Liberation Theologies | Bibliography | North America Pt. 4
Chapter 8: The Liberation of North America, Part 4
Amerasians
921. Sano, Roy I., ed. Amerasian Theology of Liberation. A Reader. Oakland, CA: Asian Center for Theologies and Strategies, 1973.
A collection of readings demonstrating the variety and maturity of Asian-Americans’ thought on their own identity, both materially and spiritually, in North America.
922. —, ed. The Theologies of Asian Americans and Pacific Peoples. A Reader. Oakland, CA: Asian Center for Theologies and Strategies, 1976.
This is a collection of about forty-five reprints of articles by Sano, Violet Masuda, Donna Dong, Hyung-Chan Kim, David Hirano and others on various aspects of Asian-American religious life in the U.S.
Creation Theology
See also PeaceDocs, Texts, Earth Spiritualities.
923. Barnette, Henlee H. The Church and the Ecological Crisis. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1972.
Examines the issue of the “ecology crisis,” its causes, elements of an ecological ethics, strategies for survival, and attempts to develop a theology for ecology. Such a theology focuses on God as creator, on the place of creation as God’s realm of cosmic redemption, and on the church’s role for conscienticizing the people to the sacredness of nature.
924. Berry, Thomas. Dream of the Earth. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club, 1988.
Thomas Berry has long been in the forefront of a new spiritual appreciation of the earth, and conversely, of a new earth-centered spirituality that takes its roots in the Judeo-Christian tradition but that in many ways grows beyond it. This is one of Berry’s most mature reflections upon the place of humanity in creation. Berry’s “twelve principles” for a new earth spirituality infuse the chapters.
925. —. Riverdale Papers on the Earth Community. New York: Riverdale Center for Religious Research, 1989.
Essays written between 1970 and 1988 on the ecological age, classical Western spirituality and the U.S. experience, the spirituality of the earth, and twelve principles for a new ecological spirituality
926. Birch, Charles, William R. Eakin, and Jay B. McDaniel, eds. Liberating Life. Contemporary Approaches to Ecological Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.
Essays by Ernesto Cardenal, Lois K. Daly, Jong-Sun Noh, Thomas Berry, John F. Haught, Sallie McFague and others present the parameters of a liberating ethic for ecology that seeks to free all of God’s creation from forms of exploitation and oppression. This is a form of theology that shares much in common with liberation theology, for it dethrones “man” from the center of the universe and replaces God and God’s creation there. Humanity thus takes its rightful place among the works of creation that respects the freedom of all its parts.
927. Birch, Charles, and John B. Cobb, Jr. The Liberation of Life. From the Cell to the Community. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
This is a far-reaching and deep-thinking reflection on a theology and ethics of natural creation. Topics include ecologies from the molecular, to the cell, to population levels, evolution, models of life on earth, the relationship between the human and natural worlds, an ethic of life, a theology of life and creation, ethical issues in human manipulation of nature, an ethic for a just and sustainable ecological order, including reflection on economic development, its models, its political manifestations, and its urban, rural, and ecofeminist perspectives.
928. Carmody, John. Ecology and Religion. Toward a New Christian Theology of Nature. New York: Paulist Press, 1983.
Reviews the recent impact of ecological issues on theological discourse and enumerates these from natural science, technology and economics, and politics and ethics. Part 2 of the book attempts to work up a Christian theology of nature from biblical, traditional, systematic, ethical and spiritual sources. Contains an annotated bibliography of works on ecology and attitudes.
929. Cobb, John B. Is It Too Late? A Theology of Ecology. Beverly Hills, CA: Bruce, 1972.
Cobb was prophetic in his call for a new spirituality that would address the issues of both survival and spiritual meaning on a planet too long ignored and exploited and of a humanity that held itself above the natural.
930. Fox, Matthew. The Coming of the Cosmic Christ. The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988.
The creation theology that Matthew Fox propounds here, and for which he has earned the ire of the Vatican, has been described as a form of liberation theology for North Americans. Indeed, it is. This theology speaks of freeing consumer-oriented, patriarchal, bored, rationalistic and materialistic Western culture from the bonds of the spiritual crisis of our time: the very destruction of God’s creation that is embodied in Mother Earth.
Creation theology calls on all of us to recognize the mystic and the creator in all of us: the Cosmic Christ that with God continues the work of creation, thus freeing our imaginations and our spirits to acknowledge what is most fundamental to our natures: the creating, mothering, nurturing forces of life.
