NEAR the end of this book, there is an interesting question: why has the Church of England “generated numerous reports and debates on the ‘problem’ of homosexuality’”? For those who were trained in non-Evangelical theological colleges in the 20th century, this question is especially pertinent. We knew that some of our fellow students and lecturers were gay, and worried little about this. We read the Gloucester report (1979) and Peter Coleman’s eirenic writings on “Christian attitudes towards homosexuality” and largely concluded that it wasn’t a “problem”.
Of course, we were living in a bubble, as the 1998 Lambeth Conference of bishops dramatically revealed. There have been numerous debates, articles, and books since then, by liberal Catholics and Evangelicals, alike, raking through biblical texts on sexuality and denouncing one another for betraying the Church, and then the Pilling report (2013), the Bishops’ report Marriage and Same Sex Relationships (2017), and now Living in Love and Faith. Is there really anything new to say?
Dr Penelope Cowell Doe shows that there is. She offers a detailed and spirited critique of the composition and underlying assumptions of those producing these reports and argues that they come from highly privileged backgrounds and are far too keen to assert their power and authority over each other. For her, it is not that they are necessarily “wrong”, but, rather, that they feel a “neo-liberal” need to impose an “authoritative” consensus about sexual ethics — despite the obvious pluralism of clergy and laity. She argues, as a straight woman herself, that, fatally, “there are few, if any, queer voices” in these reports.
Her alternative “queer” vision for the Church takes its lead from Hans Urs von Balthasar’s idea of “the liminal time of Holy Saturday”, with its yet-to-be-resolved anxieties and uncertainties. In contrast, she is particularly scathing of the way in which both Pilling and Marriage and Same Sex Relationships understand the poetic Genesis accounts of creation to be normative for “traditional” marriage — the so-called “creation ordinance” — encouraging the Bishops, disastrously, to ignore changing public opinion and to oppose government legislation on same-sex marriage.
This book is based upon Doe’s Ph.D. gained at Exeter with its focus on post-modern and queer studies. This gives her a distinctive voice, but it also encourages some dense jargon. My advice is to skip the convoluted introduction until you have read the main text (which is mostly written in standard English).
Despite the jargon, it is well worth persevering with this passionate book. A generous Church of England should be able to treat its gay/queer, straight/cis, male, female or trans, clergy and laity equally . . . and not before time.
Canon Robin Gill is Emeritus Professor of Applied Theology at the University of Kent and Editor of Theology.
Queering the Church: The theological and ecclesial potential of failure
Penelope Cowell Doe
SCM Press £25
(978-0-334-06562-3)
Church Times Bookshop £20