Queer Theology

One of the deadliest attacks to the queer community, specifically the queer community of color, occurred on June 12, 2016, in the Pulse Nightclub, a safe space for queer people. The “closet” has indicated a space of survival for many queer people, however it can also become a space of death, making both places a choratic and eschatological space.  Using Vítor Westhelle’s framework of Eschatology and Space, the author reflects on and challenges the ambivalence of the safe/unsafe and inside/outside that occurs in the queer community of color, arguing for the messianic power of queerness to transgress the center with the spread of its gospel.

Our aim in this conceptual work is to suggest, tentatively, some ways
forward into the breach as teacher educators. Our hope is to make a few
things possible. The first is a reengagement with questions of sexuality and
religion in teacher education that neither begins with that which is legal
nor ends with that which is sacred, and thus untouchable. We use, by way
of illustration, a few suggestive anecdotes from our own scholarly experiences not as exemplars necessarily but rather as illustrations of possibility for the field which neither mark its limits nor trace its ultimate possibility. In some sense, we hope to write this conversation into existence and wish it so through our own successes and failures as teacher educators working to find ways to engage these particular risks educationally.

Constructive and narrative intersex confessional queer liberation theology responds to the evangelical Christian anti-LGBTQ "Nashville Statement" of 2017 and also expands and updates 2013 coming out sermon that led to public / media events that ensued in 2013 (very public dismissal from teaching post) “Come as You Are: God’s Good News for All People”  (Psalm 139, Luke 14:7-24, Galatians 3:28 and 5:1) August 18, 2013. LaVerne Church of the Brethren, La Verne, California. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y_Hns6IYT4&feature=youtu.be. This chapter was published as “Every Body Is Good. You’re Welcome.” in OtherWise 2: Stories of Resistance, ed. Mx. Chris Paige. OtherWise Engaged Publishing, 2020: 29-36.

This essay traces the history of the debates about and the  theological approaches to widening the embrace of LGBTIQ people in The Episcopal Church. It includes substantial discussion not only of gay and lesbian clergy and marriage equality but also of transgender people, lay and ordained, in the life of the church.

Há algum tempo pretendo escrever sobre meu tema de pesquisa tendo espaço e liberdade suficientes para sistematizar, de forma mais ou menos descompromissada, várias das angústias que surgiram desde que comecei a trabalhar com a temática " homossexualidade indígena ". Escrevo este texto me dando, como desafio, elaborar essas reflexões sem entulhar este texto de citações e referências, mas como uma conversa. É um texto, espero, que possa ser lido em um ônibus, ou em um desses momentos de insônia, sem maiores obrigações para com o autor. Busco, assim, fazer um texto acadêmico completamente não-acadêmico, no espírito de várias provocações que se seguem. A pergunta norteadora deste trabalho vai ao encontro daquela, repetida tantas vezes por colegas, sempre que apresento meu tema de pesquisa: afinal, existe isso de índio gay? Vejamos. O que se sabe é que na literatura sobre o Brasil, desde seu descobrimento, há inúmeras referências por parte de cronistas e missionários de práticas " sodomíticas " entre os indígenas brasileiros. É importante mencionar, neste caso, uma particularidade das fontes quinhentistas e seiscentistas sobre o Brasil: ao contrário dos inúmeros textos escritos sobre a América espanhola, a América portuguesa não teve tanto destaque entre os autores lusitanos. ..