Yet, like Latin American liberation theology, creation theology is not about individual men and women; it is not anthropocentric, as Fox reiterates. It is, instead, about the liberation and continuing perfection of God’s creation, in which all creatures, including humans, play a role. Salvation comes not through individual practices in outworn liturgical settings; not from fall-redemption theologies but from a theology that seeks to save the entire world, both human societies and the natural world, from destruction. Salvation, as for Gutiérrez, and as for Oscar Romero comes not to the individualistic ascetic athlete but to society as a whole: all are saved or none are saved, Fox stresses.
“The idea of private salvation is utterly obsolete,” Fox contends. There can be no such thing as internal salvation and spirit if the world outside, be it the community, the political unit, indeed the world itself, is doomed to damnation. Fox thus rejects the worn-out dualisms of an Augustinian, Newtonian cosmology and looks forward to an integrated humanity.
The key to liberating the world and all its creatures, including humanity, is the empowerment of realizing and then unifying ourselves to the powers of creation, both within ourselves and in the cosmos at large: this is the meaning of the coming of the Cosmic Christ.
931. —. Original Blessing. A Primer in Creation Spirituality. Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co., 1983.
Less concerned with the Christological aspects of creation spirituality – the cosmic nature of a Christ figure – than with the work of the first person of the Trinity and the call that all the world’s religions make on individuals to continue God’s original work of creation in their lives and work. The experience of reading and appreciating Fox’s work is truly a liberating one, for his basic message is that creation and all of God’s creatures are good, that the gifts of life, body, human love and passion, the urge to create are all goods that must be recaptured by the world’s religions if creation is to survive. This is a call to empowerment on its most fundamental level: that of individual responsibility and dignity, a celebration of diversity, simplicity, and vulnerability. Like all true theologies of liberation, Fox’s work emphasizes that only through suffering and pain, through grappling with the emptiness, marginality, and loss that true human experience encompasses can we cope with our own true powers as co-creators.
932. —. A Spirituality Named Compassion. Minneapolis, MN: Winston Press, 1979; San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990.
Compassion is a celebration of our connection to others, it is a work of justice and mercy, a public, not a narcissistic, private spirituality; it rejects asceticism in preference to passion and welcomes the contribution of the intellect and of human reason. It is a way of life that brings together the spirit and material, self- and other-love.
Fox discusses the role of compassion in human sexuality, psychologies of competition, dualism, of letting go and forgiveness, creativity, the role of compassion in our science and view on the universe; in our economic life and relations, in our politics; and in the place of our society in the global village as a whole.
933. Hart, John. The Spirit of the Earth. New York: Paulist Press, 1984.
Addresses such issues as environmental devastation, economic decline, poverty and hunger in the midst of plenty through a new consciousness of the theological meaning of the earth. He bases his reflections on the biblical injunctions to preserve the land as a work of creation (Lev. 25:23; Ps. 24:1; Mt. 25:31-46), the Christian tradition of Francis of Assisi, and the religious life of the native American. Hart focuses on the destruction of the American heartland and offers a theology that will help redress it.
Examines America’s overworked, exploited and exhausted lands, the economic displacement this has and will cause, and religious alternatives: the Goddess, the earth as God’s creation, and humanity as co-creators, the Hebrew Sabbatical year and Jubilee; our role as pilgrims on the earth; the American populist tradition; and the American Catholic tradition, from papal documents to the Catholic Worker, to episcopal statements. He concludes with sections on land reform and a sense of the spirit of the earth.
934. Lilburne, Geoffrey R. A Sense of Place. A Christian Theology of the Land. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1989.
While the immediate needs to “clean up the environment” are pressing, such measures will only be stop-gap unless humans, especially those of the West most responsible for impending environmental disaster, also clean up their souls. Given the clear-cut concern for the earth inherent in the Hebrew scriptures, it is disconcerting for the Christian, whose tradition may be largely responsible for the desecration of the earth, that the Christian scriptures seem completely to bypass this concern with creation.
Lilburne argues, however, that the Christian, and Westerner, cannot abandon this Christian inheritance, but must, in fact, come face to face with it. The process may be painful but can also bear great fruit, because a return to the understanding of the Cosmic Christ through Jesus, who is God’s manifestation on earth, may help resolve these contradictions. Thus Christ’s redemptive work was also literally one of “reconciling the world to God.”
Lilburne takes his experience in Australia and his debt to the Australian aborigines and their religious understanding of creation to derive a new theology of the land.
935. Lonergan, Anne, and Caroline Richards, eds. Thomas Berry and the New Cosmology. Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third Publications, 1987.
