{"title":"The causes of human sexual orientation","authors":"C. Cook","doi":"10.1080/13558358.2020.1818541","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13558358.2020.1818541","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Research on the causes of human sexual orientation has been marshaled in support of predetermined and opposing theological viewpoints. Whilst acknowledging that there is still much that is not known, the peer reviewed scientific literature clearly shows that a combination of genetic and environmental factors contribute to sexual orientation, with approximately one third of variance currently attributed to the former. Much of the known environmental influence appears to be intra-uterine and there is no currently convincing evidence that social environment plays a significant part. This body of evidence is relevant to theology. Greater attention should be given to critical interdisciplinary engagement of the theology and science of sexual orientation.","PeriodicalId":42039,"journal":{"name":"Theology & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84120064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The virtual body of Christ and embrace of the seriously ill","authors":"Deanna A. Thompson","doi":"10.1080/13558358.2019.1684069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13558358.2019.1684069","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Since the time of the Apostle Paul, the body of Christ has always been a virtual body, made up of members who were not always physically present to one another but were nevertheless part of the same catholic community. Virtual presence in today’s society comes most often via digital technology, a reality that prompts many Christian leaders and theologians to warn of the dangers of disembodied existence. This paper challenges the claim that virtual presence via digital technology is necessarily an inferior form of presence. Using autoethnographic research of living with advanced-stage cancer, the author explores how virtual connection via technology can sometimes be a superior form of presence for those undone by illness and other traumas. The article concludes with a call to churches to draw on biblical, theological, and liturgical resources to help imagine how digital devices can be used to practice healing forms of attentiveness to those who need it most.","PeriodicalId":42039,"journal":{"name":"Theology & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89801461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do we image God on-line? The opportunities and challenges for authentic relationships in cyberspace","authors":"Noreen L. Herzfeld","doi":"10.1080/13558358.2020.1790986","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13558358.2020.1790986","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Genesis 1 states that we are created in the image of God. While Biblical scholars have taken a performative approach, viewing God's image in our actions, systematic theologians have viewed God's image in relational terms. Thus, the quality of our relationships is crucial, not only for the health of our day to day lives but for our very identity. What makes a relationship authentic? Karl Barth suggests four criteria: that we look the other in the eye, speak to and hear the other, aid the other, and do it gladly. We look first at how our authentic relationships function to make God present among us and then use Barth's criteria to examine the quality of relationships that exist primarily in cyberspace. Social media, in particular, present unique opportunities and challenges for forming authentic relationships and raise fundamental questions about who we are and where God is found among us.","PeriodicalId":42039,"journal":{"name":"Theology & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89295813","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Living the eighth day online: liturgies, sacramental life, and building human relationships","authors":"J. Bennett","doi":"10.1080/13558358.2020.1814507","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13558358.2020.1814507","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Online human relationships can exacerbate some of the worst of our tendencies toward each other, including deception, selfishness, apathy and disembodiment, and sexual harassment. Yet Christians can also bring their prayer practices online, as ways of bringing God’s new creation (known in Christian tradition as the Eighth Day) to the forefront. Through examination of three distinctive online prayer practices, combined with discussion of liturgical and sacramental theologies, this article shows that prayer online also holds out possibilities of reconciliation and justice as potential responses to negative human relationship tendencies.","PeriodicalId":42039,"journal":{"name":"Theology & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88699159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rethinking relationships in cyberspace","authors":"Scott A. Midson, Karen O’Donnell","doi":"10.1080/13558358.2020.1803722","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13558358.2020.1803722","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The ubiquity of the internet, which has been extensively theorised in the social sciences, provides, for some, a radically new context in which we must rethink both the significance and the performance of being human. For others, the internet is an extension rather than revision of our pre-existing practices, meaning that what it is to be human remains largely unchanged. This is a stimulating and pressing context for theological anthropological reflection: theological doctrines do not specifically address cyberspace, but they suggest idea(l)s of being human that are, on the one hand, enduring and yet can also be read as flexible for different contexts. What, then, are the challenges and promises that digital contexts pose for models of theological anthropology, specifically ones that highlight the significance of human relationships? Do digital contexts overstretch idea(l)s of human nature? On what grounds can we assess and reflect on our conduct in cyberspace?","PeriodicalId":42039,"journal":{"name":"Theology & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82036334","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Christianity, LGBTQ Suicide, and the Souls of Queer Folk","authors":"K. A. Menhinick","doi":"10.1080/13558358.2020.1814669","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13558358.2020.1814669","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42039,"journal":{"name":"Theology & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82792152","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Eschatological companions: Christian hope in virtual worlds","authors":"S. Garner","doi":"10.1080/13558358.2020.1803721","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13558358.2020.1803721","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Christian faith is oriented around the hope that is found in the birth, life, death, resurrection and return of Jesus Christ, and this hope shapes Christian understandings of being human and human flourishing. What then might this Christian hope have to say about our technological developments and, in particular, how those shape our reflection on being human? Moreover, how do the various virtual worlds that we inhabit in continuity with our physical environment shape our thinking on bodies, gender, sexuality, identity and relationships? This article adds constructive theological reflection on technologically shape virtual worlds through the lens of Christian hope, moving beyond only eschatological dimensions to focus also on technological narratives of purpose and novelty and theological thinking around humanity, Christology and salvation. It is our contention that Christian hope provides a unifying theme for fruitful theological reflection on virtual worlds and our lives within them.","PeriodicalId":42039,"journal":{"name":"Theology & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85866979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Queer Theology: Beyond Apologetics","authors":"W. P. Boyce","doi":"10.1080/13558358.2020.1794492","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13558358.2020.1794492","url":null,"abstract":"Ø You may download and print to a local hard disk this entire article for your personal and noncommercial use only. Ø You may quote short sections of this article in other publications with the proper citations and attributions. Ø Permission has been obtained from the Journal’s management for exceptions to redistribution or reproduction. A written and signed letter from the Journal must be secured expressing this permission.","PeriodicalId":42039,"journal":{"name":"Theology & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74469533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Latter-day screens: gender, sexuality, and mediated Mormonism","authors":"Kathryn Tanner’s, S. Tilton","doi":"10.1080/13558358.2020.1768037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13558358.2020.1768037","url":null,"abstract":"Capping her analysis of “mediated Mormonism” Brenda Weber reflects on how the experience of growing up non-Mormon in a Mormon-dominated city motivated her to write a book about Mormonism. Unfortuna...","PeriodicalId":42039,"journal":{"name":"Theology & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86480561","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“God’s word does not change as trends do” – contemporary discourses on homosexuality in Swedish Christianity","authors":"Charlotta Carlström","doi":"10.1080/13558358.2020.1790988","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13558358.2020.1790988","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Throughout history, Christianity has regarded homosexuality as abnormal and something beyond what can be fully accepted. In this article, I investigate how homosexuality has been discussed within the Swedish evangelical churches from 2009 until 2019, in the largest Swedish Christian newspaper, Dagen (The Day). It is not possible to speak of a hegemonic discourse on homosexuality – rather the 188 articles analyzed show a multiplicity of stances towards homosexuality. The articles constitute a field of tension where several discourses struggle for space and interpretative prerogative. Inspired by Foucauldian discourse analysis, I identify three ways in which the writers understand homosexuality in relation to their faith: the Affirmative Contextual Discourse, the Middle Way Discourse and the Conservative Discourse. The overall view in each discourse is characterized by heteronormativity. Positions within the Conservative Discourse are given most space in the newspaper when it comes to homosexuality.","PeriodicalId":42039,"journal":{"name":"Theology & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72772269","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}