Indecent Theology Research Articles

Indecent eco‐theology: A case for practice‐oriented eco‐theology

AbstractIn this article, I propose that eco‐theology should become indecent. Eco‐theology has a lot to learn from Marcella Althaus‐Reid's indecent theology and its orientation towards practice and warning against formalizing and intellectualizing theology within the universities’ walls. This focus on how we act in the world and then thereafter on how we understand the world, ourselves, and God can be advantageous for eco‐theology as it tackles the very concrete reality of the climate crisis. In indecent theology, practice guides and corrects perception. After an introduction to Althaus‐Reid's indecent theology and its relevance to the mobilization of religious communities in the climate crisis, I exemplify perception‐oriented eco‐theology with Sallie McFague's eco‐theology and ask where a practice‐oriented indecent eco‐theology can find inspiration. I then offer a look into what an indecent eco‐theology might look like and mention eco‐friendly practices found in various religious communities.

In Loving Memory? Indecent Forgetting of the Dead in Continental Sister-Books and Julian of Norwich’s Revelation of Love

Medieval nuns and anchorites (recluses) were spiritually and economically bound to pray for the dead, no matter their feelings towards the departed, who frequently appear to them in visions. This article charts medieval enclosed women’s attempts to intervene in this economy by forgetting souls. Staging a generative conversation between medieval women’s writings and Marcella Althaus-Reid’s (1952–2009) ‘indecent theology’ (queer liberation theology), this essay scrutinizes medieval female-authored texts for indecent forgetting (socially and economically disruptive forgetting). It juxtaposes a Middle English visionary text, A Revelation of Love by anchorite Julian of Norwich (1342/1343–c. 1416), with the mid-fourteenth-century Middle High German sister-book (compilation of nuns’ lives) of the Dominican convent of St Katharinental in Diessenhofen (in present-day Switzerland) and the early sixteenth-century Middle Dutch sister-book of Diepenveen (in the present-day Netherlands), originating from a Devotio Moderna convent of Augustinian canonesses regular. Heeding Althaus-Reid’s call, it dissects how forgetting unsettles systems of sanctioned spiritual and economic exchanges. I first examine how the sister-books forget certain souls and define their own terms for their participation in this system. I then turn to how Julian enlists all believers for her intercessory duties but also misplaces souls. Throughout, this article considers how these texts prise open space for medieval women within indecent theology. Ultimately, it illustrates how medieval women’s negotiations of their economic conditions supply a fertile ground for considering larger concerns of defiance, community, and the charity that binds together the living and the dead.

Contemplating the Lived Theology of the Devadāsīs as Decolonial Epistemology in World Christianity

This paper will contribute to decolonial efforts that seek to address the role of power and colonialism in knowledge production in Christian theology, with particular focus on the devadāsīs of South India. It will look to the context of the devadāsīs, otherwise referred to as sacred sex workers, in South India, and argue that the hybrid religiosity and silenced epistemology of the subaltern women has the potential to challenge dominant ways of contemplating Christ in World Christianity. It suggests that such religiosity interrupts normalised notions of Christianity that have further marginalised the oppressed women, as the lived religiosity of the devadāsīs acts as a challenge to Eurocentric theology and mission that has systematised ‘the poor’ into deserving and undeserving based upon dichotomous notions of decency. Inspired by the indecent theology of Marcella Althaus-Reid, the paper suggests that an indecent epistemology shaped by the sexual narratives of the oppressed brings to the forefront intersectional narratives of struggle in Christianity that offer prophetic ways of contemplating Christ.

A Queer Heavenly Family: Expanding Godhood Beyond a Heterosexual, Cisgender Couple

A Queer Heavenly Family: Expanding Godhood Beyond a Heterosexual, Cisgender Couple

Reengaging Theology in Educational Studies

This work seeks to do two things. First to make an argument for a robust engagement with theology as a theoretical framework for critical educational research. And second, the piece draws upon contemporary queer and progressive Christian theology, in particular, theological interventions from Marcela Althaus Reid’s Indecent Theology to think differently about how educational researchers might frame the way we say yes, as Jen Gilbert suggests, to the students who show up in the classroom. This intervention seeks to center theology as a way to think differently with LGBTQ issues in schooling by arguing with an epistemology that is often used to exclude rather than include marginalized populations.

