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January 27 - January 27, 2021
we know that God is love1—a love so extreme that it is described in superlative terms such as ploutos (extreme wealth)2 and huperperisseuō (superabundance).
Radical love, I contend, is a love so extreme that it dissolves our existing boundaries, whether they are boundaries that separate us from other people, that separate us from preconceived notions of sexuality and gender identity, or that separate us from God. It is the thesis of this book that the connections between Christian theology and queer theory are actually much closer than one would think. That is, radical love lies at the heart of both Christian theology and queer theory.
The term “queer” also can include “allies” who may not themselves identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, or questioning, but stand in solidarity with their queer sisters and brothers in terms of seeking a more just world with respect to sexuality
Interesting to think about identity of the church
and gender identity. In other words, “queer” is a synonym for acronyms such as LGBTIQA.
That is, to “queer” something is to engage with a methodology that challenges and disrupts the status quo.
to “queer” something is to turn convention and authority on its head. It is about seeing things in a different light and reclaiming voices and sources that previously had been ignored, silenced, or discarded.
queer theology is “talking about God” in a selfconsciously transgressive manner, especially in terms of challenging societal norms about sexuality and gender. Third, queer theology is “talk about God” that challenges and deconstructs the natural binary categories of sexual and gender identity.
queer theology should shock people out of their complacency and help them see theology in a new light.
Must read althaus Reid
Christian theology itself is a fundamentally queer enterprise because it also challenges and
deconstructs—through radical love—all kinds of binary categories that on the surface seem fixed and unchangeable (such as life vs. death, or divine vs. human), but that ultimately are fluid and malleable.
Key quote must define radical love.
Christian theology is fundamentally a queer enterprise because it focuses upon the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and second coming of Jesus Christ, all of which are events that turn upside down our traditional understanding of life and death, divine and human, center and margins, beginnings and endings, infinite and finite, and punishment and forgiveness. As with the case of queer theory, it is in Jesus Christ that all of these seemingly fixed binary categories are ultimately challenged and collapsed.
Foundational to understanding of limited gospel -
radical love is defined as a love that is so extreme that it dissolves existing boundaries. Not only is God love,1 but God is a love that is described in terms of extreme wealth and superabundance.2 In other words, not only is God defined as radical love itself, but God’s very being consists of the continuous sending forth of this radical love to others.
Definition of God as radical love
Coming out, as an act of boundary crossing, challenges society’s traditional view that issues of sexuality and gender identity should remain unspoken and outside the realm of public discourse. Coming out, therefore, is an act of radical love that parallels how God reveals Godself to us through revelation.
Boundary crossing
Glaser notes that the “story of the New Testament is that God comes out of the closet of heaven and out of the religious system of the time to reveal Godself in the person of Jesus Christ.”8 For example, God’s coming out as the infant Jesus in the incarnation reveals God’s solidarity with the marginalized and vulnerable, and not just the powerful and the elite. Similarly, God’s coming out as the Jesus who ministers to those who are “unclean” reveals God’s preferential option for the outcast and the excluded, and not just religiously “respectable” people. Indeed, God “chose what is weak in the
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Chris glazer coring out as revelation
To summarize, the doctrine of revelation can be understood as God coming out to us. This self-revelation is grounded in God’s love for us, and it is a radical kind of love because it dissolves existing boundaries that separate the divine from the human, the powerful from the weak, and knowing from
unknowing. In fact, the doctrine of revelation can be understood in terms of apophatic (or negative) theology, in which our knowledge of God—like our understanding of the category of “transgender”—is always in a state of transformation and unknowing.
Knowing and unknowing of God how does that work with Calvin know God know thy self
But this love is not just any love, but a radical kind of love. It is a love so extreme that it dissolves existing boundaries that might normally seem fixed. We know that God’s love is extreme in terms of magnitude because God’s grace is described in superlative terms.15 However, God’s love is also extreme because it breaks down all kinds of human boundaries—not just the boundary between the divine and the human as discussed earlier in the context of the doctrine of revelation, but also the boundary between life and death (as seen in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ).
May use this quote in theological section
Heyward’s view of God as pure relationality has been highly influential and even can be seen in the work of gay male theologians such as Gary Comstock, who has argued that God is not so much
“above, other, or outside” of us, but rather “among, between, and part of us.”18
God with us not as other
This principle of passionate friendship should be at the core of queer theology and ethics because it breaks down the artificial divide between sexual relationships and nonsexual relationships. In other words, passionate friendship displaces pair-bonded, monogamous, reproductive sexuality as the norm for Christian relationships. This is actually consistent with the ideals of early Christian communities, which were grounded in passionate friendship within the body of Christ, and not biological families.
Interesting question about Trinity
The Trinity itself is a community of passionate friendship, and thus it is a model of how we relate to each other.
