Sexuality and the Sacred

by Ellison, Marvin M.

• ISBN13: 9780664233662
• ISBN10: 066423366X
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-09-21
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Pr

Summary

Christian discourse on sexuality, spirituality, and ethics has continued to evolve since this book's first edition was published in 1994. This updated and expanded anthology featuring more than thirty contemporary essays includes more theologians and ethicists of color and addresses issues such as the intersection of race/racism and sexuality, transgender identity, same-sex marriage, and reproductive health and justice.

Author Biography

Marvin M. Ellison teaches Christian ethics at Bangor Theological Seminary in Maine and is the author of Erotic Justice: A Liberating Ethic of Sexuality and Same-Sex Marriage: A Christian Ethical Analysis. Kelly Brown Douglas is the Elizabeth Conolly Todd Distinguished Professor of Religion at Goucher College, Baltimore, Maryland. She is the author of Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	p. xi
Forewood	p. xv
Introduction xix
Methods and Sources
Introduction	p. 3
Notes on Historical Grounding: Beyond Sexual Essentialism	p. 6
Setting the Problem, Laying the Ground	p. 16
Experiencing the Body: Sexuality and Conflict in American Lutheranism	p. 34
Black and Blues: God-Talk/Body-Talk for the Black Church	p. 48
Sexuality and Spirituality
Introduction	p. 69
Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power	p. 73
Sexing Black Women: Liberation from the Prisonhouse of Anatomical Authority	p. 78
Where Are We? Seven Sinful Problems and Seven Virtuous Possibilities	p. 95
Rethinking Sin and Grace for LGBT People Today	p. 105
Touching the Taboo: On the Sexuality of Jesus	p. 119
Gender, Race, and Sexual Identities
Introduction	p. 137
The Erosion of Sexual Dimorphism: Challenges to Religion and Religious Ethics	p. 141
Pain and Pleasure: Avoiding the Confusions of Christian Tradition in Feminist Theory	p. 165
Lovingly Lesbian: Toward a Feminist Theology of Friendship	p. 183
What If It Is a Choice? Some Implications of the Homosexuality Debates for Theology	p. 197
The Construction of the Black Male Body: Eroticism and Religion	p. 205
Beyong Machismo: A Cuban Case Study	p. 221
Rethinking Sexual Ethics
Introduction	p. 241
Reimagining Good Sex: The Eroticizing of Mutual Respect and Pleasure	p. 245
Making Love as Making Justice: Towards a New Jewish Ethic of Sexuality	p. 262
Appropriate Vulnerability: A Sexual Ethic for Singles	p. 272
Sexuality and Social Policy	p. 278
Guilty Pleasures: When Sex Is Good Because It's Bad	p. 292
A Queer Fidelity: Reinventing Christian Marriage	p. 304
Sexual Health and Bodily Integrity
Introduction	p. 319
Disruptive Bodies: Disability, Embodiment, and Sexuality	p. 322
AIDS, Shame, and Suffering	p. 338
Safer Text: Reading Biblical Laments in the Age of AIDS	p. 347
Is There Life after Roe? How to Think about the Fetus	p. 358
Marriage Equality: A Test Case for the Church
Introduction
Contested Marriage/Loving Relationality	p. 380
A Catholic Defense of Same-Sex Marriage	p. 390
Marriage in a New Key	p. 397
Familiar Idolatry and the Christian Case against Marriage	p. 412
Acknowledgments	p. 437
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