Queer Theology
Theology
A brief compilation of quotes from queer and queer-friendly authors
on the topic of queer theology, and intersecting topics (India & the Gay Canon),
intended as an introduction only, not at all comprehensive.
See the bibliography for a more complete offering of books on Queer Theology
Prepare, from 3x5 notes, by Rev. Stephen Parelli, MDiv
Friday, 22 August 2014, Tivandirum, Kerala
for distribution at a Bible School in Southern India (name withheld)
Patrick S. Cheng on An Introduction to Queer Theology
Cheng, Patrick S. Radical Love: An Introduction to Queer Theology. New York: Seabury Books, 2011.
1. Queer talk about God (=queer theology), p. 2
Quote: “So what exactly is queer theology? Simply put, if theology is defined as “talk about
God” (that is, theos [God] + logos [word], then queer theology can be understood as queer talk
about God.”
a. Queer – as an umbrella term for LGBT, first of 3 meanings, p. 4
Quote: “ . . . ‘queer’ is often used as an umbrella or collective term to describe people
with marginalized sexualities (lesbian, gay, or bisexual) as well as with marginalized
gender identities (transgender) or genitalia (intersex).”
b. As umbrella term – queer theology = for and by LGBT people, p. 9
Quote: “In other words, queer theology is a shorthand term for theology that is done by
and for LGBT people.”
2. Queer – as transgressive action, 2nd of 3 meanings, p. 6
Quote: “ . . . ‘queer’ is a self-conscious embrace of all that is transgressive of societal norms,
particularly in the context of sexuality and gender identity). … that challenges and disrupts the
status quo … reclaiming voices and sources that previously had been ignored, silenced, or
discarded.”
a. A theological method that is purposefully transgressive, p. 10
Quote: “Second . . . queer theology can be understood as a theological method that is
self-consciously transgressive, especially by challenging societal norms about sexuality
and gender. Thus, queer theology refers to a way of doing theology that, in the words
of the Magnificat, brings down the powerful and lifts up the lowly. In particular, this
theology seeks to unearth silenced voices or hidden perspectives.”
3. Queer – as erasing boundaries, 3rd of 3 meanings, p. 8
Quote: “ . . . ‘queer’ is the reasing of deconstructing of boundaries, particularly with respect to
the essentialist or fixed binary categories of sexuality and gender. . . . [T]his meaning of queer is
grounded in the academic fields of queer studies and queer theory, which in turn is bassed upon
the word of academics such as Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick.”
A Short Introduction to Queer Theology, compiled by Rev. Stephen Parelli
1
a. Queer as erasing boundaries – grounded in the academic discipline of queer theory, p. 6
Quote: “ . . . queer theory, which arose in the early 1990s and is indebted to the work
of the late French philosopher Michel Foucault, . . . views sexuality as something that is
‘continually undergoing negotiation and dissemination, rather than as a mere natural
(let alone medical) fact,’ . . . that sexuality and gender identity are . . . concepts [that]
can be reduced to fixed binary categories such as ‘homosexual’ vs. ‘heterosexual’ or
‘female’ vs. ‘male.’”
4. Christian theology is fundamentally a queer enterprise, p. 9, 10
Quote: “ . . . it is the thesis of this book that Christian theology itself is a fundamentally queer
enterprise because it also challenges and deconstructs – through radical love – all kinds of
binary categories that on the surface seem fixed and unchangeable. . . ”
“ . . . Christian theology is fundamentally a queer enterprise because it focuses upon the
incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and second coming of Jesus Christ, all of which
are events that turn upside down our traditional understanding of life and death, divine and
human, center and margins, beginnings and endings, infinite and finite…”
5. Atonement – the end of divisions between insiders and outsiders, p. 94, 45
Quote: “ . . . Jesus Christ’s death can be understood as the end of endless divisions between
‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders.’ That is, through the crucifixion, God has revealed and declared s
resounding ‘No!’ to the scapegoating mechanism through which the ‘insiders’ within society
target and eliminate those who are innocent ‘outsiders.’”
