Queer grace: an essay on the task of queer theology

Is queer theology an impossible project? Queer theology which engages Edelman's queer negativity oscillates around the negation of theology's participation in upholding the anti-queerness which is fundamental to our social order. Drawing upon Marcella Althaus-Reid, Lee Edelman, Linn Tonstad, and Kent Brintnall, this essay upholds this as a necessary, but impossible, task for queer theology. Assessing this paradox constructively, I propose that it is impossible for queer theology to be sufficiently negative, due to theologians' inability to maintain a vantage point outside the social and theological order we critique. This inability is a gift of queer grace. Queer grace orients us to the edge of theology's capability to where God takes on the imperatives of our negative task, and to where we seek God's eschatological transformation of ourselves, especially gendered and sexual selfhood.

Automated summary

Is queer theology an impossible project? This essay argues that it is impossible for queer theology to be sufficiently negative, as theologians are unable to maintain an objective perspective outside the social and theological order they critique. However, this inability is seen as a gift of queer grace, guiding us to seek God's transformation.