T&T Clark Enquiries in Embodiment, Sexuality, and Social Ethics – serie

Darryl W. Stephens suggests that human dignity and equality under God can be used to address the most intractable moral problems of our time: sexual abuse, racism, environmental degradation, and more. This work examines Christian ethics sensitive to the trauma histories that are already present individually and collectively in and among our faith communities. Stephens encourages us to see that Christian ethics is real, perspectival, dialogical, participatory and purposeful – he reconceives the entirety of Christian ethics through trauma-informed lens, recognizing that many people wrestle with significant trauma histories every day. He explores the theological implications of trauma-informed approach to a wide range of social issues, and engages with Wesleyan, feminist and liberationist perspectives.Designed for classroom use, it includes a number of pedagogical features, such as case studies and questions for discussion, engaging with key areas of contemporary concern.

Darryl W. Stephens suggests that human dignity and equality under God can be used to address the most intractable moral problems of our time: sexual abuse, racism, environmental degradation, and more. This work examines Christian ethics sensitive to the trauma histories that are already present individually and collectively in and among our faith communities. Stephens encourages us to see that Christian ethics is real, perspectival, dialogical, participatory and purposeful – he reconceives the entirety of Christian ethics through trauma-informed lens, recognizing that many people wrestle with significant trauma histories every day. He explores the theological implications of trauma-informed approach to a wide range of social issues, and engages with Wesleyan, feminist and liberationist perspectives.Designed for classroom use, it includes a number of pedagogical features, such as case studies and questions for discussion, engaging with key areas of contemporary concern.

In A Blackqueer Sexual Ethics: Embodiment, Possibility, and Living Archive Elyse Ambrose looks to an archive of Blackqueerness as an authoritative source for religious ethical reflection. This approach counters the disintegrative norms of anti-Black and anti-body traditionalism in Christian sexual ethics, even those that strive to be liberative. It builds upon a tradition of Black queer and LGBTQ+-centered critique at the intersections of race, sexuality, gender, and religion through exploring the moral imagination of sexual and gender non-conformist communities in 1920’s Harlem (their rent parties, blues environments, and Hamilton Lodge Ball); ethics and theology blackqueering the disciplines; and contemporary oral histories (including photographs of the subjects by the scholar-artist) of those doing ethics in their Blackqueerness. These serve as integrative sites that signal Blackqueer ethical counter-patterns of communal belonging, individual and collective becoming, goodness, embodied spirit/inspirited bodies, and shared thriving. Emphases on both personal and social right-relatedness mark a shift from Christian sexual ethics based on rules, toward a communal relations-based transreligious ethics of sexuality.

In A Blackqueer Sexual Ethics: Embodiment, Possibility, and Living Archive Elyse Ambrose looks to an archive of Blackqueerness as an authoritative source for religious ethical reflection. This approach counters the disintegrative norms of anti-Black and anti-body traditionalism in Christian sexual ethics, even those that strive to be liberative. It builds upon a tradition of Black queer and LGBTQ+-centered critique at the intersections of race, sexuality, gender, and religion through exploring the moral imagination of sexual and gender non-conformist communities in 1920’s Harlem (their rent parties, blues environments, and Hamilton Lodge Ball); ethics and theology blackqueering the disciplines; and contemporary oral histories (including photographs of the subjects by the scholar-artist) of those doing ethics in their Blackqueerness. These serve as integrative sites that signal Blackqueer ethical counter-patterns of communal belonging, individual and collective becoming, goodness, embodied spirit/inspirited bodies, and shared thriving. Emphases on both personal and social right-relatedness mark a shift from Christian sexual ethics based on rules, toward a communal relations-based transreligious ethics of sexuality.

This important work analyses abuse in Christian institutions. It focuses on the intersection of power, sexuality, and theology through the lens of institutional dynamics and ethics. Rather than examining the pastor-parishioner relationship or the professor-student relationship in isolation, Penner and Buttrey address the influence of factors such as church governance, institutional norms and policies, social privilege, charismatic leadership, mass media and theological doctrine.This book contributes to a wider conversation about institutional ethics, theology, and sexual abuse with a commitment to the well-being of all and undergirded by an intersectional theory of power.