Queer Readings of the Book of Ruth and the Creation Accounts

The author offers queer readings of two selected texts from the Hebrew Bible, namely ways of reading the Book of Ruth and the two accounts of creation in the Book of Genesis. Her discussion of this biblical story and the creation accounts shows the diversity of possible queer interpretations based on particular understandings of queer or on different approaches to the queer theory. Referring to the Book of Ruth, the authors explains why certain biblical passages are especially suited to queer appropriation for lesbian, bi-sexual and polyamorous midrashim and ceremonies (1.1.). She describes the blurring of sexually defined roles in the Hebrew Bible (1.2.). She offers a line of argument analogous to a biblical Halakha for queer persons today (1.3.). In connection with the creation stories, queer readings are presented in accordance with approaches of the queer theoreticians Monique Wittig and Judith Butler (2.1.). Finally, the author points to the interpretation of a biblical figure as androgynous (2.2.) To concentrate exclusively on the issue of sexuality (in connection with queer) is a result of contemporary concerns. In conclusion, she deals with the striking points of overlap between the blurring of sexually defined roles, ethnicity, religion, age, survival and power(lessness) in the Book of Ruth and her queer re-reading of Gen 1:27 in reference to the creation of humankind.

Ich liefere queere Lektüren zweier ausgewählter Texte der Hebräischen Bibel, nämlich Lesarten des Buchs Ruth und der beiden Schöpfungsberichte des Buchs Genesis. Anhand meiner Diskussion dieser biblischen Erzählung und Berichte zeige ich die Vielfalt möglicher queerer Interpretationen, die sich auf bestimmte Auslegungen von queer bzw. auf verschiedene Ansätze der Queer-Theorie gründen. Auf das Buch Ruth bezugnehmend erkläre ich, warum sich bestimmte biblische Textstellen für queere Aneignungen durch lesbische, bisexuelle und polyamore Midraschim und Zeremonien besonders anbieten (1.1.). Ich lege das Verschwimmen sexuell definierter Rollen in der Hebräischen Bibel dar (1.2.). Ich liefere die einer biblischen Halacha analoge Argumentation für heutige queere Personen (1.3.). Im Zusammenhang mit den Schöpfungsberichten werden queere Lesarten anhand von Ansätzen der Queer-Theoretikerinnen Monique Wittig und Judith Butler vorgeführt (2.1.). Und zuletzt weise ich auf die Auslegung einer biblischen Figur als androgyn hin (2.2.). Sich allein auf das Thema Sexualität (im Zusammenhang mit queer) zu konzentrieren, entspringt einer Fragestellung der Gegenwart. Zum Schluss komme ich auf die auffallenden Überschneidungen vom Verschwimmen sexuell definierter Rollen, Volkszugehörigkeit, Religion, Alter, Überleben und (Un)Vermögen im Buch Ruth und auf meine queere Relektüre von Gen 1,27 bezüglich der Erschaffung der Menschheit zu sprechen.

Many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT), and people living with HIV (PLHIV) feel estranged from and misunderstood by their Christian communities. Churches, in turn, continue to wrestle with issues of theology and pastoral care pertaining to LGBT and PHIV. In response, this article aims to construct an ecclesio-logical praxis of inclusivity toward LGBT and PLHIV. Framed by Elisabeth Schüsler Fiorenza's notion of Jesus' basileia vision as the praxis of inclusive wholeness, we analyze , interpret and theologize narratives from elite interviews with three community leader-practitioners in Singapore and the Philippines who shared on their ministerial struggles, practices and visions. We suggest that churches can take the lead to engender an ecclesiological praxis of inclusivity by being (i) spaces of support, belonging and dignity for LGBT and PLHIV; and (ii) avenues for fostering dialogue with LGBT and PLHIV to articulate God's inclusive love.

Este livro é uma tentativa de entender o percurso por trás da pergunta Existe índio gay?, tantas vezes ouvida durante a ampla pesquisa feita pelo autor, focando na colonização das sexualidades indígenas na história brasileira. O livro, voltado também para não especialistas, busca fazer com que pessoas interessadas no tema possam pensar questões relacionadas às origens da homofobia e do racismo no Brasil. Uma das coisas demonstradas aqui é como os vários povos indígenas no país aceitavam, sem maiores problemas, um conjunto de práticas às quais o colonizador viria a se opor por não se enquadrarem em seus modelos de sexualidade, moral, religiosidade ou ciência. Em resumo: a homofobia chegou nas caravelas, e por aqui ficou. Assim, a colonização impôs a esses povos um sistema moral no qual a sociedade colonizadora se baseava - e ainda se baseia. Nesse sentido, a sexualidade possui um papel fundamental para a compreensão desses mecanismos de dominação sobre a vida cotidiana, do imaginário e da memória. Dito isso, fica claro que este livro não é apenas sobre homossexualidade indígena, mas sobre o que podemos aprender com o percurso que levou à heterossexualização forçada desses povos.