Quote: “The literary theorist Rene Girard has written extensively about the scapegoating
mechanism and its relationship to Jesus Christ.”
6. Sin – the absence of love, p. 71, 73
Quote: “ . . . sin can better be understood as the rejection of radical love. … . . . sin is what
opposes God, or what opposes radical love. Sin is the resistance to dissolving boundaries and
divisions.”
“ . . . sin [is] or opposition to what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.”
“ . . . to the extent that God lifts up humanity in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then sin can be
understood to be shame, or the refusal to be lifted up and to take our rightful place as people
who are made in the image and likeness of God.”
Tom Bohache on Christ on Power Relations – That Jesus brings in the “upside-down” kingdom
Susannah Cornwal. Controversies in Queer Theology. London: SCM Press, 2011.
1. Tom Bohache on Christ on power relations, p. 211
Quote: “ . . . we can discern from Jesus’ recorded words and deeds how he felt about power
relations (Bohache 2003, p. 19). ”
Bob Goss on the Resurrection as God identified for all time with the oppressed and marginalized
Susannah Cornwal. Controversies in Queer Theology. London: SCM Press, 2011.
1. Goss on Jesus’ resurrection = God on the side of the oppressed, p. 210
Quote: “Goss argues that . . . Jesus’ resurrection is . . . the hope for queer people for it is
A Short Introduction to Queer Theology, compiled by Rev. Stephen Parelli
2
through it that God turns Jesus into a parable about God and so we know that God is on the side
of the oppressed . . . For all time and space Jesus identifies with the oppressed . . . so it is that
queer people can declare that ‘Jesus is Queer’. ”
Gary David Comstock on Salvation as “I have come that they might have life and that they might have
it more abundantly”
Comstock, Gary David. Gay Theology Without Apology. Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 1993.
1. Salvation – responds to our deepest needs; must be accepted; Exodus and Jesus two salvific
events, p. 106-107
Quote: “The deliverance of slaves out of Egypt and the ministry of Jesus are events in which
people are rescued, taken care of. . . . Jesus saves those who are outcast, alienated, and
desperate. … [T]hese events are summoned, determined, and shaped by our deepest needs. …
The familiarity of despair to which we have become accustomed often complicates deciding for
and accepting rescue/salvation. …. They are saving events only if we respond to them by using
the new freedom, autonomy, or empowerment to change our lives and make them more
meaningful.”
a. We cannot always save ourselves and need to be saved by others, p. 106
Quote: “A salvific event is one that rescues us from pain and suffering and makes us a
new person or people; it is an event that happens to us, rather than one that we make
happen Religion differs from philosophy in recognizing that we cannot always save
ourselves and need to be saved by others. Philosophy is born of a confidence that one
can stand back from or rise above one’s situation, study it objectively, and resolve one’s
problems with reason. . . . To be sure we are both philosophical and religious in our
lives – we take the initiative and pull ourselves together as much as we need others to
put us together; we think on our own, and we are taken care of.”
b. Embracing ourselves is foundational to loving others, p.105
Quote: “ . . . the nudge that Jesus gives us to be on our own, to love one another . . to
find and be found by others, to take responsibility for my life, and to respond to the
lives of others. . to know what I am most enthused and concerned about . . . our lives
are most godlike when we embrace, take seriously, and share with others what is most
important to us . . . where and how I find God and God finds me, where and how my life
becomes most meaningful.”
