This compiled and edited collection provides perspectives from a wide range of interdisciplinary fields on the debates around LGBTQ sexualities and religion/spirituality. The essays draw attention to aspects of religiosity that shape the lived experiences of LGBTQ people, represent the search of sexual minorities for spiritual safe spaces in both
This compiled and edited collection engages with a theme which is increasingly attracting scholarly attention, namely, religion and LGBTQ sexuality. Each section of the volume provides perspectives to understanding academic discourse and wide-ranging debates around LGBTQ sexualities and religion and spirituality. The collection also draws attention to aspects of religiosity that shape the lived experiences of LGBTQ people and shows how sexual orientation forges dimensions of faith and spirituality. Taken together the essays represent an exploration of contestations around sexual diversity in the major religions; the search of sexual minorities for spiritual safe spaces in both established and new forms of religiosity; and spiritual paths formed in reconciling and expressing faith and sexual orientation. This collection, which features contributions from a number of disciplines including sociology, anthropology, psychology, history, religious studies and theology, provides an indispensable teaching resource for educators and students in an era when LGBTQ topics are increasingly finding their way onto numerous undergraduate, post-graduate and profession orientated programmes.
Contents: Preface; Introduction. Part I Discourses and Discontents: The
centrality of marriage: homosexuality and the Roman Catholic argument, James
P. Hanigan; Homosexuality and the construction of Anglican Orthodoxy: the
symbolic politics of the Anglican Communion, Christopher Craig Brittain and
Andrew McKinnon; Towards a queer dharmology of sex, Roger Corless; The
politics of counter-rejection: gay Christians and the church, Andrew K.T.
Yip; Doing queer theology in The Garden: Derek Jarman and Christianity,
Stephen Carr. Part II Managing the Queer Self in Conventional Christianity:
Abomination - life as a Bible Belt gay, Bernadette Barton; Negotiating a
religious identity: the case of the gay Evangelical, Scott Thumma; Fag
church: men who integrate gay and Christian identities, Gerald Walton; The
priest obviously doesnt know that Im gay: the religious and spiritual
journeys of Latino gay men, Dalia I. Garcķa, Jennifer Gray-Stanley and Jesus
Ramirez-Valles; Homophobia, hypermasculinity and the US black church, Elijah
G. Ward; The gift (?) that dare not speak its name: exploring the influence
of sexuality on the professional performances of gay male Anglican clergy,
Michael Keenan; Identities within identities: queering the priestly woman,
Gayle R. Baldwin. Part III Managing the Queer Self in Judaism and Islam:
Being gay and Jewish: negotiating intersecting identities, Randal F. Schnoor;
Between being and doing: conflict and coherence in the identity formation
of gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews, Tova Hartman Halbertal with Irit Koren;
Bridging the divide: integrating lesbian identity and Orthodox Judaism,
Judith M. Glassgold; The quest for intimate/sexual citizenship: lived
experiences of lesbian and bisexual Muslim women, Andrew Kam-Tuck Yip; I
don't want to taint the name of Islam: the influence of religion on the
lives of Muslim lesbians, Asifa Siraj; Between religion and desire: being
Muslim and gay in Indonesia, Tom Boellstorff; Out to get us: queer Muslims
and the clash of sexual civilisations in Australia, Ibrahim Abraham. Part IV
LGBTQ Affirming Environments: The homosexual subculture at worship: a
participant observation study, Paul F. Bauer; The inherent worth and
dignity: gay Unitarians and the birth of sexual tolerance in liberal
religion, Mark Oppenheimer; The homosexual church: an ecclesiastical
extension of a subculture, Ronald M. Enroth; Observations on the corporate
culture of a gay and lesbian congregation, W. Bernard Lukenbill; Gay and
lesbian Christians: homosexual and religious identity integration in the
members and participants of a gay-positive church, Eric M. Rodriguez and
Suzanne C. Ouellette; Identity experience among progressive gay Muslims in
North America: a qualitative study within Al-Fatiha, Omar Minwalla, B.R.
Simon Rosser, Jamie Feldman and Christine Varga; A new generation of lesbian
Jewish activism, Rebecca E. Margolis. Part V Fringe Religiosity: Calamus in
Bolton: spirituality and homosexual desire in late Victorian England, Harry
Cocks; Queering the Dragonfest: changing sexualities in a post-patriarchal
religion, Mary Jo Neitz; When Pan met Wendy: gendered membership debates
among the radical faeries, John A. Stover; New Age spiritualities: Findhorn
and the sexual self, Kath Browne with Elizabeth Dinnie; Angels and the dragon
king's daughter: gender, sexuality in Western Buddhist new religious
movements, Sally R. Munt and Sharon E. Smith; Is it meaningful to speak of
queer spirituality? An examination of queer and LGBT imagery and themes in
contemporary Paganism and Christianity, Yvonne Aburrow. Part VI Spiritual
Paths: Queer theologies as transgressive metaphors: new paradigms for hybrid
sexual theologies, Robert E. Goss; A queer kind of faith: religion and
spirituality in lesbian, gay and bisexual New Zealanders, Mark Henrickson;
When Sheilas a lesbian: religious individualism among lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender Christians, Melissa M. Wilcox; Queering the sacred:
discourses of gay male spiritual writing, Donald L. Boisvert; A bisexual
feminist spirituality, Barbara Gibson; Faith-based queer space in Washington,
DC: the Metropolitan Community Church-DC and Mount Vernon Square, Jenell
Williams Paris and Rory E. Anderson. Name index.
Stephen Hunt is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of the West of England, UK.
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