Pré-vendas pelo site da Editora Prismas:
http://editoraprismas.com.br/produto/7917235/PRE-VENDA---Existe-indio-gay-a-colonizacao-das-sexualidades-indigenas-no-Brasil

This chapter proposes that Southeast Asian Christianity, which often denounces gender nonconforming, sexually diverse and non-dyadic people, must strive for greater inclusivity and affirmation for such individuals in the 21st century. These efforts require a radical and strategic rethinking of theology that would bode well for both Southeast Asian Christianity and non-normative communities, particularly non-normative Christians. For this purpose, the author suggests six practical guidelines for developing inclusive and/or affirming SOGIESC theologies involving non-normative people.

I'm including in this bibliography monographs and edited volumes explicitly engaged with (predominantly) Christian religion and theology (with some nods to biblical studies and pastoral care) since about 2000 (with a couple important exceptions). It is not meant to be comprehensive, but rather takes in a limited vista. This list engages significant queer spaces, voices and queer theologies in such a way that opens to even more. Go for those lines of flight. Bibliographies should be queerly mysterious and performative too, no? Think of this list as an invitation to a conversation rather than the final word. Some voices will take queer liberationist lenses. Others more traditionalist. Also, consider: to be folded into these conversations are a number of important modern/contemporary queer theorists who impact on theology though wouldn't be considered theologians:

"This article examines queer theology, a new theological approach influenced by queer theory, in the Nordic context. The article argues that queer theology provides a critical approach that can work as a bridge between theology and gender studies.

The article explores three texts on homosexuality by the Evangelical Lutheran Churches of Finland and Sweden in the 21st century. The analysis shows that although queer theology is not explicitly present in Evangelical Lutheran discussions about homosexuality in Finland and Sweden, its arguments are used in several different ways. Because of its Lutheran roots, the debates about sexuality in Nordic theology differ from the Catholic debate. The Nordic discussion gives a new twist to queer theology by placing the Bible in a more central role than has been done previously in queer theology. Through this shift of emphasis, the Nordic theological discussion can help to develop further queer theology."

Il testo vuole incarnare una possibile mediazione tra universi culturali lontani ed essere una lettura propedeutica per chi intenda addentrarsi nella tematica, lasciando che la fede cristiana s’interroghi liberamente sul ‘gender’. Un approccio sereno e critico sia alla cultura laica di genere – della quale si esaminano i nodi principali – sia a quella cattolica, con l’intento di superare le reciproche diffidenze e cercare insieme una verità umanizzante per tutti. L’obiettivo è gettare delle basi condivisibili su cui costruire una sintesi teologica più ampia. Un testo che, nell’esaminare i nodi teoretici, volge lo sguardo alla recente campagna ‘anti-gender’, cercando di fornire le coordinate utili a svelenire il clima e muoversi al suo interno con padronanza di lessico e concettualità. In questo senso, l’opera vuole essere uno strumento per formatori, pastori e attivisti che vogliano introdursi nella complessità senza scorciatoie, per cogliere la ricchezza del ‘pensiero di genere’: nell’orizzonte della promozione di un benessere comunitario e individuale.