Trinity as model for community
In sum, the doctrine of the Trinity underscores the fact that God’s very own being is an internal community of radical love. By being both three and one, a Trinitarian understanding of God dissolves a number of boundaries: the self and the other, public and private relationships, pair-bonded relationships, and fragmented identities. As Christians, we are the body of Christ, and, as such, we are all brought into the Trinity itself and become part of the divine dance of radical love.
As noted previously, radical love is defined as a love that is so extreme that it dissolves all kinds of boundaries, including those relating to gender and sexuality. Although God is constantly sending forth radical love in the act of creation, sin can be understood as our refusal to accept this radical love. That is, the condition of original sin encourages humans to build up existing boundaries and divisions, and refuse to dissolve them or tear them down. In this framework, Jesus Christ is the one who helps us to recover the radical love that we have rejected.
Original sin radical love
Specifically, we sin when we reinforce existing divisions with respect to sexuality, gender identity, or other factors.
Love this doctrine original sin
if radical love is understood as a love so extreme that it dissolves existing boundaries, then the rejection of radical love is essentialism, or the reinforcing of the boundaries that keep categories separate and distinct from each other.
Original sin as essentialism
sin can be understood as our refusal to accept God’s radical love for us.
Sin as refusal to accept love
Sin can also take the form of refusing to see the interrelatedness of social oppressions; for example, continuing to maintain the lines of division between racism and heterosexism.
Sin as refusal to see systematic issues
If radical love is understood as a love so extreme that it dissolves boundaries, then Jesus Christ is the living embodiment of the dissolution of boundaries. As such, Jesus Christ is the boundary-crosser extraordinaire, whether this relates to divine, social, sexual, or gender boundaries.
Christ as embodiment of radical love
We can understand this third and final movement as the Holy Spirit helping us to return to the radical love from which we all came. It makes sense for us to understand the Holy Spirit’s role as a helper, since one of its biblical names is “paraclete” or “paraklētos,” which can be translated as “advocate” or “helper.”1
Return to radical love with the help of the holy spirit
The Holy Spirit also serves to guide us to radical love by dissolving various boundaries that we normally think of as fixed or impermeable. One such boundary is the dividing line between sexuality vs. church.
Sexuality, and the church boundary
A second boundary dissolved by the Holy Spirit is the dividing line between private vs. public discourse about one’s sexuality. Again, for most people these categories are mutually exclusive; in general, discussions of non-normative sexualities and practices are limited to the private sphere.
Private vs public conversation about sexuality
A third boundary dissolved by the Holy Spirit is the line between unity vs. diversity.
Dissolve the boundary between unity vs diversity
A fourth and final boundary that is dissolved by the Holy Spirit is the line between law vs. lawlessness.
Dissolves the boundary between law and lawlessness
As such, the Holy Spirit dissolves the artificial boundary between law vs. lawlessness in that it manifests itself in both fidelity and freedom.11
Fidelity and freedom
In other words, church was an external community of radical love. That is, the church was a new community that dissolved traditional boundaries that kept people apart such as biological relationships, social class, and physical attributes.
Vision of the Church
This catholicity arises out of the fact that there is only one body of Christ, but it is nevertheless made up of all believers, which include a multiplicity of gender identities, sexes, sexualities, races, cultures, ages, and abilities. To the extent that the church is literally the body of Christ, then the church itself is also one and many.
Catholicity of the church
TRANSformative Church Ministry Program,
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Indeed, at the end of the time, we will no longer have bodies that are marked by sex and gender. We will take on new spiritual bodies,49 and the only identity that will matter is that we are members of the body of Christ. It is a function of the radical love of the Holy Spirit that brings us closer toward our eschatological destiny through the sacraments.
Sacraments as radical love
That is, if radical love is defined as a love that is so extreme that it dissolves all boundaries, then the ultimate dissolution of identities is what will occur at the end of time.
Radical love at the end times
For me, the second-century theologian Origen had it right in terms of his doctrine of apokatastasis, or the restoration of all things. According to this doctrine, if God is truly sovereign, then good must decisively triumph over evil in the end, which would mean that even Satan is saved. This does not mean that people will not need to be purified before reaching heaven—just as gold needs to be refined by fire—but, in the end, all will reach heaven.
Interesting doctrine of the end times based on Origen
the first act involves God, who is the sending forth of radical love; the second act involves Jesus Christ, who is the recovery of the radical love that was lost by humans; and the third act involves the Holy Spirit, who is the means by which we return to radical love.
Could set up theological underpinnings of the Greatest Commandment
In sum, Christian theology is ultimately about radical love. It affirms the impossibly queer truth that God is love, that God’s very self is an internal community of love, that God’s love spilled forth in the act of creation, that God became human out of God’s love for humanity, and that God continues to guide us back toward the love from whence we came. Christian theology promises us that nothing—not hardship, not distress, not persecution, not famine, not nakedness, not peril, not the sword, not death, not life, not angels, not rulers, not things present, not things to come, not powers, not
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