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.
Radical love is at the heart of Christian theology because we Christians believe in a God who, through the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, has dissolved the boundaries between death and life, time and eternity, and the human and the divine. Similarly, radical love is also at the heart of queer theory because it challenges our existing boundaries with respect to sexuality and gender identity as social constructions and not essentialist, or fixed, concepts…
Thus, queer theology – that is, the place where Christian theology and queer theory meet – is all about radical love. Some skeptics may paraphrase the second-century theologian Tertullian by asking: What does queerness have to do with theology? … The answer: Everything! I believe that, at its heart, Christian theology is a fundamentally queer enterprise, and this book is an attempt to demonstrate this truth.
From the introduction, by author Patrick S. Cheng.
Great for:
An introduction to queer theology, but with a particular focus on how it connects to historical theologians and their perspectives.