Reading familiar  Torah stories through the lens of transgender experience, Joy Ladin explores fundamental questions about how these  texts our understanding of God can be enriched by transgender perspectives, and how the Torah and transgender lives can  illuminate one another.  Ladin shows how the Torah, a collection of ancient texts that sees  all human beings as either male or female, speaks to both practical transgender concerns, such as marginalization within a community, and to the emotional and spiritual consequences of living without a body or social role that renders one's self visible and intelligible to others. Drawing on her own experience as someone for whom transgender experience and religious experience are deeply intertwined, she shows how living outside binary gender can help us understand the Torah's portrayals of a God who defies all human categories. These creative and evocative readings transform our understanding of the Torah's portrayals of God, humanity, and the relationships between them.
Written accessibly for general audiences and class use, this volume is an important addition to the fields of transgender studies, Jewish studies, gender and religion, theology and contemporary midrash.

In Alan Moore’s _Promethea,_ love is more than right relationship between two or more human beings—it is the universe reaching out compassionately and erotically to every living being within it. Drawing upon the monist threads of the Western esoteric tradition that affirm the feminine divine (particularly the writings of influential twentieth-century magician Aleister Crowley), Moore constructs an apocalyptic narrative where the end of the world involves not its physical destruction, but spiritual dissolution and transformation. Here, divine love is both unconditional and erotic—though not necessarily sexual in the physical sense. Yet sexuality is an important vehicle for the characters’ experience of love, and sexuality also operates as a metaphor for the quality of God/dess’ love for the universe
Although Moore’s intellectual and spiritual influences may appear obscure, the fact that erotic love has arisen as a central way to understand the love of God in some recent Christian and post-Christian theology suggests that Moore’s work is part of a wider cultural movement to position the body and eroticism as central issues in Western religiosity. In this theology, erotic love is explored as a moral force for justice, as well as a metaphor for humanity’s embodied relationship with the divine. “Grace,” the traditional term for divine love that is offered without condition and despite the brokenness or sinfulness of humanity, blurs with this new conception of eros. This essay will contextualize Promethea within current theological trends, articulate Promethea’s notion of love using textual examples from both the comic and from theological and occult writings, and examine how the comics form is used to educate Moore’s audience about how one might reframe sexuality spiritually or religiously.

[Download is EXCERPT ONLY.]

The nature and field of comparative theology is mapped with particular attention to the tradition associated with Francis Clooney but noting the global and wider context of theology in a comparative mode. There are four main parts. Firstly, mapping the current field and exploring its methodological and theological aspects, with particular attention to global and intercultural theologies, comparative religion, and the theology of religions. Secondly, considering what the deconstruction of religion means for comparative theology and how the term " religion " may be deployed and understood after this. It also takes into consideration turns to lived and material religion. Thirdly, issues of power, representation, and the subaltern are considered, including the place of feminist and queer theory in comparative theology. Finally, an original and constructive discussion on philosophical hermeneutics, as well as the way certain hermeneutical lenses can bring issues into focus for the comparative theologian, is offered. The text notes key trends, develops original models of practice and method, and picks out and discusses critical issues and lacunae within the field.

The notion of gender was debated in France long before the 2013 law on marriage equality. In 2004, a mayor in the south of France celebrated the first gay marriage. One year later, a court denied two trans women the right to marry because they did not behave as husband and wife. The introduction locates public debates on gender in France, and shows that they have heavily weighed on the 2013 law, which maintains discriminations against LGBT people with regard to parenthood, trans rights, and nationality. From this standpoint, France has experienced no clear "before-and-after" watershed. French conservatives indeed see themselves as majority victims of a system devised to benefit minorities. They credit the idea that LGBT rights are the product of a "theory" to legitimize their own doctrine. References to the United States become all the more potent since they accredit the idea of a foreign plot.

Course Description: This course is about sex, gender, and how to interpret religious texts. We examine different reading strategies, from feminist, queer, trans, and womanist hermeneutics, to examine the nature and meaning of the Bible in the contemporary world. Discussing both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, we consider Jewish and Christian perspectives on these questions. We consider a range of contemporary questions, dealing with masculinity, femininity, queer identities, trans, and gender-based violence.

