Cody J. Sanders - Böcker

Carlosa third-generation U.S. citizen from New Jersey whose family emigrated from Colombia many years before Carlos was bornis often complimented on how articulate he is and asked how long he has been in the United States.Deborah, a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) who is up for election as church treasurer, has her qualifications questioned, debated, and scrutinized by the congregation far more than any of her male predecessors who were elected with a simple vote.Lisa, a male-to-female transgender person, attends a Sunday school where her classmates continue to refer to her with masculine pronouns (he, him, his).The three examples above portray microaggressions: subtle slights, insults, and indignities expressed to persons of varied minority statuses. Although microaggressions are usually unintentional, they occur on a regular basis in education, the workplace, and daily life.This is the first book that addresses the concept of microaggressions in ministry and church life. Drawing from their background as ordained clergy, Sanders and Yarber introduce ministry leaders to the concept of microaggressions and look specifically at microaggressions directed at race, gender, and sexuality in the church. Sanders and Yarber help readers become more aware of these subtle and often unconscious communications, offering realistic examples and guidance for grappling with this issue in preaching, religious education, worship, spirituality, and pastoral care and counseling. Microaggressions in Ministry equips congregations with methods for assessment and tools for action that will ultimately help create stronger, more welcoming faith communities.

While garnering the attention of professionals across disciplines, from medicine to public health to psychology, and frequently covered as a topic of public concern in the news media, the elevated occurrence of suicide attempts among LGBTQ persons has received little attention within the literature of theology and religious studies. This book fills that lacuna by addressing the role that religious, spiritual, and theological narratives play in shaping the souls of queer folk. Taking a narrative approach to qualitative interview material from LGBTQ individuals who survived their suicide attempts, Cody J. Sanders argues that theological narratives can operate violently upon the souls of LGBTQ people in ways that make life precarious and, at time, seem unlivable. The book critically addresses the violence of theological narratives upon queer souls, filling a crucial void in scholarship concerning the role of religion—specifically Christianity—in LGBTQ suicide. Ultimately, the author draws upon the interview material to move readers toward constructive methods of contributing to the resistance and resilience of queer souls in relation to soul violence, asking how we can intervene with practices of care in order to cultivate livability of life for queer people.

Bringing together material religion and discourse theory, this cross-disciplinary book argues that theories of embodiment and religion co-produce one another. Responding to the scholarly turn towards embodiment and phenomenology beginning in queer studies and branching out into the humanities more broadly, Jessica A. Albrecht brings religion to the table. This book contends that, if the turn to materiality emphasizes what religion does in bodies and spaces, or how bodies make religion, it is equally important to ask whose bodies are made legible, and under what conditions they come to matter. By shining a light on this reciprocal relationship between religion and embodiment, Albrecht reveals the processes through which meanings, “bodies,” and “religion” itself are made. Across seven chapters spanning intersectionality, queer and cuír theory, and crip studies, this book traces counter-genealogies which reveal how bodies become unintelligible within the regimes of religion, race, gender, and ability. Albrecht offers tools for examining how religious experiences are shaped by queerness, disability, and power, providing a fresh and inclusive perspective on how bodies and practices are central constituents of conceptions of religion. The resulting framework for religious studies pushes beyond normative views or religious-secular divisions, prompting readers to critically re-consider both “religion” and the “body.”