Decolonial Erotics: Power Bottoms, Topping from Bottom Space, and the Emergence of a Queer Sexual Theology

Indecent Theology has provided both Feminist Theology and Liberation Theology with new contours for rethinking bodies, power, dominance, and submission. With regard to the logic of dominance that radically pushes the margins of the margins into a form of inexistent living, I suggest a material turn to rethink the contours that are evoked with Indecent Theology. Materialism has long stood as a philosophy opposing the overwhelming dominance of language and the poststructuralist emphasis that has emerged as the ‘linguistic turn’. Considering ‘new materialism’ as a theoretical platform to reread Indecent Theology provides theologies and ethics an opportunity to re-imagine indecent methodologies through indecency, a sort of ethical perversion. I suggest an indecent turn in mobilizing materialism and kink as theories to reread indecent theology for a productive queer materialist sexual theology. The feminist liberation theology of Marcella Althaus-Reid pushes both feminism and liberation into new contours of power and submission and initiates new contours of queer sexuality into the discourse. When analysing Althaus-Reid’s work, we are brought to attention to the margins of the margins, an awareness of the struggle for power and control by those deemed less than. There are contours of power at and in the margins of the margins, those who occupy ‘bottom space’. From a kink/BDSM orientation, I propose to reread Alrhaus-Read’s feminist liberation theology as decolonial erotics that helps to generate a productive materialist queer sexuality. The overarching methodology of this article is a quasi-auto ethnographic investigation into the ways in which the contours of race, class, gender, sex, sexuality, and ability affect power and submission and in turn reframes both queer theology and queer sexuality that is rooted in the living out of a very particular theology and ethics, which is rooted in queer relating. Theology can neither materialize in a vacuum nor in isolation. An indecent turn to(wards) a queer sexual theology that is rooted in a queer relationality demands attention to the interdependence of queer relating that is materialized through the interdependency of the growing queer desires of bodies, power, dominance, and submission.

Pussies Rioting and Indecent Praying: Transforming Orthodoxy in the Company of Marcella Althaus-Reid

This article proposes to engage Pussy Riot’s Punk Prayer in light of Marcella Althaus-Reid’s Indecent Theology and in dialogue with Orthodox theology and the prison letters exchanged by Nadhezhda Tolokonnikova, and Slavoj Zizek. First, there is a discussion of aspects of Althaus-Reid’s theology: caminata, libertinaje, and la vida loca. Second, the Punk Prayer – what I will call an Indecent Prayer – is presented in dialogue with Althaus-Reid’s theology and Orthodox theology. Third, the prison letters between Nadya and Slavoj are discussed in light of Althaus-Reid’s Indecent theology and Nadya Tolokonnikova’s Sly Christianity.

Dancing in the Dark: Marcella Althaus-Reid and Negative Queer Theory

In this article, I confront Marcella Althaus-Reid’s thinking with the recent ‘negative turn’ in queer theory, as observed by Judith Halberstam. What remains when the belief in our world as such, and in the future of it, has to be totally rejected, as some queer theorists like Leo Bersani and Lee Edelman, for example, claim? Or, in theological terms: what could the categories of redemption, salvation and liberation still mean if one wishes to think God within history, but at the same time rejects this history? I investigate these questions by focusing on two central concepts of Althaus-Reid’s indecent theology, incarnation and redemption. First, brought into dialogue with negative queer politics, I argue that Althaus-Reid helps us to develop an understanding of radical incarnation in the flesh on the ‘underside’ of society. Second, I look at Althaus-Reid’s critique of the traditional Christian understanding of redemption and her alternative of a notion of redemption that is connected to love, solidarity and reciprocity, instead of to a one-way act of grace by a transcendent God. I conclude that a ‘negative queer theology’, when developed in line with Althaus-Reid’s insights, necessarily maintains an affirmative undercurrent, a belief in an unknown life.