In Gothic discourse, it is popular to categorise texts as “Male Gothic” or “Female Gothic”. However, as critics such as Carol Margaret Davison have argued, such categories often reaffirm essentialist views of gender and risk making generalised assumptions about the experiences of men and women. Moreover, attempts to divide texts into gendered categories largely ignore the extent to which several nineteenth century Gothic writers foregrounded androgyny as a central facet of their work. Vernon Lee is one such writer.

This chapter explores, firstly, the relationship between exoticism and eroticism in the nineteenth century imagination. It considers how the Catholic Mediterranean settings of two of Lee’s tales, ‘A Wicked Voice’ (1890) and ‘Prince Alberic and the Snake Lady’ (1896), contribute to explorations of sexual transgression in relation to contemporary discourses which associated national and religious Otherness with sexual dissidence, constructing a model of the queer body that proliferated throughout supernatural fiction of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. While these associations were commonly utilised to construct homophobic Gothic narratives, however, this chapter explores Lee’s conception and construction of the Mediterranean as a space where, unlike in England, transgressive self-expression and desire could be explored, enjoyed and even advocated.

Considering the concept of empathy as understood and popularised by Lee, it then meditates on how characters’ identifications with one another in these fictional works produce or enhance transgression in relation to gender and sexuality. Through empathy with desiring female supernatural figures, Lee troubles the identity of characters perceived as heterosexual men, and hence heteronormativity itself, through Gothic allegories.

Finally, it delves into the nineteenth century association between sickness and sexual dissidence. The period marked a radical shift in thinking about sexuality when, in 1886, the German sexologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing popularised the term “homosexuality” in Psychopathia Sexualis, categorising it as a pathological condition and thus lending credence to existing widely-held beliefs about sexual transgression.
Significantly, the former absence of language to describe same sex desire was often filled by Gothic fiction. George Haggerty for instance, argues that ‘Gothic fiction offered the one semirespectable area of literary endeavour in which modes of sexual and social transgression were discursively addressed on a regular basis.’ This chapter therefore examines the ways in which Lee responded to cultural associations between sickness and sexual dissidence, posing challenges to normative and hegemonic discourses through radical Gothic narratives. In doing so, she rejects Victorian notions of what it meant to be a sexually healthy man or woman.

It ultimately suggests that Lee’s short stories embody Teresa Goddu’s notion of ‘haunting back’, reclaiming the often deeply homophobic Gothic mode to instead sensitively and progressively represent subjugated subjectivities. As such, it considers the ability of supernatural fiction not only to articulate the experiences of queer people in the nineteenth century, but also to challenge the essentialist binary distinctions made between men and women, which, as critics such as Judith Butler have argued, can function to uphold heteronormativity: a national political and social project at the end of the nineteenth century.

In this article, I describe three problems found in some inclusive queer Christian theologies: a strong contrast between Christian queer inclusiveness and the exclusive other — a contrast that sometimes takes anti-Semitic form; ignoring what I term the affective life of binaries — the way symbol systems depend on associative relationships between multiple binaries, so that rendering one binary relationship fluid fails to destabilize the symbol system itself; and a presentist approach to origins that seeks legitimation for contemporary queer assumptions or for queer theology as such. I argue that the presence of any of these elements renders queer theology un-queer. By connecting inclusive queer theologies to debates over inclusion, livability and humanity in queer theory (particularly between Judith Butler and Lee Edelman), I conclude that the rhetorical posture of radical inclusion may have limited value for queer theology and suggest an alternative starting point grounded in a dictum from Marcella Althaus-Reid.

This article analyzes the peculiar and challenging “queer” views on gender and sexuality evinced in ancient Christian Gnosticism. It proceeds with a close and careful reading of the texts while employing modern queer theory for their elucidation, notably Judith Butler’s performative understanding of gender. Evidence is adduced for the gnostic attempt to subvert gender and gendering and the rationale behind this endeavor is spelled out. Throughout the article parallels are drawn between ancient Gnosticism and some modern attempts to create queer selves and queer “Bibles,” and preliminary insights stemming from these comparisons are offered.

