Holy Ferment: Queer Philosophical Destabilizations and the Discourse on Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Lives in Christian Institutions

Abstract

Employing insights from queer theorists this article explores what might be at stake philosophically in the contemporary ferment around homosexuality in the Western churches. Hutchins argues that the ferment is an effect of the destabilization of the metaphysics of substance by queer discourse and practice causes. In other words what gay Christians threaten is the notion that categories of identity are fixed and capable of categorization. This notion is built into the very grammar of our lives making it hard to think, act, write or speak outside of it, and much liberation, feminist and gay and lesbian theology has not attempted to do so. But as the hegemonic illusion is ruptured, Hutchins suggests that it is imperative for all those involved in the debate to come to terms with the violence and insufficiency of the metaphysics of substance.