Synthesizing Courses  (Level 3) - TH30608 - 1.5 Credits

Sexuality in Christianity has often been a source of shame, exclusion, violence, and oppression. Theologians and ethicists have also offered liberative, celebratory, and nourishing theologies of sexuality.

This course explores a wide range of theological dimensions of and approaches to human sexuality, including gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, sexual activity, sexual health and well-being, reproductive justice, family systems and arrangements, and systems, including ecclesial systems, that assign meaning, power, and hierarchies to different aspects of sexuality.

Students will engage multiple perspectives and stories and develop their own theology of sexuality.

Learning Objectives

 In addition to the objectives the learners identify for themselves, participants who successfully completes this course will be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of the historical, cultural, and psychological impacts of Christian understandings of gender and sexuality.
• Explain the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, and race.
• Formulate one’s own theological and ethical values as they relate to gender and sexuality and explain how these values will shape one’s own ministry.
• Assess and develop strategies for education and inclusion as they relate to gender and sexuality in the church or one’s own context. 

Required Texts (Each text opens to the book store page to purchase)

• Tonstad, Lin Marie, Queer Theology, Cascade Books, 2018.

Resources (texts, online – written, audio, visual, other)

• Brown Douglas, Kelly, Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective, Orbis Books, 1999.
• Brown Douglas, Kelly & Ellison, Marvin M. (ed), Sexuality and the Sacred: Sources for Theological Reflection, 2nd edition, Louisville, Westminster/John Knox Press, 2010.
• Cannon, Katie Geneva, Katie’s Canon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community, Continuum International Publishing Groups, 1996.
• Cheng, Patrick S., Radical Love, An Introduction to Queer Theology, New York, Seabury Press, 2011.
• ——– Rainbow Theology: Bridging Race, Sex, and Spirit, New York, Seabury Books, 2013.
• Choi, Hoon, “Gender and Sexuality” in Asian American Christian Ethics: Voices, Methods, Issues, Grace Y. Kao and Ilsup Auh, eds., Baylor University Press, 2017.
• Ellison, Marvin M. (ed), Body and Soul: Rethinking Sexuality as Justice Love, Eugene, Wipf & Stock, 2008.
• ———Making Love Just: Sexual Ethics for Perplexing Times, Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2012.
• Farley, Margaret, Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics, Continuum, 2008.
• Guest, Deryn; Goss, Robert E; West, Mona; Bohache, Thomas (ed), The Queer Bible Commentary, London, SCM Press, 2006.
• Harrison, Beverly, Making the Connections: Essays in Feminist Social Ethics, Beacon Press, 1986.
• Isherwood, Lisa & Von Der Horst, Dirk (ed), Contemporary Approaches to Sexuality, New York, 2018.
• Ji-Sun Kim, Grace and Jenny Daggers, eds., Christian Doctrines for Global Gender Justice, Palmgrave Macmillan, 2015.
• Jordan, Mark D., The Ethics of Sex, Malden, Blackwell Publications, 2002.
• Kamitsuka, Margaret D. (ed), The Embrace of Eros: Bodies, Desires, and Sexuality in Christianity, Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2010.
• Pilar Aquino, Maria and Daisy Machado, eds., A Reader in Latina Feminist Theology: Religion and Justice, University of Texas Press, 2010.
• Radford Ruether, Rosemary, Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology, Beacon Press, 1993.
• Sabia Tanis, Justin, Trans-Gendered Theologies: Ministry and Communities of Faith, Eugene, Wipf & Stock, 2018.
• Sanders, Cody J., Queer Lessons for Churches on the Straight and Narrow, Faithlab, 2013.
• Shore-Goss, Robert E. & Goh, Joseph N., Unlocking Systems for Inclusive Theologies; Queer Alternatives, New York, Routledge, 2019.
• Todd Peters, Rebecca, Trust Women, Beacon Press, 2018.
• Williams, Delores, Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk, Orbis Books, 1993.
• Wilson, Brittani E. Unmanly Men: Refigurations of Masculinity in Luke-Acts, Oxford University Press, 2015.