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I recently began reading "The Way Forward? : Christian voices on Homosexuality and the Church."

It has been very interesting, to say the least. It is a collection of articles by various authors, from differing positions. So far they have all been pro-homosexuality; some of them I have found very interesting, others very weak, and some so wishy-washy in the air that I wondered how they got into the volume.

The last one I read had a quote from a brazilian theology, Maria Clara, which I don't quite follow. "If Christians wish to assert that God is love then, in the beginning God can only be object of desire - not of necessity nor of rationality. Theology - which seeks to be reflection and talk about God and God's word - must therefore be moved and permeated in its entirety by the flame of desire... Born of desire, theology exists as theology only if it is upheld and supported by desire."

Now, I am well aware of the mysticial tradition within Christianity, but I feel like some kind of essential step has been skipped in the use of this quote (having not read the brazilian theologians work myself, I can only comment on the author who used the quote). Exactly what kind of desire are we talking about? and what is desire's place in love, most especially and pertinently 1 Cor 13 kind of love? Furthermore, exactly what does it mean, semantically and philosophically, when the bible says God is love? It seems that to jump from love to desire in a generalized, though specifically non-lustful (but still romantic), context without any explanation or defense seems rather hasty. Which is not to say romantic love is not part of Love, simply that there is more to it than that.

So I ask my nearly non-existant readership :) any thoughts on Love and desire?

Comments

Anthony said…
there is this thought, that we are required to be active particpants in gods creation, and i think that sometimes that particpation can have the passion and complicated working out of a lover or a husband.

i have a t shirt that says jesus is my boyfriend, and i feel that--i mean its a nice fuck you pithy aphormism but its also--the feelings i have for my boyfriends are often the feelings i have for my god--the good ones: ecstacy, joy, devotion, fondness, affection, eroticism, tenderness, creation the neutral ones:boredom, exhaustion, banality. the hard ones: anger , frustration, abuse.

but all of those feelings--from the beginning to the end come from her creation, come from her asking me to be part of that creation--come from her penis or her vagina.

i am sorry if this offends, ive been really praying and meditating about this for a long time, and i find myself working lately on litrugical work to reclaim my sexual self in a sense of creation, for the scm conference in victoria in may and for myself.

i can give you a reading list from mainstream to weird, if you want me to.
3:32 AM
Anthony said…
when i talk about penis and vagina, i mean metaphoric engines of creation of course--but also in the terms of christ, literal ones.

christ was incarnated as a full man. (i am not making a statement about his sex life--i dont think he had one) but that he had the body the rest of us do.

did you ever read my poem about this?
3:33 AM
Anonymous said…
Andrew,

Thought I would check out your blog after you commented on Jason's "A Time Less Objective". Still not very knowledgeable on bloggins, so I had to post as "other;" hope that's okay.
I did have one question: Speaking in Christological terms, what would be some implications of Jesus having a sex life?
8:03 PM
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