This article examines the connections between a theory of redemption as indebtedness and the wider political/economic realities of indebtedness. In order to illustrate the argument the author demonstrates why it is necessary to even question the roots of theories since they too carry a wider agenda. The author contrasts a debt economy with an economy of love.

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. (shrink)

This article examines what it is to think through queer eyes, that is what may queer theory offer to the study of theology. It shows what queer is in this context and challenges the reader to think in other ways. The article examines how queer theory helps to illuminate the radical nature of incarnation at the same time as examining some of the concerns expressed by theorists about the nature of the queer theological project.

Marcella Althaus-Reid proposes the Bi/christ in her sexual reconstruction of theology. Goss examines three representational strategies of the obscene Christ to test the inclusiveness of her model. He applies Judith Butler's notion of gender performativity to the pop star Madonna to suggest an accessorizing of Althaus-Reid's model of the Bi/christ to the Bi/transvestite Christ.

Marcella Althaus-Reid puts in print a discussion of sex, gender, and politics. For womanist theologian and ethicist, Townes, black women's experiences have been left out of the theoretical and material constructs of both black and feminist theologies in the United States. Townes argues that Althaus-Reid casts the reader in the role of voyeur as she describes the women lemon vendors in Indecent Theology. The reader observes them from the safety of their own cultural, economic, theo-ethical (...) and sociopolitical mud huts in the same way as the Europeans who queued to view the so-called'Hottentot Venus' in the early 1800s. Nevertheless, Althaus-Reid offers an integrated, interstructured analysis that helps pry open the dynamics of oppressions. (shrink)

This essay applies the issues raised by Althaus-Reid to feminist theology, the Religious Left, and public policy in the US. Against many feminist theologies, it argues that an idealistic theology of eros has led feminist theologians to ask too much of sex. Particularly in the public arena, sexual ethics should be minimalist, focussing on the prevention of serious public harm and the promotion of sexual and reproductive freedom. The Religious Left, whether under the influence of old Christian anti-sexualism (...) or the newer theologies of eros, has failed to stand for sexual freedom as such and has instead sought to bring abortion rights and gay rights into the realm of sexual decency. The most pernicious example is the Religious Left's tacit acceptance of new public policies that deny women, in particular poor black women, sexual and reproductive freedom outside patriarchal marriage. (shrink)

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. (shrink)

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. (shrink)

This article argues for the use of the queer kenotic theology of Marcella Althaus-Reid as a theological framework for analysing two stories of ambivalence and risk emerging from an ecclesial practice committed to hospitality. Following Natalie Wigg-Stevenson in envisioning theology not as proclamation but as conversation, the article is an example of what theology can look like when ethnographic material is juxtaposed with systematic theology. The empirical material is created using ethnography as a research strategy in the (...) ecclesial practice of the Lutheran church of Our Lady, Trondheim, Norway. In 2007, this church reopened as an ‘open church’ for people who live with different kinds of marginalization. As the sacred medieval space encounters the messy and chaotic lives of people, a powerful displacement of space, practices and bodies occur. The article concludes by discussing how the empirical material feeds back to kenotic theology and queer theology. (shrink)

Aim of this study was to investigate whether parental mental representations during pregnancy and after delivery differed between parents who conceived after Assisted Reproductive Treatments and spontaneous conceiving parents. Effects of specific ART variables were also taken into account. Seventeen ART couples and 25 SC couples were recruited at Santa Maria Nuova Hospital. At both 32 weeks of gestation and 3 months postpartum participants completed the Semantic Differential of the IRMAG, a self-report tool which measures specific domains of mental (...) representations pertaining either individual or parental characteristics. Results showed that ART parents had significantly more positive representations of the child compared to SC parents, while the scores at Partner dimension improved from T1 to T2 for SC parents only. With regards to ART history, scores at the Self-as-woman/man dimension were significantly less positive for ICSI than IVF parents and improved substantially from T1 to T2 only in case of mothers with previous ART attempts and of fathers at the first ART cycle. The representation of own parents increased from T1 to T2 in case of infertility diagnosis due to male factors, while a decrease emerged when infertility was due to female factors. Findings suggest the need to investigate parental mental representations after ART, in order to improve the understanding on the transition to parenthood of infertile couples and to target more specific intervention for parenting support. (shrink)

Several scholars have highlighted the importance of examining moral disengagement in understanding aggression and deviant conduct across different contexts. The present study investigates the role of MD as a specific social-cognitive construct that, in the organizational context, may intervene in the process leading from stressors to counterproductive work behavior. Assuming the theoretical framework of the stressor-emotion model of CWB, we hypothesized that MD mediates, at least partially, the relation between negative emotions in reaction to perceived stressors and CWB by promoting (...) or justifying aggressive responses to frustrating situations or events. In a sample of 1,147 Italian workers, we tested a structural equations model. The results support our hypothesis: the more workers experienced negative emotions in response to stressors, the more they morally disengaged and, in turn, enacted CWB. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Active Powers Active Powers, Human Agency, and Liberty Agent Causation and Volitionism Conclusion: Agent Causation References Further reading.

