While transgender and non-binary identities are increasingly visible, too many Christians have either maintained a fearful silence, or have attacked 'transgenderism' as a threat to Christian faith and practice. More serious theological reflection is needed, not least of all in the Roman Catholic tradition. Moreover, the Catholic context presents particular challenges that are relevant beyond the Catholic world, due to the Church's widespread involvement in healthcare provision and education, and its traditions of thought around these activities. This volume considers the various questions to do with trans people in the life of the Church from an interdisciplinary, Catholic, ecumenical perspective, reaching out to academics, clergy and educated lay readers. It brings together perspectives from a variety of disciplines to provide a rigorous, wide-ranging engagement with these pressing issues; and includes a number of trans contributors, making their voices present in these discussions, which are about them, but from which they are often excluded. The first three chapters illustrate the development of Catholic thinking on transgender issues in recent decades. The second section of the book considers transgender identity from multiple perspectives: canon legal; legal; sociological, clinical; bioethical; and educational. The last two chapters of the second section shift the focus in the direction of theology and pastoral practice, themes that are explored by emerging theological scholars in the third section of the book.
Winner of a 2015 Catholic Press Award: Gender Issues Category (First Place). In this first book from an openly lesbian and celibate Catholic, widely published writer and blogger Eve Tushnet recounts her spiritual and intellectual journey from liberal atheism to faithful Catholicism and shows how gay Catholics can love and be loved while adhering to Church teaching. Eve Tushnet was among the unlikeliest of converts. The only child of two atheist academics, Tushnet was a typical Yale undergraduate until the day she went out to poke fun at a gathering of philosophical debaters, who happened also to be Catholic. Instead of enjoying mocking what she termed the “zoo animals,” she found herself engaged in intellectual conversation with them and, in a move that surprised even her, she soon converted to Catholicism. Already self-identifying as a lesbian, Tushnet searched for a third way in the seeming two-option system available to gay Catholics: reject Church teaching on homosexuality or reject the truth of your sexuality. Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faith is the fruit of Tushnet’s searching: what she learned in studying Christian history and theology and her articulation of how gay Catholics can pour their love and need for connection into friendships, community, service, and artistic creation.
A transgendered clergyperson seeks to explore the spiritual nature of transgendered persons, to listen to the stories of others like himself, and to give a positive voice to the community.
The object of this little book is to show how we can avoid Purgatory by using the means God has so generously offered us, and, secondly, to show that the use of these means is within the reach of every ordinary Christian. The careful perusal of these pages will be a source of much benefit and consolation to all who read them. The author offers them to the loving Heart of Jesus and asks Him to bless them. How to Avoid Purgatory Table of Contents Foreword Chapter 1 Can We Avoid Purgatory? Chapter 2 How Can We Avoid Purgatory? Chapter 3 The First Means: Removing the Cause Chapter 4 The Second Means: Penance Chapter 5 The Third Means: Suffering Chapter 6 The Fourth Means: Confession, Communion, Holy Mass Chapter 7 The Fifth Means: Asking God Chapter 8 A Sixth Means: Resignation to Death Chapter 9 The Seventh Means: Extreme Unction (Anointing of the Sick) Chapter 10 Indulgences and Purgatory Chapter 11 The Third Orders Chapter 12 Those Who Earnestly Help the Holy Souls Chapter 13 To Avoid Purgatory, Do As Follows Chapter 14 How We Can Help the Holy Souls Appendix I The Brown Scapular
In 2014, Time magazine announced that America had reached the transgender tipping point, suggesting that transgender issues would become the next civil rights frontier. Years later, many peopleeven many LGBTQ alliesstill lack understanding of gender identity and the transgender experience. Into this void, Austen Hartke offers a biblically based, educational, and affirming resource to shed light and wisdom on this modern gender landscape. Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians provides access into an underrepresented and misunderstood community and will change the way readers think about transgender people, faith, and the future of Christianity. By introducing transgender issues and language and providing stories of both biblical characters and real-life narratives from transgender Christians living today, Hartke helps readers visualize a more inclusive Christianity, equipping them with the confidence and tools to change both the church and the world.
