This book offers a range of interdisciplinary evaluations of the history of same-sex relationships in the Church as they have been understood in different periods and contexts. The relationships between diverse forms of religious and sexual identities have been widely contested in the media since the rise of the lesbian and gay liberation movement in the 1970s. One of the key images that often appears in public debate is that of 'lesbians and gays in the Church' as a significant 'problem'. Research over the past forty years or so into queer theology and the history of same-sex desire has shown that such issues have played an important role in the story of Christianity over many centuries. The contributors to this volume have all been inspired by the challenges of such revisionist study to explore religion and same-sex desire as a field of opportunity for investigation and debate. They uncover some of the hidden histories of the Church and its theologies: they tell sometimes unexpected stories, many of which invite serious further study. It is quite clear through history that some in the churches have been at the vanguard of legislative and social change. Similarly, some churches have offered safe queer spaces. Overall, these essays offer new interpretations and original research into the history of sexuality that helps inform the contemporary debate in the churches as well as in the academy.

Explores key aspects of same-sex desire in Christianity, before, during and after the second half of the twentieth century Aims to further discussion on new creative approaches to the histories of Christianity and same-sex desire Argues that interactions between forms of Catholicism and same-sex desire in late Victorian England were written out of lesbian and gay history

Autorentext

Mark D. Chapman is Vice-Principal of Ripon College, Professor of the History of Modern Theology at the University of Oxford and Canon Theologian of Truro Cathedral, UK. He is an Anglican priest and member of General Synod of the Church of England and has written widely on many aspects of Church History. Dominic Janes is Professor of Modern History and Director of the History Programme at Keele University, UK. He is a cultural historian who focuses on the histories of gender, sexuality and religion. His most recent books are Picturing the Closet (2015), Visions of Queer Martyrdom (2015) and Oscar Wilde Prefigured (2016).

Inhalt

1. Same-sex love and desire: a time for new approaches; Mark Chapman and Dominic Janes.- 2.Theological amnesia and same-sex love; Adrian Thatcher.- 3. Sexuality as a guide to ethics: God and the variable body in English literature; Chris Mounsey.- 4. The tradition of homophobia: responses to same-sex relationships in Serbian Orthodoxy from the nineteenth century to the present day; Nik Jovi-Sas.- 5. Sexual ethics in the shadow of modernism: George Tyrrell, André Raffalovich and the project that never was, Philip Heal.- 6.'Pope Norman', Griffin's Report and Roman Catholic reactions to homosexual law reform in England and Wales, 19541971; Alana Harris.- 7. They found a niche: same-sex-attracted people in Australian Anglicanism; David Hilliard.- 8. 'The ecclesial wing of the lavender revolution': religion and sexual identity organising in the USA, 1946-1976; Heather Rachelle White.- 9. Christ and the Homosexual: an early manifesto for an affirming Christian ministry to homosexuals; Bernard Schlager.- 10. Homosexual practice' and the Anglican Communion from the 1990s: a case study in theology and identity; Mark Chapman.- 11. How queer can Christian marriage be? Eschatological imagination and the blessing of same-sex unions in the American Episcopal Church; Rémy Bethmont.- 12. Setting the table anew: queering the Lord's Supper in contemporary art; Mariecke van den Berg.- 13. The queerness of saints: inflecting devotion and same-sex desire; Donald L. Boisvert.- Index.