ResumenLa teoría según la cual las acciones humanas son eventos causados por otros eventos según leyes de la naturaleza, inspirada en el pensamiento de David Hume, ha predominado en la filosofía de la acción contemporánea. Algunos se han opuesto a dicho planteamiento, proponiendo que la causa última de las acciones humanas es el agente. Entre ellos ha destacado Richard Taylor, quien se inspiró en Thomas Reid, filósofo ilustrado escocés contemporáneo de Hume, cuya noción de la agencia moral tiene una (...) importancia histórica especial, a pesar de encontrarse implícita en la filosofía antigua y medieval, porque distingue con agudeza la noción de agencia de la noción de evento como causa de las acciones morales. Dicha contraposición abre otra discusión: ¿en qué consiste pues la actividad del agente? Tanto Reid en la Ilustración, como Taylor, en la filosofía contemporánea, responden a esta pregunta desde la experiencia, sin fundamentarse en antiguos esquemas metafísicos. Sin embargo, Reid descubre, por inducción experiencial, que la voluntad es una causa metafísica eficiente, por lo cual puede completar el planteamiento de Taylor, quien evita hablar de causas de las acciones por su connotación contemporánea, diciendo que el inicio de las acciones estaría solo en razones y propósitos.Palabras claves: agente; evento; razón; volición; eficiencia. (shrink)

RESUMEN Precisamente en momentos en que el determinismo humeano de la voluntad estaba comenzando a tener fuerza de tradición, surge Thomas Reid con una filosofía de la voluntad libre que tiene los rasgos principales de la tradición clásica anterior a Hume, medieval y tempranamente moderna. Su método inductivo, sin embargo, está tomado de Newton y del sentido común. Desde esta metodología ilustrada, Reid afirma que la voluntad es una facultad metafísica. Ha tenido influencia en la agent-cause theory, que (...) se ha opuesto a la event-cause theory en la teoría de la acción contemporánea, de allí su alto interés histórico. ABSTRACT Precisely, by the time in which humean's will determinism was beginning to have strength of tradition, Thomas Reid arises with a philosophy of free will that had the main features of the pre-Hume classic tradition, medieval and early modern. His inductive method, however, is taken from Newton and from common sense. Since this illustrated methodology, Reid states that will is a metaphysical faculty. It has had influence in agent-cause theory, which has opposed to event-cause theory in contemporary action theory, thence its high historical interest. (shrink)

According to Socrates, as he is described in Plato?s Phaedo, the definition of a true philosopher is a wise man who is continuously practicing dying and being dead. Already in this life, the philosopher tries to free his soul from the body in order to acquire true knowledge as the soul is progressively becoming detached from the body. Centuries after it was written, Plato?s Phaedo continued to play a role for some early Christian authors, and this article focuses on three (...) instances where Christian women mirror Socrates and/or his definition of philosophy. We find these instances in hagiographical literature from the fourth and fifth centuries at different locations in the Roman Empire - in the Lives of Macrina, Marcella and Syncletica. These texts are all to varying degrees impacted by Platonic philosophy and by the ideal of the male philosopher Socrates. As women mastering philosophy, they widened common cultural expectations for women, revealing how Christian authors in certain contexts ascribed authority to female figures. (shrink)

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.

The conclusion of Marcella Althaus-Reid and Lisa Isherwood’s 2007 book, Controversies in Feminist Theology, noted that ‘The future of feminist theologies are assured while gender and sexual oppression exist’.1 Yet, they also spoke of a number of challenges to the field, specifically difference in methodologies, varied nomenclature and terminologies, and stereotyping among its practitioners. I would add another: that the nature of bias itself is not uniform nor homogeneous but is largely treated as such by contextual theologians. (...) In this article the challenge presented by the presupposition that ‘a bias-is-a-bias’ is addressed from an epistemological one that attempts to delve into the nature of bias, beginning with the question: if the root nature of the problem, that is bias, is not homogeneous but rather reflects the interplay of different types of biases, does not gender oppression call for more comprehensive solutions beyond solidarity or justice? While justice-based solutions called for by feminist theologies are certainly valid and necessary, perhaps they function more as short-term solutions to a much larger dialectic, one that requires a more comprehensive grace-based approach. This article explores this idea and humbly offers a few methodological reflections. (shrink)

