TA 3/2009 (114. vuosikerta)

Theology, Science and Sex — Theological anthropology and the doctrine of creation are based on so-called folkbiology; they presuppose a clear distinction between the categories of male and female. To the extent that scientific biology helps revise our folk-biological notion of sex, it also challenges theology. I take the question of determining a transsexual’s sex as an example of the relevance of biological knowledge for theology. In scientific biology, males are those who have smaller gametes (sperm). Otherwise, there is great variation in the anatomical and behavioural traits of males and females in different species. If a minister should be a biological male, how should this malehood be determined?

The Limits of the Highest Power: Papal Power as a Legal and Political Question in the 13th and 14th Centuries — Both papal and imperial powers were strongly increasing in the 12th and 13th centuries. At the same time, Roman law had been given a new life in the universities of north-ern Italy, and academic law came to cover practically all sectors of social life. It is therefore understandable that le-gal arguments were used in power politics as well. Power discourse was, however, only weakly connected to Roman law, although canonists invoked authorities such as the Corpus iuris civilis in their arguments. The arguments used in political discussions were largely developed by late medieval canonists and philosophers in much the same way as they innovated in the fields of criminal and procedural law, for instance. These discussions of papal and imperial power were the embryonic form of Western constitutional discourse. The limitations of power developed by the medieval scholars remained valid into the modern era, and rationalist natural law mediated the medieval scholarly views down to this day. The same can be said about the democratic ideas developed by John of Paris and Marsilius of Padua, especially their notion of popular sovereignty.