A Queer Christian Blessing: Prayers Upon the End of the Seminar

A poem for my students
inspired by the Spring 2019 syllabus

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May your life be full of many beginnings

And may you never lose your creativity.

May you find and form communities

But may your feast tables always have seats open for the stranger.

May you speak truth to power

Even when it flies in the face of what people have known

May your letters never just be one way

But ongoing correspondence across the ages.

May you cherish the good that is given

But not be afraid to explore change and new worlds.

May you be big enough to see across many vistas

But small enough to retain a sense of wonder and uncertainty.

May you give light and life to your inner self

And may the world learn better how to see that light.

May you imagine visions of worlds big and small

And may you have faithful companions to help bring them into being.

May you find room enough in your wading pools for a neighbor,

Because there are more than one way to love.

May you reach out of isolation

And find community and strength in one another.

May you find to wisdom and strength for the mountains you must climb

And may we make the road easier for those who come behind us.

May the road ahead be brighter than the roads behind

As one good grows apart from another good and yet shines brighter for its company.

May we find ways to survive even the worst of times,

And find support that will not take advantage of us in our moment of need.

May you gain the courage to leave places and things that do not serve your growth

And yet bring with you those things and people who can help you on the way.

May you love goodness and know truth beyond yourself,

And find ways not to exploit but instead to amplify the good and truth of others.



May you reject moral apathy, intellectual laziness, and boredom,

As you focus on the elements of goodness, truth, and beauty around us.

May you walk away from this class learning something of how to learn

And keep it with you as you become more yourself in the years to come.

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Queer Christianity: The Medieval Orientations of C.S. Lewis

"There is no safe investment. 

To love at all is to be vulnerable. 

Love anything, and your heart will certainly 

be wrung and possibly be broken. "

C.S. Lewis

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Course Overview

We live in a moment when the relationship between queerness and Christianity is being reconsidered and hotly debated. To better understand this debate, as well as the differences and potential common ground between members of the queer and Christian communities (including those who belong to both!), this seminar examines the history of Christianity and its relationship to queerness. Is Christianity a force for domination or liberation? Orthodoxy or creative multiplicity? Normativity or queerness? To answer these questions, we will read literature that explores how Christianity has both suppressed and in some sense created queerness, as well as how it has been reclaimed by queer communities. We will also look closely at how these historical tensions are being played out locally today. Special attention also will be given to the range of intersecting identities and communities that have responded to the meeting of faith and sexuality in various ways, drawing from diverse contexts of race, ability/disability, gender, and class. Readings include selections from the Bible, books about theology, and documentaries and memoirs attesting to the experience of LGBT Christians. In particular, this semester we explore the "Medieval Orientations of C.S. Lewis." In this four part course, we interrogate the long dialectical history between LGBTQIA persons and the Christian Church. At this intersection stands C.S. Lewis, a pillar of Christianity to be queered, as well as a representative of many queer medieval orientations towards gender and sexuality. So grab your copy of Mere Christianity and a pack of rainbow markers!

The seminar begins with a queer reading of scripture, focusing on key sections of the Jewish and Christian Bible which address gender and sexuality. We begin by considering the meanings and purposes of the Creation myths from Genesis I and II, as well as how God as Creator has been understood and represented within later Christian thought; such as the singing into being of Narnia and Middle Earth in the fiction of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. What happens when we look as Creation not as a fixed made object but rather as a dynamic sometimes rhyming, sometimes dissonant ever changing song? Next, the books of Law are read within their historical and cultural context alongside the concepts of moral philosophy: are there true ethical ideals, natural laws which inform social justice, or true selves which deserve honor and respect? The person, preaching and practices of Jesus - from the sermon on the plains to his summation of the law and the prophets - will be added together in order to assess their implications for LGBTQIA persons. Finally, students will consider to what degree the legacy of Jesus in the Christian Church was affected by the various interpretations of the Apostles such as their Acts and the letters of St. Paul.

