Online Talk : Queering the Divine Transcendence: Pushing Religious Studies to the Margins

Christian theology and religious studies are challenged not only by the lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ people but also by the movement of queer liberation, fighting against patriarchy, heteronormativity, and gender binary structure.

The debates over LGBT identity in religion and same-sex marriage will not be the focus of the talk. Rather, these five chosen themes and questions (found in Christian theology and commonly shared in other religious faiths) will be interrogated.

1. Is sexuality (and homosexuality) constructed? What’s the nature of humanity? (Michel Foucault)
2. How can we see the nature of God’s incarnation and grace through queer lens? (Patrick Cheng)
3. How can we recognise economic exploitation in collusion with the religious morality of sexuality? (Marcella Althaus-Reid)
4. How can we rethink the principle of Natural Law and the diverse identities of human beings? (Judith Butler and Eugene Rogers)
5. Is there any future? How can queer theory direct us toward religious ethics? (Lee Edelman)

Rev. Yin-An Chen

Rev. Yin-An Chen is a priest in the Church of England and a lecturer in the Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan. In his early academic training in Taiwan, he studied cultural studies and anthropology for bachelor's and master's degrees. He then researched queer Eucharistic theology at Durham and the political thoughts of Michel Foucault at Kent. He published his first monograph, Toward a Micro-Political Theology: A Dialogue between Michel Foucault and Liberation Theologies (2022).

Speaker