I read a lot of theology books for fun. It's actually a spiritual practice of mine, because it helps me feel less limited in my seminary that offers only the required courses.
But not all books are right at all times. I have found that there are in fact some books that I should read before others. Sometimes I have to stay away from entire topics until I find myself better prepared. For instance, my last attempt to read Christian existentialism failed pretty fast. It wasn't that the authors were bad or the topics were boring, but more that I wasn't prepared. I hadn't warmed up for it, and I wasn't processing things the way I needed to.
But I also believe this is somehow connected to God the Holy Spirit. I believe she tries to make sure I am best able to read the books I need to read at a certain time in my life.
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Saturday, October 7, 2017
Starting Theology with Communion
One starting point for me is that of the communion. Every MCC church is required to have communion available at least once a week. In this way, communion is central to the liturgy of every MCC. Also, communion is open to all, and can be served by anyone. Thus, access to the divine is central to MCC theology. Every human being has access to God, to experiencing God, and to experiencing God's love. Every human being has access to God's love without restrictions.
Thus, my theology, as a member of MCC, is grounded in an understanding of God as always accessible in some form experientially.
At this point I should add that God is also understood as personal in my theology. Just as queer people are able to experience real and meaningful romantic relationships even when explicitly not recognized by any formal institutions, so too does MCC's eucharistic theology affirm that people are able to experience real and meaningful relationships with God, even when explicitly not recognized by any formal institutions. Thus, God is personal. And God is also relational. The Lord's Supper is proof that God is capable and desirous of relation with humans.
Thus, my theology, as a member of MCC, is grounded in an understanding of God as always accessible in some form experientially.
At this point I should add that God is also understood as personal in my theology. Just as queer people are able to experience real and meaningful romantic relationships even when explicitly not recognized by any formal institutions, so too does MCC's eucharistic theology affirm that people are able to experience real and meaningful relationships with God, even when explicitly not recognized by any formal institutions. Thus, God is personal. And God is also relational. The Lord's Supper is proof that God is capable and desirous of relation with humans.
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Self-Critique and Defense
My theological prioritizes a view that is accountable to the realities of the present. I've heard and read lots of theologies that are either focus on the future of heaven, or on restoring the world to a lost Edemic perfection of the past.
My refusal to focus primarily on either Eden or heaven can easily get some surface level critiques. Such a focus on present reality can seem secular and suspicious of religious imagination. Lack of imagination & creativity is another critique. And with that, a refusal to imagine a perfect past or future could be perceived as me not really being radical. (How do you critique the status quo if you aren't focusing on utopian possibilities?)
How am I going to respond to these critiques? Before or after they are actually made?
I have some ideas, but nothing of depth.
My refusal to focus primarily on either Eden or heaven can easily get some surface level critiques. Such a focus on present reality can seem secular and suspicious of religious imagination. Lack of imagination & creativity is another critique. And with that, a refusal to imagine a perfect past or future could be perceived as me not really being radical. (How do you critique the status quo if you aren't focusing on utopian possibilities?)
How am I going to respond to these critiques? Before or after they are actually made?
I have some ideas, but nothing of depth.
Monday, July 31, 2017
Who Can Live "the Good Life"?
If we're talking about ethics in terms of "living a good life", then the question is who even has the options to do so? I get the sense that "good life" ethics tends to ignore how poverty and other oppressive systems limit choices.
Thus questions like "Is nonviolence part of living a good life?" cannot be honestly answered until we answer other questions like: "Who is pressured to act violently?", "Can everyone be nonviolent?", and "What is the cost/consequences of nonviolent living on the poor and other oppressed communities, particularly if not everyone is acting nonviolently?"
However, there is hope. I think that the native studies term "survivance" points to the fact that there are certain ethics that can always be lived out in ways that support both physical and spiritual life.
Thus questions like "Is nonviolence part of living a good life?" cannot be honestly answered until we answer other questions like: "Who is pressured to act violently?", "Can everyone be nonviolent?", and "What is the cost/consequences of nonviolent living on the poor and other oppressed communities, particularly if not everyone is acting nonviolently?"
However, there is hope. I think that the native studies term "survivance" points to the fact that there are certain ethics that can always be lived out in ways that support both physical and spiritual life.
Sunday, July 30, 2017
Current/Forthcoming Projects
After perusing a lot of theology professor pages, I noticed many include their "forthcoming" works & their "current projects". So I wanted to do the same.
Short-Term:
A Trans(gender) Christology for "Unhappy Queers"
(an article)
"Apophaticism as a Theological Model of Everyday Trans(gender) Allyship"
(an article)
Long-Term:
"A Queer Christian Ethics of Sex: Beyond Non-Maleficence"
(a chapter or book)
Queer/Trans/??? Systematic/Constructive Theology
(a book)
Short-Term:
A Trans(gender) Christology for "Unhappy Queers"
(an article)
"Apophaticism as a Theological Model of Everyday Trans(gender) Allyship"
(an article)
Long-Term:
"A Queer Christian Ethics of Sex: Beyond Non-Maleficence"
(a chapter or book)
Queer/Trans/??? Systematic/Constructive Theology
(a book)
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Ethics & Norms?
An idea for ethics
Thelathia Nikki Young discusses black queer ethics as dirsuptive and irruptive of familial norms...meaning black queer experience tends to critique notions of family through deconstruction, and then provides more just notions of family. They disrupt old norms, and irrupt with new norms.
At first I was resistant to this idea of making new norms. But I think I might have an interesting ethical model that works well with this.
Norms are expressions of the virtues of a community.