This article engages Queer Theology in conversation with Naga Indigenous Theology. A Naga folk poem is employed to help navigate the intricacies of indigenous experiences and the questions of sexuality in Naga Indigenous Theology. I do this by engaging both Marcella Althaus-Reid and Wati Longchar in their Liberation Theology and move towards queering Longchar’s theology. Using the hermeneutical lens of Althaus-Reid, I demonstrate that there are possible avenues of queering Longchar’s theology. There is also the (...) prerequisite of a justice lens that demands a deconstruction of the colonial legacy in Indigenous Theology. This article shows that Naga Indigenous Theology rooted in Liberation Theology has a potential to propose a Queer Naga Indigenous Theology. (shrink)

In this article, I take up Marcella Althaus-Reid’s queer strategy that pairs disaffiliation with intimate identification in order to draw out the possibilities and limits of queer strategies of resignification and denaturalization. I will use David M. Halperin’s work on gay femininity, abjection, and camp as the primary site to investigate these queer strategies. This article’s considerations have implications for recent directions taken in contemporary queer theology by challenging projects that presume a certain limitless capacity for queering (...) or that seek to appropriate almost anything – marriage, celibacy, or orthodoxy – as queer. Rather than seeking to mitigate complicity in misogyny or trying to recuperate misogynist theological positions by highlighting their subversive queerness, Althaus-Reid’s demands from queer theologians a prophetic, denunciatory posture that turns away from the imperial theological highways towards the queer ways of knowing and relating to the God at the margins of T-theology. (shrink)

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 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. (shrink)

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. (shrink)

This article questions whether the ‘problem’ of trans issues lies more in the binary, patriarchal structures of our society than it does in our bodies. I utilize Marcella Althaus-Reid’s ‘Hermeneutic of Mutilation’, arguing that, much as ‘to give hospitality to our own fragmentations may require sometimes acts of transformations’, we must not support the heteropatriarchal pattern and system as it attempts to normalize, police, control or punish the ‘deviant’ bodies of transgender individuals, from ‘wrong’ and ‘less than’ (...) into ‘right’ and ‘cured’. As postmodern deconstruction has informed and influenced our thinking around identity, the modern, biological approach to sex/gender has been profoundly challenged. I will make a parallel between current debates around trans issues and disability, body and liberation theology; if disability only ‘becomes’ a disability when the able-bodied majority designates it as ‘other’, are trans folk being similarly ‘othered’, as their different bodies, perspectives or identities challenge the fearful, defended mind-sets of society? Should we continue to prioritize ‘fixing’ trans bodies, in order to have them fit more neatly within that society? Or, should we challenge the patriarchal, heteronormative moulds of a culture that would rather trans individuals ‘accept’ their ‘wrongness’ and take steps to ‘correct’ that wrongness? This is not to say that trans+ individuals should not continue to make exactly the same medical/surgical choices as are currently the norm and even to choose modes of gender expression that are binary or ‘traditional’, should that be their desire and choice. Rather, this is an appeal for all of us to challenge a society that deems some bodies ‘right’ and others as ‘wrong’, and expects such painful conformity. (shrink)

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. (shrink)

Many non-heteronormative Malaysian men find themselves on the receiving end of political, socio-cultural, and religious condemnations of their sexual identifyings and expressions. Their lived realities are often considered invalid, including from religious and theological perspectives. This article is a queer socio-theological project that examines the lived realities of six non-heteronormative Malaysian men who speak up and talk back on their sexualities and spiritual sensibilities. Using a Constructivist Grounded Theory Methodology, and aided by the theological musings of Marcella Althaus- (...) class='Hi'>Reid and a document of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences as analytical frameworks, this article analyzes and theologizes the complex processes of transcendent/desire, or negotiations of the “Profoundly More” and sexuality in the narratives of these men. This article suggests that transcendent/desire can be imaginatively assembled in three interrelated forms: as embodied connections with the transcendent; as a vocation; and as an imperative to flourish. (shrink)

Is bringing together Sarah Coakley and Marcella Althaus-Reid like mixing oil and water? An encounter between a systematic theologian and a contextual, queer theologian might seem artificial, but this article offers critical insights into the work of both scholars, revealing similarities within the tropes of their theological thinking. Aside from navigating sites of possible parallels and conflict between their work, this article springboards their settings by offering a new location – a salsa bar on Wigan Pier – (...) to be able to do theology. Academic writing is largely characterized by adherence to rigour, order and structure but the whole point of queer is to disturb and disrupt established norms. Therefore, by mobilizing the work of Judith Halberstam, this article offers a rich dialogue combining scholars working in gender and sexualities in the form of a play script. Critical commentary on the play text demonstrates the necessity to continue to subvert dominant repetitions in theology. (shrink)