God, Sexuality, and the Self Quotes

“God’, by definition, cannot be an extra item in the universe (a very big one) to be known, and so controlled, by human intellect, will, or imagination. God is, rather, that without which there would be nothing at all; God is the source and sustainer of all being, and, as such, the dizzying mystery encountered in the act of contemplation as precisely the ‘blanking’ of the human ambition to knowledge, control, and mastery. To know God is unlike any other knowledge; indeed, it is more truly to be known, and so transformed.”
― Sarah Coakley, God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay 'On the Trinity'

“First, Freud must be – as it were – turned on his head. It is not that physical ‘sex’ is basic and ‘God’ ephemeral; rather, it is God who is basic, and ‘desire’ the precious clue that ever tugs at the heart, reminding the human soul – however dimly – of its created source. Hence...DESIRE IS MORE FUNDAMENTAL THAN 'SEX'. It is more fundamental, ultimately, because desire is an ontological category belonging primarily to God, and only secondarily to humans as a token of their createdness ‘in the image’. But in God, ‘desire’ of course signifies no LACK – as it manifestly does in humans. Rather, it connotes that plenitude of longing love that God has for God’s own creation and for its full and ecstatic participation in the divine, trinitarian, life.”
― Sarah Coakley, God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay 'On the Trinity'

“The Spirit, then, is what interrupts the fallen worldly order and infuses it with the divine question, the divine lure, the divine life.”
― Sarah Coakley, God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay 'On the Trinity'

“gender theory has rightly drawn attention to the centrality of questions of desire, but it becomes narcissistic and inward-looking if it fails to confront the wider and continuing problems of universal ‘justice’ and ‘rights’ for women, worldwide. A classic form of liberal feminism or feminist theology, in contrast, correctly keeps up the ongoing battle on behalf of oppressed and subjugated women, but has difficulties in resisting the dangers of a flat or idolatrous imposition of its own Western agendas, or – more personally – the traps of unresolved personal resentment and hatred. In both cases, as we now see, there are profound spiritual problems to be confronted: the necessary theological repair involves nothing less than an expansion of spiritual consciousness. Such a way invites us beyond the false binary choices we have here discussed.”
― Sarah Coakley, God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay 'On the Trinity'

“So what seemed at first like a trinitarian formula with little life in it but much traditional patriarchal authority insidiously associated and imposed, loosens its grip as an external imposition and begins to become a Life into which to enter. As we enter, our presumptions about ‘Fatherhood’ strangely start to change . . . and at last we follow Jesus into an exploration of the meaning of ‘Fatherhood’ beyond all human formulations.”
― Sarah Coakley, God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay 'On the Trinity'