What Books on Christianity and Same-Sex Relationships Keep Missing.

I’ve never given very much attention to the issue of same-sex relationships. The issue has never come up in a personal way for me and I’ve never been very interested in exploring the topic deeply. Recently, however, I came across a book by the Yale historian John Boswell, Same-Sex Relationships in Premodern Europe, which I found very interesting. It caused me to explore the issue a bit more, and after reading a few other books,¹ I wanted to share a thought they’ve raised.

In my exploration of the topic of same-sex relationships and Christianity I’ve noticed how consistently un-theological much of the discourse is. Here’s a list of some of the most common approaches to the issue to illustrate my point:

1. Sociological and historical reconstructions of sexuality in the ancient world

2. Exegetical studies in key passages (E.g. Genesis 1-2, Romans 1, 1 Cor. 6)

3. Appeals to general but ambiguous principles like love, openness, inclusion, and affirmation

4. An invocation of God’s “surprising” work or to the Spirit’s ongoing guidance

5. Appeals to Christian history

6. Discussions of the Bible’s nature and purpose

7. Discussions of human physiology and biology

8. Anthropological investigations regarding same-sex relationships in various cultures

9. Personal anecdotes and “real-world” examples.

What do I mean when I say these approaches are un-theological? I mean that none of them begin with or are grounded in the doctrine of God. This is an enormous problem because, to paraphrase John Webster, theological anthropology “has its place in the flow of Christian doctrine from teaching about God to teaching about everything else in God.”²

In a Christian view humans exist in the covenantal economy of God’s goodness towards creatures and since this story is predicated on the divine missions of the Trinity, which in turn are predicated on the relations of the immanent Trinity, then like all doctrines theological anthropology should be traced to the “immanent perfection of God’s life and his free self-communication” in the economy of salvation. Rather than treating humans, and especially human sexuality, merely from the perspective of social history, biology, or biblical proof texts, a properly Christian approach must begin with God, God’s mission in the world, and humans as participants in that mission.

What would it mean to take this approach in practice? It would mean beginning with questions like, how do human sexual desires relate to God as the object of ultimate human desire? How does human love and desire relate to the mutual love of the Trinity? What is the role and telos of human sexuality in the story of God’s relationship to the world? What is the relationship between the Incarnation of the Son, gender, and human sexuality?³

These are properly Christian questions meaning they assume a Christian frame of reference and are, therefore, not open to non-Christians.⁴ But this, I think, is precisely what is missing from much of the Church’s discourse of human sexuality. Christians, both affirming and non-affirming, adopt a secular, non-theological foundation covered over with a thin veneer of Christian language or biblical proof texts.

I am not suggesting that biblical exegesis does not have a major role to play in this discussion or that Christians should discount the important insights of sociology, history, or human biology. What I am suggesting is that Christians should not begin from any of these places. Rather, they should begin from the foundation of all Christian doctrine, the Triune God and the disclosure of this God in the story of salvation.

1. In addition to Boswell’s work I’ve also recently read Richard and Christopher Hays’ The Widening of God’s Mercy, Thomas Kazen’s Dirt, Shame, and Status, Eva Cantarella’s Bisexuality in the Ancient World, Richard Hays’ The Moral Vision of the New Testament, William Stacy Johnson’s A Time to Embrace: Same-Sex Relationships in Religion, Law, and Politics.

2. John Webster, “In the Society of God: Some Theological Notes on Ecclesiology.” in Ecclesiology and Ethnography: Theological Perspectives on the Church. Edited by Pete Ward.

3. The one book of which I am aware that goes in this direction is the justly famous work by Sarah Coakley God, Sexuality, and the Self. Alas this work is too little known outside the academy and too little imitated by other scholars.

4. In other words, if you don’t believe in the existence of a Triune God or in the Incarnation of the Son then these questions are meaningless.