Essays by Berry, Lonergan, Richards, Donald Senior, Gregory Baum, Margaret Brennan, James Farris, Stephen G. Dunn, and Brian Swimme on the issues of human life in the world, a creation theology as a new basis for religious unity, biblical perspectives, the call to action, the alienating role of patriarchy in our tradition, the meaning of redemption in terms of a new earth theology, the call for a new ethic, cosmology and science, and Berry’s twelve principles that see the created universe as the primary manifestation of divinity and the universe itself as a psychic and physical being.
936. McDonagh, Sean. The Greening of the Church. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.
In the face of Third-World development that actually leads to the further impoverishment and marginalization of its peoples, the church must take up a new stance of stewardship that sees the ecosystem as part of the overall divine plan of salvation and humanity as part of that cosmic system. McDonagh thus takes the insights of liberation, growing from the experience of the people of the Philippines and combines them with an integral approach to salvation.
937. —. To Care for the Earth.
The European title of the above.
938. McFague, Sallie. Models of God. Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987.
Part 1 discusses the new realities of the nuclear and ecological age, theological responses, metaphors and models of divinity and its relationship to the world, the “Christian paradigm,” and models of God: monarchial, the world as God’s body, and God as mother, lover, friend.
Part 2 discusses at length some models of God for the new age: as mother; in agape, creation and justice; as lover in eros, saving and healing; and as friend in philia, sustaining love and companionship.
939. McGinnis, James. Journey Into Compassion. A Spirituality for the Long Haul. Bloomington, IN: Meyer Stone, 1989.
This concise handbook combines the experience of oppression and marginalization, the lessons of liberation theology and peacemaking and combines them with a vision of a renewed earth to form a spirituality for the peacemaker and the new mystic. In this it is essentially a work of liberation theology, for it erases the distinction between inner spirituality and external action: making the salvation of the earth and the attainment of paradise one and the same, combining deep spirituality with broad avenues for action, liturgy with resistance. It is a positive sign of the emergence of a new theology that can appeal directly to the consciousness and lives of North Americans.
940. Moltmann, Jürgen. God in Creation. A New Theology of Creation and the Spirit of God. The Gilford Lectures, 1984-1985.
This is a thorough working out of an “ecological doctrine of creation,” which realigns our theology of creation from knowledge of God to that of God’s creation in nature. Topics include God’s role and meaning in creation, the ecological crisis and modern theories of alienation, our knowledge of creation, the agent (God), time, space of creation, the nature of heaven and earth, the role of evolution, humanity as God’s image in creation, the primacy of embodiment, the meaning of Sabbath as the feast of creation, and symbols of the created world from the world’s religious and mythological heritage.
941. Murphy, Charles M. At Home on Earth. Foundations for a Catholic Ethic of the Environment. New York: Crossroad/Continuum, 1989.
Outlines a Catholic moral theology of human relations with the environment and an interpretation of church teaching on the subject. Murphy emphasizes one of the key themes of liberation theology: that salvation does not mean flight from the world, but the salvation of God’s creation itself. Based on both biblical and Catholic tradition, as well as on modern ecological insights.
942. Sölle, Dorothee, with Shirley A. Cloyes. To Work and to Love. A Theology of Creation. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984.
This is a praise of the goodness of God’s creation, an acceptance of the world and its imperfections, and a detailed explication of the human role of co-creation through work, creativity, sexuality, and solidarity. Sölle examines work in its biblical sense as punishment for the first sin in paradise, in its Marxist sense as a process of alienation from one’s own self and means of creativity, as self-expression, as a means of social relatedness, and as a reconciliation with nature and creation.
She then turns to the creativity of human sexuality and studies it also in terms of alienation, both in a biblical sense and as alienation experienced in a capitalist-materialist society, an expression of exploitation, power and cynical distrust; “love” as a consumer item and drive, the roles of male and female as creator and consumer. Opposed to this is the role of ecstasy and trust, of mutuality, of wholeness and solidarity in our most physical selves, as well as our economic, material lives. An excellent series of reflections.
943. Starhawk. Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex and Politics. Boston: Beacon Press, 1988.
See 1049.
944. Swan, James A. Sacred Places. How the Living Earth Seeks Our Friendship. Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co., 1990.
Recounts the realities of the sacred places of the world, with particular emphasis on North America: native American sites that have become recognized for their spiritual power. Swan then surveys the problems faced by the sites in the face of rapid development; lays out a new paradigm for respecting the earth as sacred; and offers suggestions for visits to such sites. Very brief bibliography.
