Queer Spirituality

Abstract

Liberation theologies have been developed from a multiplicity of approaches. This article analyses the “liberation theology” of the “queer”, that is, theological efforts to recontextualize the metaphysical dimension of homosexuality. An elaboration of “gay community”, as well as of the applicability of the label “queer”, is proposed in order to frame the examination of what constitutes Queer Spiritual Discourse. This umbrella term contains two related theological efforts, developed in recent decades by gay and lesbian theologians and intellectuals, that attempt to provide a specific hermeneutics either of biblical texts or of other religious traditions. Queer Theology reinterprets stories and characters from within the Judaeo-Christian tradition, whereas Gay Soul constructs alternative interpretations of ancient indigenous religious systems. The author also sketches some of the areas where the secular, the political, the theological, and the personal intersect.