Un/familiar Theology: Reconceiving Sex, Reproduction and Generativity

by Susannah Cornwall

Overview

Through engagement with theologies of adoption, pro-natalism, marriage, and queer theology, Susannah Cornwall figures developments in models of marriage and family not as distortions of or divergences from the divinely-ordained blueprint, but as developments already of a piece with these institution's being.

Much Christian theological discussion of family, sex and marriage seems to claim that they are (or should be) unchanging and immaculate; that to celebrate their shifting and developing natures is to reject them as good gifts of God. However models of marriage, family, parenting and reproduction have changed and are still, in some cases radically, changing. These changes are not all a raging tide to be turned back, but in continuity with goods deeply embedded in the tradition. Alternative forms of marriage and family stand as signs of the hope of the possibility of change. Changed institutions, such as same-sex marriage, are new beginnings with the potential to be fruitful and generative in their own right. In them, humans create new imaginaries which more fully acknowledge the interactive nature of our relationships with the world and the divine.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780567673268
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	06/15/2017
Series:	Rethinking Theologies: Constructing Alternatives in History and Doctrine
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Susannah Cornwall is Advanced Research Fellow in Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter, UK.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
1. Introducing Un/familiar Theology
2. Generativity: The Disruption of Biological Origins
3. The Content of Marriage: Two and Only Two?
4. Natality: Reproduction and the Possibility of New Beginnings
5: Adopting Our Own: Worldless Newcomers or Children of a Common God?
6: Full Quivers and the Diversities of Generativity
7: Un/Familiar Institutions: Repetition and Difference
Conclusion
Works Cited

Editorial Reviews

Cornwall's prolific writing is always fresh and innovative, weaving together classical and contemporary theology with contemporary thought and social practice. Her latest book does not disappoint. Her approach to marriage, same-sex families, adoption, even polyamory (and more) is a tour de force, achieving in her writing what she advocates for Christian traditions more generally - that they are dynamic; and that they must negotiate continuity with change, and identity with difference. Her analysis of 'generativity', whether in 'un/familiar' family forms, or within the theological tradition as it generates new thinking, is timely and convincing, and will also generate much appreciation among her readers.” —Adrian Thatcher, University of Exeter, UK

From the Publisher