Following the eras in which scripture was being composed and compiled, we turn to the traditions of theology which have influenced how Christian churches have related to gender and sexuality. Influential early theologians such as Augustine and Aquinas will be queried and queered as they are put into conversation with various queer saints from St. Hildegard to St. Marinos and St. Joan of Arc. Modern queer theology will also be considered for its content and style, demonstrating how different theologians and eras approach questions of identity and embodiment in different ways. A running theme of this section is the philosophies of love and desire which run from Plato and Augustine to C.S. Lewis and Mr. Rogers. Next, the Queer Christianity seminar will move from Philosophy to Art and Literature to consider the ways in which afterlives figure into Church doctrine and into the LGBTQI community. How do trans women deal with the hells into which they are placed and imagined? Where does Dante locate queerness in his vision of Purgatory? How does Queer Christianity walk between the roads towards the shadowlands or to the bright country from C.S. Lewis's Great Divorce? The semester ends by leveraging the skills in exegesis, theology, and imagination against the institutions of ex-gay ministries in the films The Transformation, God Loves Uganda, and the Miseducation of Cameron Post.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course you will be able to

• Think critically across multiple perspectives
• Engage with thinkers who passionately disagree with you
• Argue according to the dialectic method
• Compose your thoughts in clear and engaging writing
• Honor differences as important to propelling your thinking forward

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Selections from the Reading List

Queer Scripture

• The Bible
• Creation Myths
• The Law
• Jesus
• The Apostles

• Austen Hartke, Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians, Westminster John Knox Press (2018), 978-0664263102

• C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, HarperOne (2015), 978-0060652920
• C.S. Lewis, Perelandra (Space Trilogy, Book 2), Scribner (2003), 978-0743234917

Queer Theology

• St. Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions
• St. Augustine of Hippo, The City of God
• St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
• St. Hildegard Von Bingen, Primary Sources
• St. Marinos the Monk, The Vita
• St. Joan of Arc, Primary Sources

• Barbara Sukowa (dir.) Vision - From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen, Zeitgeist Films (2011) 
• Morgan Neville (dir.) Won't You Be My Neighbor? Universal Studios (2018) B07D591ST1

• D.J. Lee, Rescuing Jesus, Ch. 8: Femmevangelical  
• K. Lochrie, Heterosyncrasies: Female Sexuality When Normal Wasn’t 
• M. Althaus-Reid, Queer God, Ch. 3: Trinitarians and God the Orgy 
• Plato, Symposium on Love, “Aristophanes,”
• Hedwig & the Angry Inch, “Origin of Love”   
• C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves, HarperOne (2017), 978-0062565396

Queer Afterlives

• Leelah Alcorn, Transgender Queen of Hell, Tumblr

• Marguerite Bennette, Angela: Queen of Hel, Marvel Comics (2016) 978-1302900014

• Dante, Purgatorio, Anchor Press (2004), 978-0385497008

• C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, HarperOne (2015), 978-0060652951

(Ex-)Queer Ministries

• Aiken and Aparicio (dir.), The Transformation (1996) 

• Roger Ross Williams, God Loves Uganda (2013) 

• Desiree Akhavan, The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018)

• C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man, HarperOne (2015), 978-0060652944

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Queer Christianity: Gender and Sexuality in the Church

"I would sit in church and always wonder, 

'In God's eyes, how does he see me?'"

Caitlyn Jenner
20/20 Interview

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Course Description and Outcomes

We live in a historical moment when the relationship between queerness and Christianity is being reconsidered and hotly debated. To better understand this debate, as well as the differences and potential common ground between members of the queer and Christian communities (including those who belong to both!), this seminar examines the history of Christianity and its relationship to queerness. Is Christianity a force for domination or liberation? Orthodoxy or creative multiplicity? Normativity or queerness? To answer these questions, we will read literature that explores how Christianity has both suppressed and in some sense created queerness, as well as how it has been reclaimed by queer communities. We will also look closely at how these historical tensions are being played out locally today. Special attention also will be given to the range of intersecting identities and communities that have responded to the meeting of faith and sexuality in various ways, drawing from diverse contexts of race, ability/disability, gender, and class. Readings include selections from the Bible, books about theology, and documentaries and memoirs attesting to the experience of LGBT Christians.

