Queering “Straight” Preaching: Between a Why and a How through the Hermeneutics of (Mis)Recognition

Well-meaning straight preachers may approach the issue of LGBTQ equality in the church from a standpoint of compassion, but queer theorists such as Lee Edelman have critiqued “compassion-compulsion” as a subconscious selfprojection, requiring that others become just like us. This article presses str...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Helsel, Carolyn Browning (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group 2013
In: Theology & sexuality
Year: 2013, Volume: 19, Issue: 1, Pages: 11-20
Further subjects:B preaching on social issues
B Tim Dean
B Homiletics
B Paul Ricoeur
B Queer Theory
B Hermeneutics
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:Well-meaning straight preachers may approach the issue of LGBTQ equality in the church from a standpoint of compassion, but queer theorists such as Lee Edelman have critiqued “compassion-compulsion” as a subconscious selfprojection, requiring that others become just like us. This article presses straight preachers to go further than simply preaching to include “others,” instead challenging such preachers to open themselves and their congregations to the risk of transformation. Drawing from the philosophical hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur, this article suggests that preachers move towards others in a gesture of “recognition” that resembles gratitude, and by such a gesture to receive the risky gifts others have to offer. This gratitude for the gifts of others becomes a motive for engaging in queer theory and queer theology, but this motive also puts us at risk. The risk of preaching that seriously engages the gifts of others includes queering ourselves, allowing ourselves to be scandalized by the risk of transformation asked of us by the gospel we preach.
ISSN:1745-5170
Contains:Enthalten in: Theology & sexuality
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1179/1355835814Z.00000000022