945. Winter, Gibson. Liberating Creation. New York: Crossroad, 1981.
The Western tradition of an essentially good creation has been distorted by the West’s equally deep-rooted drive toward technological mastery that seeks to subjugate what is seen as a neutral or hostile world to human ends. Winter, like Fox, looks toward the artistic and creative imagination to begin the process of liberation from destructive nihilism, toward healing, and toward a renewed life of justice and peacemaking.
Gay/Lesbian Theology
946. Archdiocese of San Francisco. Task Force on Gay/Lesbian Issues. Homosexuality and Social Justice. San Francisco: Archdiocescan Commission on Social Justice, 1982.
A landmark in Christian theology of homosexuality, albeit a cautious one. Accepts as valid the gay and lesbian experience of Christianity and addresses issues of violence, the Latino community, language and church teaching, the family and issues of child rearing, gay and lesbian spiritual life and ministry, gays and lesbians in religious life, sexual disenfranchisement, and the church’s role to educate for justice. The report concludes with recommendations for implementation.
947. Boyd, Malcolm. Take Off the Masks. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978.
A personal and spiritual autobiography of the well-known priest and writer who came out in 1977 and the conflicts between his open avowal of peace, justice, women’s, Jewish, black and other causes and his fear of speaking for himself and other gays.
Boyd also reflects on the churches’ refusal to embrace the twenty million gay men and women who are Christian; and makes some tentative remarks, in chapter 5, on a theology of gayness.
948. Bucher, Glenn A., ed. Straight/White/Male. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976.
This is a series of essays on the liberation of women, homosexuals, blacks and the dominant straight, white, male society that oppresses them and itself. Includes essays by Bucher, Benjamin D. Berry, Patricia R. Hill, Patricia N. Dutcher, and Charles E. Linder.
949. Burton, Jack Robert. Our Common Humanity. The Need for Tenderness and Realism in Discussing Sexuality. London: Gay Christian Movement, 1980.
A speech delivered shortly after the report of the Anglican church on homosexuality. Burton notes that the report left so much ambiguity that it was still possible for churchmen to deny the existence of homosexuality or to speak of “cures.” Instead, the author calls on Christians to accept the reality of homosexuality and to construct a Christian theology for it.
950. Coleman, Peter Everard. Gay Christians. A Moral Dilemma. Philadelphia: Trinity Press International; London: SCM, 1989.
A good introduction to the facts and controversies. Examines the issue of gays within the traditional Christian church; linguistic, medical, psychological, spiritual and other aspects of homosexuality; biblical texts and traditions of homosexuality; Christian attitudes from St. Paul to the 1950s; recent developments, including the gay movement within the churches in the 1960s, Catholic teachings, church reports on homosexuality in the 1970s; and the state of flux in attitudes brought about in the 1980s. A final section deals with arguments for and against changing church attitudes to, and the status of, homosexuals. A brief bibliography arranged by topic.
951. Downing, Christine. Myths and Mysteries of Same-Sex Love. New York: Continuum, 1989.
Examines the myths of homosexuality and lesbianism in Freud and Jung, and then the mysteries related by classical mythology. Concludes with an epilogue on sexuality and AIDS, love and death. A lengthy and thoughtful analysis.
952. Edwards, George R. Gay/Lesbian Liberation. A Biblical Perspective. New York: Pilgrim Press, 1984.
Edwards, a biblical scholar, seeks to model a conscious theology of gay liberation, within the overall context of liberation theology. He does so by first setting the context and matching the material poverty of Latin Americans with the sexual immaturity and constructions of more affluent North Americans. Edwards contends that discrimination against homosexuals has marginalized even middle-class Americans. He then delves into the relatively few biblical texts that have been used as the religious basis of homophobia over the millennia.
In a theological sense, Edwards seeks to forge a “transgenital awareness” of the personhood of the gay or lesbian, or the heterosexual man or woman, that is not confined to a definition based upon the use and application of one’s sexual organs; to convey a theology that stresses the agape of social community and activism above the narrower eroticism of hetero- or homo-sexuality.
Topics discussed include gay/lesbian liberation within contemporary theology; an examination of the historical attitudes toward “sodomy” (“homosexuality” is a late nineteenth-century term); biblical attitudes toward sodomy based on very close and scholarly readings of the original texts; a gay/lesbian theology based on the New Testament; and an ethical-biblical perspective on homosexual love. Includes a good bibliography.
