{"id":18443,"date":"2023-08-01T10:57:19","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T14:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=18443"},"modified":"2023-08-01T10:57:19","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T14:57:19","slug":"queering-god-university-of-chicago-offers-new-course-on-gender-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/08\/queering-god-university-of-chicago-offers-new-course-on-gender-identity","title":{"rendered":"\u201cQueering God\u201d- University of Chicago Offers New Course on Gender Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_18449\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18449\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/08\/chicago-queering-god-course_credit-Shutterstock_Inset-EQRoy-Shutterstock-scaled.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18449\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/08\/chicago-queering-god-course_credit-Shutterstock_Inset-EQRoy-Shutterstock-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18449\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shutterstock.com | Inset: EQRoy \/ Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">As the summer winds down, colleges prepare for the influx of new and returning students. This new academic year, the University of Chicago\u2019s religious studies department will offer its students a course called \u201cQueering God.\u201d According to the <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/I4mcu#selection-2929.0-2929.26\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">course description<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, this course will look at questions like \u201cCan God be an ally in queer worldmaking? Is God queer?\u201d and \u201cWhat does queerness have to do with Judaism, Christianity, or Islam?\u201d The course states it will \u201canalyze the ways that contemporary artists, activists, and scholars are using theology to reimagine gender and experiment with new relational forms.\u201d The course will be taught by\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/divinity.uchicago.edu\/directory\/olivia-bustion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Olivia Bustion<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, a Marty Martin Center Fellow with a Master of Divinity from the University of Chicago. According to her fellows page, her dissertation \u201cresponds to a problem at the intersection of moral philosophy and critical theory.\u201d Bustion has previously written a paper entitled \u201c<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/deepblue.lib.umich.edu\/handle\/2027.42\/96141\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Queering the City of God: W. H. Auden\u2019s Later Poetry and the Ethics of Friendship.<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">This is not the first time attempts have been made to connect God with \u201cqueerness.\u201d In May, writing for <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/uscatholic.org\/articles\/202305\/toward-a-theology-of-a-queer-god\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">US Catholics<\/span><\/em><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, Ellyn Sanna pushed for \u201ca theology of a queer God.\u201d \u201cExpanding our ideas about God and gender could bring new health to both our society and the church; it can also open up new possibilities in our spiritual lives,\u201d she wrote. Last year,\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/juicyecumenism.com\/2022\/04\/05\/queer-god-duke-divinity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Duke Divinity School<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, which is associated with the United Methodist Church, held a pride worship service. There, students prayed to \u201cthe great Queer One\u201d and were encouraged to \u201cnever\u2026abandon yourself. Abandoning the self is negating the truth of who you are, and that is always a lie,\u201d and \u201cGod is a \u2018queer God\u2019 who loves \u2018every part of us.\u2019\u201d In the UK, Jonathan Heath, a junior research fellow at Trinity College in Cambridge, preached a sermon last November stating\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2022\/12\/sermon-sparks-outrage-and-cries-of-heresy-with-claims-of-jesuss-trans-body\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Jesus had a \u201ctrans body.\u201d<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Speaking to the <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2023\/07\/26\/university-chicago-course-queering-god\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Daily Caller<\/span><\/em><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, Joseph Flores, co-president of one of the University of Chicago\u2019s on-campus Christian ministries, criticized the course. \u201cProgressive actors seek to conquer and remake God into some crude mockery in their own image,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Christian God is without gender, without sex. To think of Him in such human terms and reduce Him to these categories is deeply disrespectful. The idea of \u2018Queering God\u2019 is, on its face, quite ridiculous. Simultaneously foolish and offensive, such a line of thinking is emblematic of the societal and spiritual decay we are suffering in our country today.\u201d A commenter on The Chicago Thinker\u2019s\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThinkerChicago\/status\/1684202801637781509?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1684202807723786245%7Ctwgr%5Ec65185ebaafc8a9f5cc9106f2b46d39c0b09fc10%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdailycaller.com%2F2023%2F07%2F26%2Funiversity-chicago-course-queering-god%2F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0echoed the sentiment, saying, \u201cThe Judeo-Christian God is not queer. You\u2019re confusing Him with satan.\u201d In an opinion piece in\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/university-of-chicagos-newest-academic-nonsense-is-god-queer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Washington Examiner<\/span><\/em><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0by Briana Oser, she criticizes the course as \u201cpolitical.\u201d \u201cBustion exposes her agenda by asking if God can be an \u2018ally\u2019 in this scheme. The answer is no, because, in the religions she aims to teach, God is an omnipotent being whose power cannot be subverted to an ideological plan. She is admitting that her course will attempt to use God as a political pawn. Bustion does not want to teach about God. She wants to invent a new god.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the summer winds down, colleges prepare for the influx of new and returning students. This new academic year, the University of Chicago\u2019s religious studies department will offer its students a course called \u201cQueering God.\u201d According to the course description, this course will look at questions like \u201cCan God be an ally in queer worldmaking?&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":18449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u201cQueering God\u201d- University of Chicago Offers New Course on Gender Identity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"University of Chicago is offering a new class on gender identity.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/08\/queering-god-university-of-chicago-offers-new-course-on-gender-identity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cQueering God\u201d- University of Chicago Offers New Course on Gender Identity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"University of Chicago is offering a new class on gender identity.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/08\/queering-god-university-of-chicago-offers-new-course-on-gender-identity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-01T14:57:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" 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