The life of the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) resembles that of his most famous fairy tale, The Little Mermaid (1836). I chose the feminist framework to deconstruct The Little Mermaid due to the blatant patriarchal roles seen within the texts. The story is male driven and privilege, power, oppression, and sexual intrusion are all present within the fairy tale as well as the 1989 Disney film. At the same time, there is a hidden layer of LGBTQ+ traces, which can be deconstructed by looking at the confusion in the themes that Andersen uses. Analysing The Little Mermaid is problematic as she doesn't fit in the common models The Hero's Journey and the Actantial Model; she is a misfit that cannot live up to expectations. This makes her the perfect representation for a queer personality in a cis- and heteronormative environment.

An essay examining baptismal practices and constructive theology in the Metropolitan Community Churches.  Published as chapter seven in Queering Christianity: Finding a Place at the Table for LGBTQI Christians. edited by Robert Shore-Goss Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2013, 145-178.

Declaring that all acts of love and pleasure are the rituals of the Goddess, contemporary Pagans widely affirm the sacredness of the body and of sexuality. Much of this belief stems from the erotic theology that entered Paganism through British Wicca, in which celebrants use symbolic or literal sexual ritual to participate in the ongoing creation of the universe. Pagans tend to be relatively accepting of same-sex relationships, BDSM, polyamory, transgender, and other expressions of gender and sexuality that are marginalized by mainstream society. Accordingly, sexual minorities have flocked to the movement and have begun to articulate a distinctively queer Pagan spirituality. Pagans continue to struggle with essentialist notions of gender, however, which has caused conflicts around how and whether to include transgender individuals in single-gender groups. Additionally, in some more politically conservative Pagan traditions, gender transgression continues to draw homophobic harassment. Although sexuality and gender are central theological concerns for many Pagans, more scholarship that moves beyond descriptive approaches is needed, as are more scholarly treatments of the alternative sexualities that garner so much attention in Pagan circles. Christian and Jewish feminist theologians have already found Paganism to be a valuable dialogue partner; as queer theologies increasingly challenge mainstream religions’ notions of gender and sexuality, Paganism has much to add to the discussion.

See also this related, updated article from 2016: https://www.academia.edu/30774758/Pagan_Traditions_Sacralizing_the_Body

"After the Wrath of God is a subtle, discerning analysis of religious responses to AIDS that goes far beyond the usual attention to the Christian Right. Petro brings ecumenical Protestants, Roman Catholics, biomedical officials, and ACT UP protestors into view alongside their evangelical compatriots and in doing so creates a richly polychromatic picture of American religion, sexuality, and moral debate in the wake of the AIDS epidemic."
--Leigh Eric Schmidt, Edward C. Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor, Washington University in St. Louis

"The AIDS crisis was not an epoch that we survived. It is a battle that we are still fighting. In this remarkable work of historical intervention Anthony Petro explores the extraordinary religious ferment that accompanied the emergence of AIDS in the United States. Petro shows that when Americans talk about AIDS they are rarely just talking about a scientific problem or a pharmaceutical solution. They are instead offering a sociology of suffering and a plan for spiritual warfare. After the Wrath of God is required reading for anyone interested in the way this powerful religious past will shape our political future."
--Kathryn Lofton, Professor of Religious Studies, American Studies, History and Divinity; Chair, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Yale University

"Anthony Petro's novel account of the role of American Christianity in the AIDS crisis moves beyond expected narratives of the rise of the right to encompass a diversity of religious responses across the 'long 1980s.' Illuminating and important."
--Margot Canaday, Associate Professor of History, Princeton University