Virtues are both the rewards received from being in a specific community & the glue that keeps together the community, that drives it to keep being community. Thus virtue is based on experience/reality and not on abstractions.
However, this also means that virtue is beyond the individual. Virtue is about the "being-together"-ness of a specific community.
This presents the possibility that if one person does not sufficiently present virtues, then it can be ethical for a community connection to be dissolved. (I am thinking of situations of abuse)
This definition of norms also then is not an exclusive definition. Take family for instance. There are multiple models of family that can express/represent/make-visible the virtues of family.
Norms are understood not on the level of statistical commonality, such that the non-normative is the different. Rather,...
One example could be weddings. They express the reward of joy that comes from a marriage, and the fellowship that is both the glue & reward of a marriage relationship.
-------
I think about this in the context of oppression, liberation, inclusion, and sovereignty.
On the one level, there can be oppression because one is not included in the "norms".
Then one can respond by demanding to be included in "norms".
But this would mean parroting the given "virtues" of the community.
The problem is that then those who are also oppressed, but do not affirm said "virtues" are still left outside of the norms.
This is just a rewording of the basic queer theory critique of "inclusion". (think Jasbir Puar)
It is a way of saying "We are virtuously like you!" (think homonationalism)
Queer theory usually then goes on to maintain the necessity of being antinormative.
That is where I am presenting native studies.
THE alternative to "Native American inclusion", which is not really desired, is "Indigenous Sovereignty".
What is desired is not for Native peoples to become a part of American norms.
Rather what is desired is that indigenous communities are not prevented from living out the norms of those specific communities.
Of course norms can express multiple virtues, and virtues can be shared by communities.
I also think this framework provides a different way to think about identity more provisionally. If a community/identity is defined by virtues as rewards/glue, then a community/identity can be strategic or even temporary and flexible.
For instance, the identity of "Native American" as a racial community comes specifically from the context of oppression. What if such specific oppression eventually ceases? Then such an identity/community might be allowed to fade. Or the community might find different rewards and drives keeping us together. The identity is not some eternal essential part of the self.
Thelathia Nikki Young discusses black queer ethics as dirsuptive and irruptive of familial norms...meaning black queer experience tends to critique notions of family through deconstruction, and then provides more just notions of family. They disrupt old norms, and irrupt with new norms.
At first I was resistant to this idea of making new norms. But I think I might have an interesting ethical model that works well with this.
Norms are expressions of the virtues of a community.
Virtues are both the rewards received from being in a specific community & the glue that keeps together the community, that drives it to keep being community. Thus virtue is based on experience/reality and not on abstractions.
However, this also means that virtue is beyond the individual. Virtue is about the "being-together"-ness of a specific community.
This presents the possibility that if one person does not sufficiently present virtues, then it can be ethical for a community connection to be dissolved. (I am thinking of situations of abuse)
This definition of norms also then is not an exclusive definition. Take family for instance. There are multiple models of family that can express/represent/make-visible the virtues of family.
Norms are understood not on the level of statistical commonality, such that the non-normative is the different. Rather,...
One example could be weddings. They express the reward of joy that comes from a marriage, and the fellowship that is both the glue & reward of a marriage relationship.
-------
I think about this in the context of oppression, liberation, inclusion, and sovereignty.
On the one level, there can be oppression because one is not included in the "norms".
Then one can respond by demanding to be included in "norms".
But this would mean parroting the given "virtues" of the community.
The problem is that then those who are also oppressed, but do not affirm said "virtues" are still left outside of the norms.
This is just a rewording of the basic queer theory critique of "inclusion". (think Jasbir Puar)
It is a way of saying "We are virtuously like you!" (think homonationalism)
Queer theory usually then goes on to maintain the necessity of being antinormative.
That is where I am presenting native studies.
THE alternative to "Native American inclusion", which is not really desired, is "Indigenous Sovereignty".
What is desired is not for Native peoples to become a part of American norms.
Rather what is desired is that indigenous communities are not prevented from living out the norms of those specific communities.
Of course norms can express multiple virtues, and virtues can be shared by communities.
I also think this framework provides a different way to think about identity more provisionally. If a community/identity is defined by virtues as rewards/glue, then a community/identity can be strategic or even temporary and flexible.
For instance, the identity of "Native American" as a racial community comes specifically from the context of oppression. What if such specific oppression eventually ceases? Then such an identity/community might be allowed to fade. Or the community might find different rewards and drives keeping us together. The identity is not some eternal essential part of the self.
Friday, July 28, 2017
Appropriating Theologians
Over the past semester or before, I have wondered and deeply struggled with knowing what it would mean to appropriate theology. As I repeatedly came into contact with black theology in the classroom, I worried about how to show respect and acknowledge that I do not own this theology nor the experience in which it is etymologically grounded. While I am still wrestling with much of this, I have found a starting place:
"The responsibility of listening and telling is a direct ethical consequence of our acts of silencing, ignoring, and violently opposing realities and experiences. As a moral response, listening acts as a tool of resistance and moral redirection by building on three important ethical tasks: paying attention, sharing sacred space, and affirming other histories." (p38)
from Black Queer Ethics, Family, and Philosophical Imagination, by Thelathia Nikki Young.
"The responsibility of listening and telling is a direct ethical consequence of our acts of silencing, ignoring, and violently opposing realities and experiences. As a moral response, listening acts as a tool of resistance and moral redirection by building on three important ethical tasks: paying attention, sharing sacred space, and affirming other histories." (p38)
from Black Queer Ethics, Family, and Philosophical Imagination, by Thelathia Nikki Young.
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