As a scholar and an activist, Glenn Harden seeks a theology of hope that can sustain opposition to evil. Looking into the face of evil without blinking, he uses the sex trade as an example of how horrendous evil can be. But he also uncovers stories of radical healing which are problematic for those who deny either God or the resurrection. This book is for those people of faith who walk in dark places and need deeper theological sustenance to sustain their journey.
As a scholar and an activist, Glenn Harden seeks a theology of hope that can sustain opposition to evil. Looking into the face of evil without blinking, he uses the sex trade as an example of how horrendous evil can be. But he also uncovers stories of radical healing which are problematic for those who deny either God or the resurrection. This book is for those people of faith who walk in dark places and need deeper theological sustenance to sustain their journey.
Human trafficking causes untold suffering to millions throughout the world. From a Christian perspective it should go without saying that we ought to work towards the eradication of this evil. The Bible, however, which all Christian traditions recognize as normative for faith and practice, reflects an era in which slavery was regarded as the norm. This raises a question: can it have anything to say to the church about human trafficking, or should it be discarded as irrelevant and anachronistic? Drawing on history and literature to help us bridge the hermeneutical gap between the texts and our own age, this study presents an examination of key biblical material on slavery and prostitution. It suggests that the Bible does have much to say that can inform Christian responses to modern-day slavery in all its forms, including the sex industry into which so many victims of trafficking are sold.
Paying for sex - engaging in "the oldest profession" - is everywhere, even in your church. The factors leading individuals into sex work are as varied as hair colors, yet sex workers are viewed as powerless individuals who must be rescued. I Heart Sex Workers offers another perspective, one where the characters defy stereotypes and solutions are hard to find. Author Lia Scholl firmly believes the Christian response to sex work should be one of building agency for women, through education, through fighting injustice, by listening to the voices of sex workers. I Heart Sex Workers examines the forces leading individuals into prostitution, whether through coercion, choice, or circumstance. And it provides a Christian response, answering the question, "Are you my neighbor?" How do we respond to woman trading sex for a place to live tonight when she asks, "Where will I sleep?" This book discusses these issues and many more.
Planetary Solidarity brings together leading Latina, womanist, Asian American, Anglican American, South American, Asian, European, and African woman theologians on the issues of doctrine, women, and climate justice. Because women make up the majority of the world's poor and tend to be more dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods and survival, they are more vulnerable when it comes to climate-related changes and catastrophes. Representing a subfield of feminist theology that uses doctrine as interlocutor, this book ask how Christian doctrine might address the interconnected suffering of women and the earth in an age of climate change. While doctrine has often stifled change, it also forms the thread that weaves Christian communities together. Drawing on postcolonial ecofeminist/womanist analysis and representing different ecclesial and denominational traditions, contributors use doctrine to envision possibilities for a deep solidarity with the earth and one another while addressing the intersection of gender, race, class, and ethnicity. The book is organized around the following doctrines: creation, the triune God, anthropology, sin, incarnation, redemption, the Holy Spirit, ecclesiology, and eschatology.
Christian sexual ethics operates from a place of privilege when it does not consider those impacted by its moral prescriptions. A large majority of publications on Christian sexual ethics consider choices and images abstracted from lived conditions of the people called to make these decisions. As such, it leaves out many for whom sex is neither welcome nor a choice. As such, these same texts present images of sexual subjects that marginalize those that do not fit. As the book presents, sexuality, both Christian and otherwise, prioritizes a language of purity that strangles the life of those imaged impure. The present book remedies this emphasis through the language of iconoclasm that blasphemes these images and opens theological reflection beyond the boundary of image-based approaches. Utilizing a qualitative study of survivors of trafficking and those who grew up under evangelical purity teachings, Spaulding narrates sexual ethics in light of their testimonies and the theological resources of iconoclasm to articulate a more just and loving sexuality. The new emphasis on sexual ethics not only resists the prescriptions that create the conditions of sex trafficking but the creation of new communities capable of solidarity and mutuality with those caught in the web of trafficking.
This book calls all genuine disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, both vocational ministers and lay people, to serve our Savior by carrying out His marching orders His way. This demands that the doctrines of man, sin, salvation, the Word, and the Spirit have full sway in all that we do in the name of Christ. Whatever we are engaged in, whether witnessing to the lost or carrying out our various other responsibilities (e.g., preaching, teaching, counselling, and encouraging), we must be divinely directed by the practical implications of God's grace. Then we, as faithful channels, may joyously come to understand that it is God who causes any and all growth (1 Corinthians 3:6).
In Reenvisioning Sexual Ethics, Karen Peterson-Iyer applies a feminist Christian framework to practical sexual issues facing young adults today, from “sexting” and “hook up” culture to sex work and sex trafficking. This feminist, justice-based approach to sexual ethics will facilitate meaningful discussion about sexual agency and flourishing.
Stories of survivors of sex-trafficking. Sex trafficking. We hear about it on the nightly news and in special interest stories from around the world, but it occurs daily in communities all around us. Every year, thousands of young women are forced into sexual exploitation. Most are under the age of 18. The damage this causes to their emotions and souls is immeasurable. But they are not without hope. The White Umbrella tells stories of survivors as well as those who came alongside to help them to recovery. It describes the pain and the strength of these young women and those who held the “white umbrella” of protection and purity over them on the road to restoration. This book offers principles and guidance to anyone with a heart for these hurting young women and a desire to help. It is an ideal resource for individuals or organizations seeking to learn what they can do to assist these victims in becoming whole again.
In this reexamination of what it means to have a tradition, Catholic and otherwise, Mark D. Jordan offers a powerful and provocative study of the sin of erotic love between men. The Invention of Sodomy reveals the theological fabrication of arguments for categorizing genital acts between members of the same sex.