Indecent Calvinists and Vanilla Secularism: Redefining Decency in The Netherlands

Using Althaus-Reid’s Indecent Theology as a methodology, this article contributes to reflections on the contextuality and physical dimension of Dutch theology: its relation to the Protestant white (mostly male) bodies of its practitioners and its support of and contributions to colonial power and colonial racializing discourse. We do this in a context of a ‘return to decency’ in political discourse in which ‘our’ Calvinist roots are evoked to construct a ‘shared’ past. Using two case studies, we analyse how the in/decent is constructed in the Netherlands. As secularism is more ‘vanilla’ and Calvinism more indecent than is usually assumed, engagement with indecent texts and untidy roots of Calvinism is needed to re-member both the violent character of Calvinist hermeneutics, as well as its potential for indecent readings.

From Argentina to Scotland to Mexico: Indecent Theology and Erotic Phenomenology at the Mexico-US Border

During an immersion course at the Mexico-US border in January 2015, I encountered the stark juxtaposition between ‘liberation theologies’ and ‘library theologies.’ The gulf that separates these two is not just a class barrier, but is also racialized and linguistic. This article argues that in order to bring the indecent theology of Marcella Althaus-Reid to places like the borderlands, a theological bridge must be constructed that takes seriously both of the contexts being connected. Here I argue that the theological turn in phenomenological studies and Jean-Luc Marion’s concept of ‘erotic phenomenon’ are examples of possible bridges between these two worlds.

NO QUEER AGGIORNAMENTO THIS TIME: RESUBSCRIBING TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURAL LAW, POPE FRANCIS FORECLOSES REFORMS OF CATHOLIC TEACHING ON SEXUALITY

This article argues that a much anticipated liberalization of doctrine of matters of sexuality will not take place under Pope Francis. Though the pope has brought a more tolerant manner and tone in his discourse on homosexuality, the underlying foundation remains frozen, amid reiterated essentializations of gender that derive from archaic Catholic constructions of natural law. The article reviews Catholic doctrine on sexuality, particularly since the Church’s 1975 instruction on sexual ethics. Thinking with the “indecent theology” proposals of Argentine-Scottish theologian Marcella Althaus-Reid, the author compares prior expressions of doctrine with those found in key magisterial writings of Pope Francis. He concludes that the more open spirit and tone in the Pope’s public pronouncements are not matched by any significant shift in his teaching on sexuality, compared to his predecessors.

Do Not Despise the Discipline of the Almighty: God as Leather Daddy and Reading Job through Althaus-Reid

The feminist queer theologian Marcella Althaus-Reid (1952–2009) wrote about what it meant to be an “indecent theologian” and claimed that sexual stories from the margins of society can help transform theological issues. What can “indecent theology” mean for the problem of evil specifically as it is addressed in the book of Job? This article will use Althaus-Reid’s creative methodology, which engages in a dialogue between theology, sexual theory, politics, and personal narrative. This methodology will be applied to the hermeneutic of suffering in the book of Job. I propose that this engagement of theodicy through a queer lens and more specifically within the category of gay sadomasochism in particular, while not definitively addressing the broader problem of evil, can be a creative lens to reinterpret the book of Job. By queering Job, I offer an alternative understanding of the problem of suffering and evil that can find a space within contextual theology. The article concludes with a remark on how such a reading can be used as a liberating text for the queer community.

Transgressing the father figure: performing queer theology as an act of liberation

ABSTRACTThis chapter examines the intersection of power, ritual, and the sacred through the lens of performing drag as a tool to subvert dominant notions of theological discourse. Grounded in Cheng’s assertion that queer theology is transgressive (Radical Love) and Althaus-Reid’s Indecent Theology, the foundational text which introduces the concept of theology as destabilizing and grounded in subversion, particularly in the realm of sexuality, we critique the forces of power operating within Catholicism. We ask: Whose bodies are allowed to play a powerful role in Catholicism? How has ritual performance perpetuated the colonization of the mind/spirit and how can it be used to undo that same colonization? In discussing a public drag performance using George Michael’s “Father Figure,” we suggest the possibility of liberation that exists in bringing theology into queer spaces, extending theology beyond the realm of religious institutions or the academy.

