Parallels between depression and lament

This article compares the experiences portrayed by the psalmists in Psalm 31 and Psalm 102, both psalms of lament, with the current concept of major depression. It concludes by exploring how the insights of the psalms may be applied in pastoral care directed toward those who suffer from depression.     

Husserl and queer theory

In spite of a history wherein queer theory has openly rejected phenomenology, phenomenology has gained increasing interest amongst queer theorists. However, Husserl’s phenomenology is often marginalized in attempts to integrate queer theory with phenomenology, and when Husserl is addressed specifically, his work is often treated superficially or even misrepresented. Given this, my first goal is to demonstrate how Husserl’s work is already open to positions considered fundamental to queer theory, and that Husserl is often explicitly arguing for these positions himself. In doing so, I wish to show that Husserl’s phenomenology is well fitted for complementary engagement with queer theory. My second goal is to work through some ways in which Husserl’s phenomenology and queer theory can work together in detail to accomplish shared theoretical goals. Although this will not be a full-blown analysis—which would exceed the parameters of this article—my hope is to provide a certain amount of in depth work that can then assist further analyses that combine these methods.     

Race and the gift of lament

A close look at historical narratives can help us understand how intractable racial injustice is, both in society and in the church. Progress toward racial equity requires us to recognize ourselves as actors in history, and also as those influenced by and acted upon by the forces of history. In addition, lament can help us move toward the theological work of repentance. This article is adapted from The Gift of Lament: Moving from Diversity to Racial Equity in the ELCA, 2018 MDiv Thesis, Wartburg Theological Seminary. Portions of this article were also presented at the June 2019 Convocation of Teaching Theologians.     

Towards a queer dharmology of sex

Lay practitioners of Buddhism, especially lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer persons, are given little guidance by the traditional Dharmology (Buddhist theology) of sex. The most extensive discussions are the detailed prohibitions in the monastic rule, which focus on the mechanics of sex rather than on love and relationships. What advice there is on sex for lay persons is either vague or over‐determined by its cultural context. Christianity, despite being homophobic and mistrustful of sex, has developed a positive attitude towards sex within heterosexual marriage. An investigation of this suggests a Dharmology of sex as relationship, based on central Buddhist doctrines such as interdependent arising. This Dharmology can be strengthened by queering it with reference to Harry Hay's notion that gay subject–subject consciousness is more compatible with Buddhist non‐duality than the hetero subject–object consciousness. It can be claimed, therefore, that Buddha Nature, and Buddhism itself, is queer.     

The queer life of Christian exceptionalism

This response to Jasbir Puar's monograph, Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times (2007. Durham, NC: Duke University Press), brings Puar's analysis to bear on the current attraction to ‘Christian identity’ as a historical analytic in the fields of New Testament and early Christian Studies, and to increasing associations of the ancient emergence of ‘Christian identity’ with transgressive queerness. I argue that this latter trend, especially, abets certain forms of Christian exceptionalism under the guise of resistance against empire, but I also suggest that this scholarship reveals certain affinities between the notion of queerness as pure transgression and contemporary Christianity.     

The psalms of lament and the transformation of sorrow

This article explores how the psalms of lament can be used as a resource for pastoral care, and how ultimately they point toward the transformation of sorrow. Relying on Walter Brueggemann's scheme of orientation--disorientation--new orientation as a way to recognize the depth of human experience, the article sees the laments as honest engagement and dialogue with God within a covenantal relationship where hurt and pain are acknowledged rather than denied and avoided. The implications of using the psalms of lament in pastoral care and in Clinical Pastoral Education are discussed.     

Divine detritus: queer remainders from theological quests

ABSTRACT

This essay investigates how theologians should engage with the “leftovers,” or detritus, of the great theological quests by interrogating the process of doing and writing theology. Posing questions about theology’s purpose and systematic method, along with questions that examine both the object of theology and the subjectivity of the theologian, this essay directs its inquiry to uncovering the very foundations of theology today, which itself must be constructed out of divine detritus.     

Belonging,desire, and queer Iranian diasporic politics

Recent approaches to the study of queer migration politics and diaspora hold significant potential in advancing the study of the geographies of migration. Most notably, they can help illuminate the impossible positions that migrants often occupy; challenge diasporic norms governing cultural authenticity; destabilize conventional understandings of gender, nation, and home; and situate diasporic experiences within present and future possibilities for new ways of expressing intimacy and kinship beyond the limited scope of nationality and citizenship. In this paper, I will argue for a queer intervention on migration studies that critically expands geographic approaches to migration by denaturalizing and complicating approaches to understanding the emotional diasporic experiences of belonging and home. I will think through the usefulness of such approaches in my own ongoing research on debates concerning Iranian diasporic identities and communities in Iranian diasporic cinema. In analyzing two recent films, I argue for the tremendous creative potential of diasporic filmmaking in imagining complex spaces of home and belonging that otherwise seem impossible. Ultimately, I see queer approaches to migration politics and diaspora as having significant creative, critical, and positive potential to understanding how migrants placed in impossible situations create new lives for themselves.     

Home and hiddenness: queer theology,domestication and institutions

ABSTRACT

This essay examines tropes of hiddenness and domestication in queer theology, particularly in light of the increasing mainstreaming of queer theologies in institutional (e.g. university, seminary, church) settings, and the inclusion of queer theologies by straight academics and teachers on their syllabi. Drawing on James C. Scott’s work on revolution as a luxury of the elite (by way of the Arab Spring, the UK riots of 2011, and the US demonstrations in 2014), and Judith Halberstam’s construction of “failure” as a strategy of queer resistance, I ask whether there will continue to be a role for “shadow queernesses” which reject institutional acceptability. However, I also suggest that the increased visibility of queer theology within mainstream institutions does not inevitably imply compromise or “toothlessness,” but may in fact testify to the pre-existing presence of queer diversity in multiple contexts and the inhabitation by queer scholars of various “homes.”     

Feeling the archives: Domestic queer space and the vitality affects

This essay is concerned with the archived correspondence between two gay men, Jack Strouss and Bill Wilson, in Atlanta, Georgia (southeastern U.S.) in the 1950s. Its focus is mostly on one letter that describes a social triad in a domestic space and the author’s enthusiasm about it. The attunement of vitality affects creates a sense of belonging for Bill, and this particular domestic space enables a present moment of queer intersubjectivity. Archival practices are informed by such moments, and, in fact, practice might aim at affect attunement across spheres of human activity. If the past holds untapped potential for the present, our practices might seek to dwell on some of these past moments. This is the work of the everyday, low-level affects, and weak theory.