953. Fortunato, J. AIDS. The Spiritual Dilemma. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987.
This book is an attempt at a spiritual response to the impact of AIDS that goes beyond the medical, legal, therapeutic and other approaches and sees the disease, and those afflicted by it – which, Fortunato reminds us, is all of us – as a profoundly spiritual problem that asks the deepest questions about human life and love, about the nature of God and human suffering. The author also confronts some sorry truths about Christian responses: a fear of embodiment and sexuality that is deep-rooted in its tradition; the overstress on God’s masculinity and thus on the sacred nature of the division between male and female, animus and anima within each human being, and the forms of compassion and love that Christians are thus allowed, or forced, to express. It also confronts us with one of the deepest mysteries of religious life that has tormented us since the book of Job: how can God allow such senseless suffering?
Like many of the mystics in the late medieval and counter-reformation church, Fortunato brings us to the realization that we can reach heaven, and God, through a deep meditation on human suffering, and on the suffering God in Christ, and that the best theology is one securely based on the context of human existence. Another praiseworthy element of this work is Fortunato’s refusal to allow theological truth to be the monopoly of the clergy and to stress both his deep faith and his orthodox Christianity. An excellent work.
954. —. Embracing the Exile. The Healing Journey of Gay Christians. New York: Seabury Press, 1982.
Reflections on the therapeutic process for gay Christians that affirms gay sexuality as a God-given gift. The theme of exile is one that is of particular importance for a theology of liberation; for it focuses our attention on full human beings who have been marginalized and who are now in the process of recovering their humanity and freeing themselves from deadly stereotype and hatreds. Bibliography.
955. Gearhart, Sally, and William R. Johnson, eds. Loving Women/Loving Men. Gay Liberation and the Church. San Francisco: Glide Publications, 1974.
Not seen.
956. Grahn, Judy. Another Mother Tongue. Gay Words, Gay Worlds. Boston: Beacon Press, 1984.
On gay spirituality and its roots; the understanding of shamanism as a form of gay spirituality. See Carson (991), item 273.
957. Gramick, Jeannine, ed. Homosexuality and the Catholic Church. Chicago: Thomas More, 1983.
Essays by Brian McNaught, Ann Borden, Gramick, Barbara Zanotti, Robert Nugent, Theresa Kane, Cornelius Hubbuch, Charles Curran, and Kenneth McGuire on both sociological and ecclesial perspectives. Topics include personal reflections, new sociological theory on homosexuality, the structural evils of male domination and heterosexism, homosexuality and the celibate religious life, civil rights within the church, moral theology and homosexuality, and changing attitudes.
958. —. Homosexuality in the Priesthood and in the Religious Life. New York: Crossroad, 1989.
Sixteen first-hand accounts of homosexuals within the church introduced by essays on the religious, theological, ministerial, and institutional experience of homosexuality within the orders of the clergy that focus on the issue of homosexuality as a paradigm for far larger issues: patriarchy and hierarchialism. Overall a vivid testimony to the growing voice of the disenfranchised and marginalized both in the church and in society.
959. —, and Pat Furfey, eds. The Vatican and Homosexuality. New York: Crossroad, 1988.
The subtitle reads, “Reactions to the ‘Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons.’”
After an excellent introduction to the topic of Catholic teaching on homosexuality in the United States since the 1960s and a synopsis of the arguments presented below, the editors reprint the Vatican letter (pp. 1-12). The essays are grouped into three sections: analyses and critiques of the document; pastoral and personal responses; and debate and developments for the future. Contributors include Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco, William H. Shannon, Dan Grippo, Nugent, Mary Segers, Gramick, Carolyn Osiek, Peter Hebblethwaite, Margaret Traxler, Sarah M. Sherman, Mary Jo Weaver, André Guindon and others.
960. Hannigan, J. P. Homosexuality. The Test Case for Christian Sexual Ethics. New York: Paulist Press, 1988.
Not seen.
961. Hasnaby, Richard, ed. Homosexuality and Religion. New York & London: Harrington Park Press, 1989.
A collection of essays that points toward some fundamentals for a theology of homosexuality. Contributors include Nugent and Gramick, Yoel H. Kahn, Aaron Cooper, George R. Edwards, E. Ann Matter, Gary David Comstock, Clare B. Fischer, Michael J. Garazini and John A. Struzzo on such issues as the religious traditions, gay/lesbian movements, fundamentalist homophobia, homosexuality in Christian spiritual tradition, gay and lesbian religious leaders, and pastoral theology. Several articles include excellent bibliographies.
