paced video program produced by The Catholic Woman that includes 21 educational video lessons, five mini-documentaries, and accompanying journaling prompts and prayers. The educational videos are written and presented by Dr. Abigail Favale.

SELECTED ESSAYS

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"FROM POST-CHRISTIAN FEMINISM TO CATHOLICISM" 

THE CATHOLIC WOMAN

May 2022

"FEMINISM'S LAST BATTLE"


PUBLIC DISCOURSE

July 2021

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"THE ECLIPSE OF SEX BY THE RISE OF GENDER"


CHURCH LIFE

March 2019

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"CONFESSIONS OF A FEMINIST HERETIC


CHURCH LIFE

January 2019

"DIGNITY OR VICTIMHOOD?"

CHURCH LIFE

November 2018

Read Article
Fit Girls
Lover's Kiss

"KISSING PURITY CULTURE GOODBYE"

FIRST THINGS

November 2018

Girl Behind a Sheet

"SEX AND SYMBOL"

CHURCH LIFE

June 2018

"EVANGELICAL GNOSTICISM"


FIRST THINGS

May 2018

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"THE PROS AND CONS OF ABANDONING THE WORD 'FEMINIST'"

THE ATLANTIC

May 2013

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SELECTED INTERVIEWS

SEX, GENDER, AND THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF TRANS* IDENTITIES

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August 2021

GENDER, AUTONOMY, AND WHAT OUR BODIES MEAN

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May 2022

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A WOMAN

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March 2022

ABIGAIL FAVALE ON PURITY CULTURE

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November 2018

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SPEAKING

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THE GENESIS OF GENDER

ST. BENEDICT INSTITUTE

HOPE COLLEGE

September 2021

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BODY AND IDENTITY

NEW YORK ENCOUNTER

February 2022

Proud Parents

THE DIGNITY OF THE SEXED BODY

DENICOLA CENTER FOR ETHICS AND CULTURE

November 2021

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"WHAT IS SEX FOR? THREE PARADIGMS"


UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

March 2018

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