Though Muslim-anarchists are active participants within "newest social movements" (NSMs) in settler-colonial societies as the US/Canada, as well as transnationally, little has been written on their maturing as a critical mass, or their ostracization within predominantly white anarchist scenes in North America. My conceptualization of anarcha-Islam, an example of 'non-Western anarchism', fills this gap by re-imagining how the Holy Qurʾān and the Sunnah through the aḥadīth-the Prophetic practice and oral tradition-could be used to flesh out the theology, politics, and philosophy of an Islamic anarchism. By drawing on the premises of anarcha-Islam, which disrupts the commonly held beliefs that Islam is necessarily authoritarian and capitalist, and anarchism is necessarily anti-religious and anti-spiritual, this article explores the possibilities of a new transnational politics grounded in an ethics of disagreement, friendship, and hospitality between these traditions. In this contribution, I suggest uṣūl al-dhiyafa and uṣūl al-ikhtilaf (a politics of friendship and an ethics of hospitality as well as an ethics of disagreements) in facilitating an appreciation of the similarities that bring these traditions as well as social movement participants together, while also valuing the differences that drive them apart.

This Essay proposes an approach of the Theologies of Marcella Althaus-Reid and Victor Westhelle towards an understanding of the Theology of Cross and the Queer Theology, looking at aspects of the same multiform God in Multiform Suffering in Both, it also brings the Contributions of Professor Traci C. West as a Study case of where this both Theologies can be found working together.

Nos últimos anos, presenciamos o termo “gênero” ganhar maior materialidade em diversos espaços do campo público e privado. Tal proliferação discursiva deixa de ser algo apenas das arenas teóricas e percorre o cotidiano de todos nós, em escolas, redes sociais, famílias ou clínicas, provocando um certo desacomodamento de estruturas que, embora estejam sempre presentes, são constantemente encobertas e levadas a permanecer em silêncio. O presente capítulo visa a refletir sobre os efeitos dessa emergência, partindo de um percurso introdutório e elucidativo da noção de melancolia de gênero proposto pela autora Judith Butler para pensarmos como o gênero é produzido subjetivamente a partir de determinados procedimentos psíquicos de poder.


Como citar: Stona, J; Coelho, D. (2021). Melancolia de Gênero: uma introdução. In Marcelo Ferreri & Rogério Paes Henriques (orgs.). Gênero e política: derivas do feminino. São Paulo: Edições Concern. 180p. 

Within the past twenty years, contemporary Pagan leaders, progressive Christian and Goddess theologians, advocates for queer and BDSM communities, and therapeutic bodyworkers have all begun to speak forcefully about the sacredness of the body and of touch. Many assert that the erotic is a divinely transformative force, both for personal development and for social change. Although "the erotic" includes sexuality, it is not limited to it; access to connected nonsexual touch is as profound a need as that for sexual freedom and health. In this book, Christine Hoff Kraemer brings together an academic background in religious studies and theology with lived experience as a professional bodyworker and contemporary Pagan practitioner. Arguing that the erotic is a powerful moral force that can ground a system of ethics, Kraemer integrates approaches from queer theology, therapeutic bodywork, and sexual minority advocacy into a contemporary Pagan religious framework. Addressing itself to liberal religious people of many faiths, Eros and Touch from a Pagan Perspective approaches the right to pleasure as a social justice issue and proposes a sacramental practice of mindful, consensual touch.

This chapter examines the intersection of power, ritual, and the sacred through the lens of performing drag as a tool to subvert dominant notions of theological discourse. Grounded in Cheng’s assertion that queer theology is transgressive (Radical Love) and Althaus-Reid’s Indecent Theology, the foundational text which introduces the concept of theology as destabilizing and grounded in subversion, particularly in the realm of sexuality, we critique the forces of power operating within Catholicism. We ask: Whose bodies are allowed to play a powerful role in Catholicism? How has ritual performance perpetuated the colonization of the mind/spirit and how can it be used to undo that same colonization? In discussing a public drag performance using George Michael’s “Father Figure,” we suggest the possibility of liberation that exists in bringing theology into queer spaces, extending theology beyond the realm of religious institutions or the academy.