Can Anything Good Come Out of Nazareth? Perspectives in Queer Theology Pubblico
Buechel, Andrew Edward (2012)
Abstract
Can Anything Good Come Out of Nazareth?
Perspectives in Queer Theology
Christianity can be summed up by a single, queer dictum given by Athanasius: "God became human that humans might become God." This belief sets the general structural paradigm that I follow throughout, even though it is not itself the main focus of conversation.
In Chapter One, I focus on the issue of "God becoming human" by
attending to the body God takes on in the Incarnation, that of
Jesus of Nazareth. The main interlocutor is Graham Ward, along with
Mark D. Jordan at the conclusion, to look more closely at how this
body behaves in the Gospel narratives and what implications it has
for our own thinking about bodies in general. The very idea of God
taking flesh is queer, but by meditating more deeply on the body
God takes, we are taught a great deal about what it means to be a
body and how bodies are mutually constitutive of one
another.
Chapter Two engages the work of Elizabeth Stuart, Marcella
Althaus-Reid, and Herbert McCabe to look more closely at how we are
brought into this incarnate body of Christ via the sacraments. The
sacraments, too, are queer acts with multiple instabilities,
ironies, and tensions. Further, they teach us something about our
living-in-the-world and how our participation in Christ's body
should and does impact this. Finally, I look briefly at the church
as itself sacramental and tensive.
After going through the Incarnation and our sacramental incorporation into it, I turn in Chapter Three to the subject of eschatology. What does it mean to say that we are "made God?" What does this mean for our bodies? How does what has gone before impact the hopes that weentertain and nourish for the hereafter? How does the eschaton break-in already, and how are we called to live it, queerly? These questions are explored in conversation with Gerard Loughlin's Alien Sex and James Alison's Raising Abel, and I conclude by offering an image (and the failure of images) for this queer hereafter from the film Shortbus: the Orgy of the Lamb.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Folly and Stumbling Blocks 1
Chapter One: Incarnation-Christ's Queer Body 21
Chapter Two: Sacraments-Queer In-corporation 68
Chapter Three: Eschatology-Queer Consummations 119
Conclusion: Ways Forward for Christ's Queer Body? 177
Works Cited 201
About this Dissertation
| School | |
|---|---|
| Department | |
| Subfield / Discipline | |
| Degree | |
| Submission | |
| Language |
|
| Research Field | |
| Parola chiave | |
| Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor | |
| Committee Members |
Primary PDF
| Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Can Anything Good Come Out of Nazareth? Perspectives in Queer Theology () | 2018-08-28 10:27:56 -0400 |
|
Supplemental Files
| Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Actions |
|---|