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Summary
Summary
LGBTQ people are a gift to the Church and have the potential to revitalize Christianity.
As an openly lesbian Episcopal priest and professional advocate for LGBTQ justice, the Reverend Elizabeth Edman has spent her career grappling with the core tenets of her faith. After deep reflection on her tradition, Edman is struck by the realization that her queer identity has taught her more about how to be a good Christian than the church.
In Queer Virtue , Edman posits that Christianity, at its scriptural core, incessantly challenges its adherents to rupture false binaries, to "queer" lines that pit people against one another. Thus, Edman asserts that Christianity, far from being hostile to queer people, is itself inherently queer. Arguing from the heart of scripture, she reveals how queering Christianity--that is, disrupting simplistic ways of thinking about self and other--can illuminate contemporary Christian faith. Pushing well past the notion that "Christian love = tolerance," Edman offers a bold alternative: the recognition that queer people can help Christians better understand their fundamental calling and the creation of sacred space where LGBTQ Christians are seen as gifts to the church.
By bringing queer ethics and Christian theology into conversation, Edman also shows how the realities of queer life demand a lived response of high moral caliber--one that resonates with the ethical path laid down by Christianity. Lively and impassioned, Edman proposes that queer experience be celebrated as inherently valuable, ethically virtuous, and illuminating the sacred.
A rich and nuanced exploration, Queer Virtue mines the depths of Christianity's history, mission, and core theological premises to call all Christians to a more authentic and robust understanding of their faith.
Author Notes
The Reverend Elizabeth M. Edman is an Episcopal priest and a political strategist who has been expanding people's understanding of faith and sexuality for over twenty-five years. She has worked on the most pressing contemporary issues at the intersection of religion and sexuality, serving as an inner-city hospital chaplain to people with HIV/AIDS from 1989 to 1995 and helping to craft political and communications strategies for marriage-equality efforts. She lives in New York City.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Edman, an Episcopal priest, draws on her personal and spiritual experiences as a lesbian to reshape debates around Christianity and sexuality. By drawing on the queer tactic of rejecting binaries, Edman argues that Christianity is inherently queer and radical. Focusing on significant motifs that Christianity and queerness share (such as identity, touch, scandal, and adoption), she skillfully shows how queer lives reflect back onto religion to recover the surprise of the Christian message. Particularly persuasive are her chapters on reclaiming pride as a communal virtue rather than a private sin and her use of coming-out structures to urge progressive Christians to boldly and verbally reclaim the Christian tradition. At points, it is unclear whether the book is primarily aimed at queer believers, straight progressive Christians, or nonbelievers. This lack of clarity only slightly detracts from the impact of Edman's insights, however, and her tone and personal examples are compelling. By turning the conversation around to show what queerness can tell readers about Christianity, this work provides a striking road map for larger, more productive conversations and community building. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
In the latest installment of the publisher's enterprising Queer Action/Queer Ideas series, queer Episcopal priest and political strategist Edman brings a fresh approach to the ongoing conundrum between the LGBTQ community and Christianity. With clarity and a confident narrative tone, the author argues that the Christian religion is inherently queer in and of itself, just as "priestliness" is an integral part of who she is. In her thought-provoking book, she first explores the ideology behind the queer population's rejection of morally complex binaries and how the spiritual path of Christianity is positively a queer one. With great reverence, Edman incorporates personal experiences and examples into her examination of the similarities that both Christianity and queer constructs share in terms of identity, sensorial touch, controversy, and more. The author then further recognizes the benefits of the queer experience both historically and contemporarily in terms of healthy pride and public awareness (coming out) and how it can fortify and reinvigorate the Christian faith. She urges Christians to "observe queer virtue and learn from it" and to utilize it as a powerful model of unity and equality rather than to engage in the religious deprecation of queer people. Sadly, for many, Christianity has become the "face of intolerance." In order to enact positive change regarding its perception, Edman believes a radical, queering perspective could stimulate and renew interest. In the author's estimation, to challenge religious tradition by expanding its boundaries can only broaden its reach, deepen its core message, and beautify its prism of devotion. Edman's sense of enthusiasm and clarity around her persuasive message of spiritual solidarity are consistently crisp and wondrous. Throughout her appeal for attitudinal evolution, she hopes her exchange of ideas "stirs up a little burst of excitement" and spurs some warm, rapturous conversation on the nature of queerness in Christianity. An intellectual and provocative perspective challenging Christians and others to reconsider the confines of spiritual interconnection, harmony, and progressive inclusion in modern religion. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Episcopal priest Edman, who is lesbian, asserts that, far from being evil, LGBTQ identity is intrinsically open to virtue. For the path of queerness is very like the path of being Christian. On both, Edman says, one discerns an identity, risks telling others about it, engages others to explore it, scandalizes others because of it, and joins a community in which to live it out that looks for further members among the marginalized. They are conducive to virtue because both require rupturing or queering rigid, bipolar conceptions of human difference, such as male and female, human and divine all facets of the fundamental bipolarity of self and other. The first part of Edman's exposition traces the parallel stages of the two paths (one for the queer Christian). The second discusses the rewards of the journey, including healthy pride that conjoins rather than discriminates, a healthy evangelism of compassionate connection, authenticity in community, and hospitality that cultivates justice and joy. Edman's fellow progressive Christians may pay closest attention to her absorbing argument. Perhaps all Christians ought to.--Olson, Ray Copyright 2016 Booklist
Library Journal Review
An Episcopal priest and LGBTQ advocate, Edman makes a passionate argument for the way queer wisdom could inform Christian practice in this debut that is a blend of personal, political, and theological reflection on the experience of LGBTQ people. The first part of the book describes a journey into authentic living that Edman believes both queer people and Christians share: an identification of self, the risk of articulating that identity, the centrality of desire and connection, the scandalous message of both Christian and queer practice, and the importance of chosen family. Part 2 outlines four aspects of LGBTQ experience that might set an example for Christian life: healthy pride (valuing the self and the other), coming out (speaking your truth), working toward authentic community, and extending and accepting hospitality. Throughout, Edman's autobiographical examples illustrate her argument and lend a homiletic tone to the work. Written primarily for nonqueer Christians, this book may also reach LGBTQ readers who find themselves moved by Edman's case for the spiritual resonance of queer identities and values. VERDICT This work will appeal to those with an interest in the relationship between queerness and faith, and the thematic chapters are easily adaptable for group study.-Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook, Massachusetts Historical Soc. Lib., Boston © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| A Note from the Series Editor | p. ix |
| Author's Note | p. xi |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Part I The Path of Queer Virtue | |
| 1 On the Inherent Queerness of Christianity | p. 17 |
| 2 Identity | p. 31 |
| 3 Risk | p. 43 |
| 4 Touch | p. 65 |
| 5 Scandal | p. 77 |
| 6 Adoption | p. 91 |
| Part II A Priestly People | |
| 7 Pride | p. 109 |
| 8 Coming Out | p. 123 |
| 9 Authenticity | p. 137 |
| 10 Hospitality | p. 153 |
| Conclusion: A Wild, Reckless Dream of Love | p. 163 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 169 |
| Notes | p. 173 |