2. Customary sources for theological reflection – scripture, tradition, personal experience and
understanding saving events, p. 105
Quote: “To do this [page 105 – to love others, know self, and be enthused which is God finding
me and me finding God], I use the customary resources for theological reflection and formation
– personal experience, Scripture, and tradition; and I shall also discuss and describe salvific or
saving events.”
a. A sacred writing = a love that accepts me as I am and which, therefore, compels me to
love my neighbor, p. 108
Quote: “. . . what makes a story sacred is . . . [what makes] the New Testament
sacred . . . [it is] the gospel’s word of personal address in which [one] encounters a love
accepting [one] for what [one] is . . . which free[s] [one] of the compulsion to assert
A Short Introduction to Queer Theology, compiled by Rev. Stephen Parelli
3
[one]self against [one’s] neighbor. . . . free to discern and meet the unique needs of
[one’s] neighbor.”
b. My Scripture – a small body of literature; and what it produces, p. 108-109
Quote: “. . . the Bible encourages me to enlarge my recognition and appreciation of
special stories outside of it. … I have begun to assemble and name as my Scriptures a
small body of literature in which I find myself accepted for who I am. I find this kind of
acceptance and connection within E. M. Forster’s Maurice, Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha,
Toni Morrison’s Sula, . . . Sister Outsider . . . and . . . Mohawk Trail.” … These personal
addresses and stories have the power to change how I relate to others, because having
felt in them what it is like to be accepted, to belong, to be involved . . . I am not satisfied
with anything short of [how I want to live with others].”
c. Tradition – To discover those who have lived in ways that help me, p. 110-111
Quote: ”Instead of fumbling with my inherited tradition . . . Instead of accepting the
oddness of not fitting into . . . I need and look for solace and succor [in] . . . my acquired
tradition . . . I seek out and discover those who lived in ways that help me survive and
live more fully today. … Our tradition seems to be characterized more by ‘research into’
than by ‘handing over’ … I neither look for nor find inspiration and example; I simply find
company, feel less alone and more a part of other people’s lives. … I sit with them so
that they are no longer alone, frightened, destroyed. . . . “
Ruth Vanits and Saleem Kidwai on Literary History and Same-sex Love in India
Vanits, Ruth, and Saleem Kidwai, eds. Same-Sex Love in India: A literary History. New Delhi, India:
Penguin Books India, 2008 (Revised Edition).
1. Purpose of the book Same-Sex Love in India: A literary History – not sex, but love; accepted or
vilified over time, p. xxiii
Quote: “ . . . our title focusses on love, not sex. … [I]deas of what is sexual and what is not
changes with place and time. We are more interested in how, at different times and places,
primary passionate or romantic attachments between men and between women were viewed –
whether . . . accepted . . . or vilified . . . .”
2. A person’s chief emotional outlet – in the marriage or outside of the marriage, both exist today,
p. xxiii
Quote: “ [In] [m]any societies . . . a person may be a responsible spouse and parent, but his or
her primary emotional attachment may be to a friend of his or her own gender. It is only
relatively recently inhuman history that the heterosexual monogamous relationship has come to
be viewed as necessarily a married person’s chief emotional outlet. Although this view is
dominant today, in many parts of the world, including many parts of India, the earlier view still
coexists with it.”
Drake on the significance of the “written word” – gay literature, gay history
Drake, Robert, ed. The Gay Canon. New York: Doubleday, 1998.
1. Like the Jews, despised by society – the written word has carried us on, p. xxiii
Quote: “The Jews are known as ‘the People of the Book’ because their culture has survived –
spiritually and historically – through its preservation in literature. Queers have a similar
A Short Introduction to Queer Theology, compiled by Rev. Stephen Parelli
4
resonance with the written word. Because we have had, at times, to suppress the truth of
ourselves if we were to survive – because, like the Jews, we have often been among the most
despised of society – the written word has carried us on, providing a renewed testament for us
to turn to and remember that we are not a new invention, we are history – its flesh and blood,
its brightest lights.”
2. Scope of The Gay Canon – books that have been influential within the US and Western Europe, p.
xvii
Quote: “Like it or not, if they haven’t been influential within the United States and Western
Europe – arguably the living theater of modern gay culture [c. 1998], of which this book is a part
– then they are simply not canonical for our purposes.”
A Short Introduction to Queer Theology, compiled by Rev. Stephen Parelli
5