962. Hoagland, Sarah Lucia. Lesbian Ethics. Toward New Value. Palo Alto, CA: Institute of Lesbian Studies, 1988.
Topics include definitions of terms, separating from heterosexuality, female agency, power and paternalism, integration of reasoning and emotion, moral agency and interacting, and moral revolution in the struggle for justice, duty, caring, and integrity.
963. Johnston, Maury. Gays Under Grace. Nashville, TN: Winston-Derek Publications, 1983.
The subtitle reads, “A Gay Christian’s Response to the Moral Majority.” Under the pressure of attacks from the Falwellian right, Johnston attempts to answer prejudice and stereotype with a carefully outlined essay in gay theology. Topics include the present religiously based attack, Hebrew history and homosexuals, the New Testament and Paul, and a gay sexual ethic.
The author discusses the Christian call to holiness, sin, sex and scripture, relationship, a biblical approach to balanced sexuality, and the call of Christ to transcendence.
964. Kroll, Una. What the Church Should Be Saying to Homosexuals. London: Gay Christian Movement, 1979.
Not seen.
965. Lanphear, Roger G. Gay Spirituality. San Diego, CA: Unified Publications, 1990.
Discusses sexuality, human relations, reconciliation, and the threat of AIDS.
966. Macourt, Malcolm, ed. Towards a Theology of Gay Liberation. London: SCM, 1977.
A collection of essays by Macourt, David Blamires, Rictor Norton, James Martin, Jim Cotter, Norman Pittinger, Giles Hibbert, and Michael Keeling on recent Christian perspectives, a framework of debate for creating a gay theology, biblical roots of homophobia, the gay challenge to traditional sexual roles, the meaning of being human, gay liberation and Christian liberation, and a Christian basis of gay relations. An excellent collection on the topic.
967. McNeill, John J. The Church and the Homosexual. 3d ed. Boston: Beacon Press, 1988.
This is a classic in the field and still a fundamental resource. McNeill, who ministered to gay congregations and individuals for many years, was ousted from the Jesuits in 1987 for his opinions. Topics include a review of moral theology on homosexuality, in which McNeill takes issue with Charles Curran’s apparently unconscious homophobic views; the scriptural bases of homophobia, which actually boil down to three texts: the Sodom story of Genesis 19:4-11, in which the righteous Lot offers his virgin daughters up for rape; the grisly story of the gang rape and murder of the Levite’s wife by the men of Gibeah told in Judges 19:1-21:25, also given up willingly by the husband to avoid his own rape; and Paul’s comments in Romans 1:26. The two former stress the violation of the customs of hospitality, the last excoriates the pagan customs of temple prostitutes and fertility cults. McNeill then discusses the tradition of attitudes toward homosexuality, historical anthropologies, and modern scientific data.
After these excellent background pieces, McNeill then goes on to build a theology of homosexuality, citing the very positive contributions of gay and lesbian people to the human community, and highlighting the service of these people in the caring, nurturing and healing arts, emphasizing that gayness offers human society a clear-cut model for compassion and nonviolent relationships. In his last chapters he then discusses the failure of the church to meet the pastoral needs of the gay/lesbian community and calls for the churches to make positive action to reach out to the homosexual on behalf of justice.
968. —. Taking a Chance on God. Liberating Theology for Gays, Lesbians, and Their Lovers, Families and Friends. Boston: Beacon Press, 1988.
This is an attempt to develop a spirituality based on the unique experience of gays and lesbians. Topics include the context of Christian upbringing and attitudes; the challenge of gay atheism; pathological and healthy religious modes; a mature gay and lesbian spirituality; fear, anger, guilt, shame and self-hate in the approach to God; trust, thanksgiving and reconciliation; gay virtues in hospitality and compassion, including some debunking of homophobic biblical myths; celebrating life, corporality, sexuality; the role of Mary in the gay and lesbian community; and the reality of death, especially in the context of the AIDS epidemic.
In this section McNeill deals with the spirituality of death, time, judgment and mourning. He concludes with discussions of a spiritual community for gays and lesbians as a liberating one and on a liberation spirituality.
969. Nugent, Robert, ed. A Challenge to Love. Gay and Lesbian Catholics in the Church. New York: Crossroad, 1983.
Articles by Gramick, Gregory Baum, John McNeill, Michael Guinan, Margaret A. Farley, Matthew Fox, M. Basil Pennington, Marguerite Kropinak and others on societal, biblical, theological, pastoral, and vocational perspectives on the issue of homosexuality. The collection aims to demonstrate that a gay perspective has much to contribute to building a more humane society and toward furthering our understanding of human nature and divinity. Bibliography of books and key church documents.