Course Objectives (Reflecting SAGES Learning Outcomes)

By the end of the course you will be able to T.E.A.C.H. on a range of ethical, historical, and aesthetic subjects:

• THINK critically on the rhetorical and ethical value of cultural narratives 
• ENGAGE respectfully across perspectives alongside and opposing your own 
• ARGUE dialectically with thesis driven claims that actively engage existing debates 
• COMPOSE collaboratively using evidenced-based research and peer-review 
• HONOR differences with nuance, complexity, and sympathy

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Selections from the Reading List

Queer Christianity is a seminar designed to prompt meditation and discussion on the long history and futures of gender and sexuality in Christianity as it grew, divided, and evolved from western Europe to the Americas. The course readings are more concentrated on fewer texts to allow for more time to dwell with the questions each raise; rather than surveying the already extensive archive on issues of sex and sexuality in the Church. The seminar begins by challenging students to examine multiple readings of key scripture passages that are commonly invoked in bible-based arguments on LGBTQI issues. The seminar then moves into debating a few representative premodern theologians (Augustine, Aquinas, and Paul) as well as theologies of sex emerging from the LGBTQI, women's, and civil rights movements. Christianity is often called the religion of love, using the word in a host of divergent and even contradicting ways. This prompts the section of the seminar on queering love, where students will read C.S. Lewis's reflection on the four Greek words for love and interrogate the ways that the Church has failed to extend and recognize these forms of love to and with queer communities. The next section introduces a series of films on the culture wars in the United States and abroad wherein Christianity has been a force aimed at converting, fixing, and eliminating the LGBTQI population. The seminar ends with consideration of the LGBTQI saints already a part of the official Church record as well as those persons who have become saints within the wider queer family.

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Queer Scripture 

NRSV Bible, “Genesis 1 and Genesis 2” 

NRSV Bible, “Leviticus 18-21” and “Deuteronomy 22-25” 

NRSV Bible, “Genesis 18-19,” “Isaiah 56” and “Matthew 18-19” 

NRSV Bible, “Song of Songs” (All)

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Queer Theology 

St. Augustine of Hippo, the Confessions, Book 1-2 

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Selections 

St. Paul, The NRSV Bible, Colossians 3, Ephesians 5, Galatians 3 Council 

M. Althaus-Reid, Queer God, Ch. 3: Trinitarians and God the Orgy 

D.J. Lee, Rescuing Jesus, Ch. 8: Femmevangelical 

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, “The Maniac” and “The Eternal Revolution”  

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Queer Love 

C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves, “Storge” 

Lewis, The Four Loves, “Philia” 

Lewis, The Four Loves, “Eros” 

Lewis, The Four Loves, “Agape” 

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Queer Conversions 

Roger Ross Williams, God Loves Uganda (2013) 

Aiken and Aparicio (dir.), The Transformation (1996) 

Daniel G. Karslake, For the Bible Tells Me So (2007) Council 

P.R. Lightsey, Our Lives Matter, Queer Black Women’s Lives 

Lightsey, Our Lives Matter, Transforming Until Kin(g)dom Come

Lightsey, Our Lives Matter, The Biblical Crisis 

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Queer Saints 

N. Constas (Trans.), The Life of Saint Marinos 

The Life of St. Joan of Arc

D.W. Cross, Pope Joan, Ch. 11 “Joan,” and Ch. 14-18 “Brother John” 

Cross, Pope Joan, Ch. 27-29 “Pope Joan,” and Author’s Note

L. Alcorn, Transgender Queen of Hell 

C. Jenner, I Am Cait, “A New Beginning” 

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