Embodying human rights in #FeesMustFall? Contributions from an indecent theology

This article focuses on the #FeesMustFall (FMF) movement and the question of a human rights culture. It provides evidence from the specific context of FMF at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, which exposes human rights abuses and violence to the dignity of protesting students. To advance a human rights culture within the higher education sector in the context of FMF, the article highlights the role of theology – ‘indecent theology’ (as espoused by Marcella Althaus-Reid) – in revealing the problem and promise of higher education institutions in the quest for a more liberating and responsible society. It is only through interrogating the narratives that sustain the current university structures – and continue to oppress the poor and the marginalised – that South Africa will be able to begin to construct a society that is respective of the rights of all.

Indecent Theology, Trans-theology, and the Transgendered Madonna in Chris Abani's <em>The Virgin of Flames</em>

Throughout The Virgin of Flames, Nigerian-born Chris Abani uses many techniques, including the pervasive image of fluidity, to unsettle binaries and render brushstrokes between differing cultures, identities, and embodiments: between Africa and the United States of America, between genders, between religion and sexuality, and between art and life. Abani, who attended a Roman Catholic seminary, employs religious imagery to radical effect in The Virgin of Flames. The central protagonist, the artist Black, paints a disturbing mural of Fatima, is troubled by issues of masculinity and sexuality, is obsessed by a transsexual stripper, and is haunted by the Archangel Gabriel. Dressed in a white gown and make-up, Black appears above a simulacrum of a spaceship and is taken by faithful observers to be an apparition of the Virgin Mary. Finally, Black undergoes a ritual transgender act and appears before the faithful, attaining an Assumption by accidental immolation. In this essay, I first employ the apposite theoretical lens of Indecent Theology, a term coined by Marcella Althaus-Reid, to examine the text. I further analyze the novel through the lens of Trans-theology as discussed in Trans/formations, edited by Althaus-Reid and Lisa Isherwood. I comment on the representations of cross-dressing, angels, erotic desire and the sacred, violence, and female sexuality. Of particular significance are the three uses of the Virgin Mary in the text: Guadalupe, Fatima, and Black’s masquerade as the Virgin Mary. Abani satirizes stereotyped associations with the Madonna and offers new elements for veneration. The end of the text raises questions of compassion, redemption, satire, and critique. The reader is denied simple responses such as the solace of traditional religion or easy satire, but must grapple with the dialectic between differences in cultures, beliefs, and shifting sexualities.

From Feminist Theology to Indecent Theology – By Marcella Althaus‐Reid

From Feminist Theology to Indecent Theology – By Marcella Althaus‐Reid

Indecent Theology – Theological Perversions in Sex, Gender and Politics

Indecent Theology – Theological Perversions in Sex, Gender and Politics

On Non-Docility and Indecent Theologians: A Response to the Panel for Indecent Theology

Althaus-Reid describes her work, Indecent Theology, as a reflection on sexuality from the perspective of an Argentinian liberation theology, critical queer theory and a theology of camp self-disclosure. As such, it is a diasporic, postcolonial theology concerned to critique accepted ideas of essentialism and to question theology's status as a universal discourse. Althaus-Reid responds to the suggestions and criticisms of the panel members and views her ongoing project as one of doing queer theology from a 'non-vanilla' Argentinian perspective and with a vision for queer holiness in theology.

Indecent Theology: What F-ing Difference Does It Make?

This article is a response by a body theologian to Indecent Theology written by Marcella Althaus-Reid. The author takes Eve Ensler as a companion in a journey which attempts to spit out phallocentric meaning and engage with wicked and wordy cunning linguists as they move towards more honest telling-theology from the body. The author examines the divine masquerade, which is encouraged by some Christian theology and calls for a stripping away of such pretence and an acknowledgement of what play we are actually engaged in so that we may come closer to what it is we are attempting to express about the divine.

Indecent, Important and in Focus

Marcella Althaus-Reid's Indecent Theology: Theological Perversions in Sex, Gender and Politics brings a liberationist view to postmodern analysis, a queer eye to Christianity, and a theologian's critique to culture. It marks the beginning of what Hunt hopes will be sustained reflection by Latin American women on the relationship between sexuality and theo-politics.