970. —, and Jeannine Gramick, eds. A Time to Speak. Mt. Rainier, MD: New Ways Ministry, 1982.
Not seen.
971. —, Jeannine Gramick, and Thomas Oddo. Homosexual Catholics. A Primer for Discussion. Washington, DC: Dignity, 1982.
Not seen.
972. Oberholtzer, W. Dwight, ed. Is Gay Good? Ethics, Theology, and Homosexuality. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1971.
Essays by Oberholtzer, John von Rohr, Carl F. H. Henry, Troy Perry, Henry J. M. Nouwen, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, and others on legal, religious, ethical, and personal aspects of homosexuality. Thomas Maurer and Martin and Lyon attempt a theology of gayness and lesbianism. William Parker provides an excellent bibliography.
973. Perry, Troy D, with Charles L. Lucas. The Lord Is My Shepherd and He Knows I’m Gay. Los Angeles, CA: Nash Publishing, 1972.
This is an autobiography of a gay minister that describes his life and work, his homosexuality, the gay community, gay militancy, and attempts a practical theology of gayness in the re-experience of God as a marginalized person who has felt deep anguish.
974. Pittinger, N. A Time for Consent. A Christian’s Approach to Homosexuality. 3d ed. London: SCM, 1976.
Discusses the situation, the theological meanings of humanity and sin, the homosexual “condition” and “act,” various homosexual organizations, the morality of homosexual acts, the biblical foundations and changing attitudes, issues of fidelity and permanence in homosexual relations, and a homosexual ethic. A final chapter deals with the issue of homosexual love in a Christian context.
975. Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal. Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons. Vatican City: Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, 1986.
Cardinal Ratzinger limits his letter to the Catholic moral teaching (2), and reemphasizes the teachings of the Declaration…on Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics, of 1975, in which a distinction is made between a homosexual “condition or tendency” and homosexual “actions” (3). He then condemns the “overly benign interpretation” given the homosexual condition by scholars and theologians and reemphasizes what he considers its evil nature. Genesis 19:1-11 and Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, with their condemnations, are still the guiding texts (6). Paul, in 1 Cor. 6:9 and Rom. 1:18-32, reiterates these.
Choosing someone of the same sex, the cardinal writes, annuls the creator’s plan for sexuality and is thus a “moral disorder.” In the church today, however, there is a large lobby pushing for an acceptance of this disorder, and ministers must take care not to be be misled by this point of view (8).
Cardinal Ratzinger goes right to the heart of the theological issue: the homosexual pressure groups are by and large not good or practicing Catholics, they seek to manipulate issues, well-meaning people, and the “softness” of civil laws (9). In this document the cardinal thus shows the same penchant that he displays in his other letters: an appeal to the unchangeable nature of traditional (rigid) readings of scripture and then a launching into what is nakedly political diatribe, name calling and innuendos of ill-will and evil intentions. The cardinal goes so far as to claim that no one should be surprised if violent reactions against homosexuals increase (10).
Cardinal Ratzinger takes the rest of the letter to advise homosexuals on ways to mend their sinful lives (12), to pastors on ways of helping the homosexual back to the right path (13), to bishops to avoid any programs or groups seeking to change church teaching (14-15), ironically stressing through all this that homosexuals are indeed human beings not defined by their sexuality (16). He then exhorts bishops to spread the word to all the faithful in strict adherence to the capitalized “Magisterium.”
Finally, the cardinal comes to the point of his letter: the official marginalization of the homosexual community: “all support should be withdrawn from any organization which seeks to undermine the teaching of the church, which is ambiguous about it, or which neglects it entirely” (17). This include use of church facilities (including schools and colleges), and special services, while the bishops will “defend and promote family life.”
In the end theological and moral issues of the greatest concern to all Catholics, Christians, and religious people seem to be reduced to the level of power politics and control of real estate.
976. Scanzoni, Letha, and Virginia Ramey Mollenkott. Is the Homosexual My Neighbor? Another Christian View. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1978.
The question, of course, is rhetorical. This book is a call for Christian love of neighbor that examines the theological, sociological, scientific, cultural and ethical meaning of homosexuality in Christian history and today. The authors use biblical analogies to see the homosexual as the Samaritan of our time and examine the biblical passages supposedly condemning homosexuality to arrive at a new understanding. They conclude with a proposal for a new homosexual Christian ethic. Contains an annotated bibliography of books on homosexuality and religion.
