The Transfiguration: Christianity’s God as Newly Known Queer

Abstract

The omnipresence of Christianity as a cultural structure that informs the cultural imaginary in Western society is undeniable. It is, among other interlocking structures of cultural influence, responsible for the ongoing centrality of the Western gender binary and the justified exclusion of non-white, non-male, non-cis, and non-heterosexual bodies in cultural and social spheres of influence. Conventionally understood as an antithesis to the anti-normative demands of more modern and queer conceptions of gender and sexuality, religion has retained an orthodox and disciplinary character. This paper however argues that this mutual exclusion of queerness and Christianity is inherently incorrect. It seeks to affirm that divinity and spiritual devotion are already fundamentally queer. The religious antagonism of queerness is not simply an obstacle to queer liberation but also, a denial of theological truth. Theology and queerness can rely on each other to be mobilized towards queer liberation in the Western cultural imaginary. To work towards this goal, this paper aims to create a queer theological understanding that consolidates the seemingly incompatible worlds of Western Christian culture and queer culture through the exploration of the queer transfiguration of Christian divinity and worship in order to assert a new unified vision of both the queer and the divine.