Queer Theology Rethinking the Western Body

Queer Theology makes an important contribution to public debate about Christianity and sex.

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• A remarkable collection of specially commissioned essays by some of the brightest and best of Anglo-American scholars
  
• Edited by one of the leading theologians working at the interface between religion and contemporary culture
  
• Reconceptualizes the body and its desires
  
• Enlarges the meaningfulness of Christian sexuality for the good of the Church
  
• Proposes that bodies are the mobile products of changing discourses and regimes of power.

Notes on Contributors.

Preface.

Introduction: The End of Sex: Gerard Loughlin (University of Durham).

Part I: Queer Lives.

1 Subjectivity and Belief: Kathy Rudy (Duke University).

2 The Gay Thing: Following the Still Small Voice: James Alison (writer).

Part II: Queer Church.

3 Sacramental Flesh: Elizabeth Stuart (University of Winchester).

4 There Is No Sexual Difference: Graham Ward (University of Manchester).

5 Fecundity: Sex and Social Reproduction: David Matzko McCarthy (Mount St Mary’s University).

Part III: Queer Origins.

6 Eros and Emergence: Catherine Pickstock (Cambridge University).

7 Omphalos: Gerard Loughlin (University of Durham).

Part IV: Queer/ing Tradition.

8 Against Rabbinic Sexuality: Textual Reasoning and the Jewish Theology of Sex: Daniel Boyarin (University of California at Berkeley).

9 Queer Father: Gregory of Nyssa and the Subversion of Identity: Virginia Burrus (Drew University).

10 Queering the Beguines: Mechthild of Magdeburg, Hadewijch of Anvers, Marguerite Porete: Amy Hollywood (Harvard Divinity School).

11 Bodies Demand Language: Thomas Aquinas: Eugene F. Rogers Jr (University of North Carolina at Greensboro).

12 Love’s Urgent Longings: St John of the Cross: Christopher Hinkle (doctoral student at Harvard Divinity School).

13 A Queer Theology: Hans Urs von Balthasar: Rachel Muers (University of Exeter).

Part V: Queer/ing Modernity.

14 Reformed and Enlightened Church: Jane Shaw (New College, Oxford).

15 Sex and Secularization: Linda Woodhead (Lancaster University).

16 “Promising Ashes”: A Queer Language of Life: Grace M. Jantzen (University of Manchester).

17 Antimarriage: Paul Fletcher (Lancaster University).

Part VI: Queer Orthodoxy.

18 Queer Trinity: Gavin D’Costa (University of Bristol).

19 God’s Body: Mark D. Jordan (Emory University).

20 Queen of Heaven: Tina Beattie (University of Surrey Roehampton).

21 Desirous Saints: David Matzko McCarthy (Mount St Mary’s University).

Bibliography.

Index of Biblical References.

General Index

students of systematic theology, Christian ethics, religion and culture, clergy, lay people

Gerard Loughlin is Professor of Theology and Religion at the University of Durham. His previous publications include Telling God’s Story: Bible, Church and Narrative Theology (1996) and Alien Sex: The Body and Desire in Cinema and Theology (Blackwell, 2004). He is a co-editor of the Journal Theology and Sexuality.