977. U.S. Catholic Conference. To Live in Christ Jesus. Washington, DC: USCC, 1976.
Contains one section on the Catholic theology of homosexuality, outlining protections under civil law and special pastoral care.
978. Walker, Mitch, and friends. Visionary Love. A Spirit Book of Gay Mythology and Trans-Mutational Faerie. San Francisco: Treeroots Press, 1980.
See Carson (991), item 683.
979. Williams, Harry Abbot. The Gay Christian Movement and the Education of Public Opinion. London: Gay Christian Movement, 1979.
A brief address concerning the issues of injustice, but also of exploitation and obsession, and the need to educate public opinion by living a just life.
980. Wolf, James G., ed. Gay Priests. New York: Harper & Row, 1989.
Essays by Wolf, R. Edwards, T. Thompson, R. Roberts, and K. Lawrence on gay priests’ lives, experiences, fears and hopes. Includes an excellent annotated bibliography of books and articles on gay theology.
981. Woods, Richard. Another Kind of Love. Homosexuality and Spirituality. New York: Doubleday/Image, 1978.
Deals with the religious mystery of homosexuality, the contexts of life in a gay and straight world, gay life within the church, gay spirituality, activism, and joy. Good, brief bibliography.
982. Zanotti, Barbara, ed. A Faith of One’s Own. Explorations by Catholic Lesbians. Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1986.
Essays by Karen Doherty, Joy Christi Przestwor, Jayne Young, Mary Moran, Maggie Redding, Gloria Anzaldua, Fulana de Tal, Margaret Cruikshank, and others on a lesbian theology, on coming out in the church, on the struggle for freedom, on resistance, and on new forms of spirituality that go beyond the confines of Catholic teaching.
Zanotti brings a collection together that both demonstrates the contribution of lesbians to dismantling the patriarchal and misogynist institutions and attitudes of the church and that seeks to locate Catholicism less in adherence to an institution than in a deep image on the soul. Other themes include the devastating effects of Catholic political involvement against women’s control of their own bodies and status in society, the notion of authority and where it resides, of community and women’s culture.
The Bishops’ Economic Pastoral
983. Berryman, Phillip. Our Unfinished Business. The U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Letters on Peace and the Economy. New York: Pantheon, 1989.
A survey of the status of American Catholic teaching and streams of thought on war, peace, social and economic justice that takes its cue from both bishops’ pastorals, The Challenge of Peace and Economic Justice for All. It clearly and succinctly sums up liberal, radical and conservative arguments on these issues, including insightful reviews of the major thinkers on these issues.
984. Ellison, Marvin Mahan. The Center Cannot Hold. The Search for a Global Economy of Justice. Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1983.
Surveys the development debate in the social scientific literature; then within the ecumenical church movement, including a selection on the Catholic church and the debate between development and liberation. Part 2 then discusses some examples, including Latin American liberation theology. The book concludes with an examination of the meaning of the debate for Christian ethics.
985. Hug, James E. Christian Faith and the U.S. Economy. Kansas City, MO: Leaven Press, 1985.
A reflection on the bishops’ pastoral letter on the U.S. economy. Hug uses the Vatican Instruction on liberation theology (123-124) to emphasize its positive statements and to show how these challenge current U.S. economic thought and institutions. He also addresses the relationship between Christian faith and politics and analyzes the bishops’ theological methods in coming to their conclusions.
986. National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Economic Justice for All. Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy. Washington, DC: National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1986.
Topics include a survey of the U.S. economy, the urgent problems facing Americans, and the need for a moral vision (chapter 1); a Christian vision of economic life (2); selected economic policy issues (3); and the positive recommendations of the bishops, including a new partnership among business, government, and nations; and the positive role that religious people and bodies, including the Catholic church, must play in the world today.
While solidly within the framework and tradition of Roman Catholic social teaching, the document – and the comment period that went into its creation – were among the most controversial actions ever undertaken by the U.S. bishops. The neoconservatives allied with the Reagan administration mustered witness after witness, and even issued their own report to counter the perceived bombshell that the bishops’ letter would generate. Many of the same opponents of liberation theology (765-797) reappeared here, for they rightly perceived that the U.S. bishops were attempting to apply the very same Vatican II spirit and social teachings that had helped create liberation theology in Latin America.
987. Vallely, Paul. Bad Samaritans. First World Ethics and Third World Debt. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.
Discusses both the workings of the international economic order, in which the Third World remains the economic dependent of the First; the need for individual conversion, change of life and social activism to bring about a more just order both here and around the world.
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