This book focuses on resiliency among gender expansive young people in different cultures, exploring how they engage with and leverage school, media, and religious contexts. The contributions in this volume advance the scholarship regarding the health and well-being of gender expansive young people, at a time where a plethora of recent legislation has limited and removed sundry rights of transgender individuals. While previous scholarship identified disparities among transgender youth, this book approaches resiliency from multiple lenses – from school-based clubs as tools for engagement in advocacy, to proactivity and self-care as strategies to mitigate struggles. These empirical chapters focus on diverse contexts across different countries including Canada, the USA and Australia. The book also includes important commentaries from leading scholars in the field debating the controversial issue of transgender youth "desisting" (to no longer be transgender). This book will be of interest to those studying recent legislation on transgender rights, as well as to those with a broader interest in studying gender in different contexts. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Transgenderism.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In his first book published as Pope, and in conjunction with the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis here invites all humanity to an intimate and personal dialogue on the subject closest to his heart—mercy—which has long been the cornerstone of his faith and is now the central teaching of his papacy. In this conversation with Vatican reporter Andrea Tornielli, Francis explains—through memories from his youth and moving anecdotes from his experiences as a pastor—why “mercy is the first attribute of God.” God “does not want anyone to be lost. His mercy is infinitely greater than our sins,” he writes. As well, the Church cannot close the door on anyone, Francis asserts—on the contrary, its duty is to go out into the world to find its way into the consciousness of people so that they can assume responsibility for, and move away from, the bad things they have done. The first Jesuit and the first South American to be elected Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis has traveled around the world spreading God’s message of mercy to the largest crowds in papal history. Clear and profound, The Name of God Is Mercy resonates with this desire to reach all those who are looking for meaning in life, a road to peace and reconciliation, and the healing of physical and spiritual wounds. It is being published in more than eighty countries around the world. “The name of God is mercy. There are no situations we cannot get out of, we are not condemned to sink into quicksand.”—Pope Francis Praise for The Name of God Is Mercy “Francis speaks succinctly—and with refreshing forthrightness. . . . He emphasizes moral sincerity over dogma, an understanding of the complexities of the world and individual experience over rigid doctrine. . . . The pope has an easy conversational style that moves effortlessly between folksy sayings and erudite allusions, between common-sense logic and impassioned philosophical insights.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times “What makes his book most moving is the way in which this man, without disrespecting his own privacy or offering false bromides of modesty, opens the sacred space of his conscience to explain how he came to center his ministry, and now his papacy, around mercy.”—James Carroll, The New Yorker “As he has done throughout his papacy, Pope Francis shows in this book a compelling way to present God’s love anew to a skeptical world without denying the ancient teachings of faith. But now he is challenging the entire Church to trek a new way forward.”—Time “Francis enjoys sharing personal stories of God’s grace and mercy in the lives of parishioners from his native Argentina, people he has known and who have recognized themselves as sinners.”—The Washington Post “Powerful . . . Francis’s book signals a plea for a change of attitude on the part of the faithful and their pastors. . . . Bishops and priests will talk and quarrel over the text for months, even years to come. And that, perhaps, is what Francis intends.”—Financial Times “Deepens his calls for a more merciful Catholic Church . . . The question-and-answer book is told in simple, breezy language, with the pope referring to experiences and people in his own life.”—Newsday “Francis has offered his most detailed outline yet for the role of the Catholic church in the modern era.”—National Catholic Reporter Translated by Oonagh Stransky
OtherWise Christian: A Guidebook for Transgender Liberation by Mx. Chris Paige is a love letter to transgender communities, a self defense manual against Bible abuse and Christian trans-antagonism, and the beginning of a historical record of how far we have come. OtherWise Christian reviews 25 years of transgender-affirming biblical scholarship. Mx. Chris Paige argues that the Bible shows us story after story of OtherWise-gendered people being used by God to further the kingdom. Yet, we have been bamboozled by a restrictive gender ideology that is aligned with empire, white supremacy and Christian supremacy. Jesus and our biblical ancestors invite us to join a gender-full resistance! Scholarly, yet accessible, OtherWise Christian takes the Bible seriously, while presenting new vocabulary to connect modern transgender (and intersex) identities with gender non-conforming themes in the Christian Bible. The result is a bold and unapologetic interpretation of Christian tradition that will have you re-reading familiar bible passages with new clarity. "In many ways, this is the initial quick reference that I would have loved to find when I first started exploring my gender identity as a twenty-something Christian," says Paige about the book. Look for the OtherWise Christian companion blog for additional content!
Winner of the 2008 Grawemeyer Award in Religion This long-awaited book by one of American Christianity's foremost ethicists proposes a framework for sexual ethics whereby justice is the criterion for all loving, including love that is related to sexual activity and relationships. It begins with historical and cross-cultural explorations, then addresses the large questions of embodiment, gender, and sexuality, and finally delineates the justice framework for sexual ethics. Though Just Love's particular focus is Christian sexual ethics, Farley's framework is broad enough to have relevance for multiple traditions. Also covered are specific issues in sexual ethics, including same-sex relationships, marriage and family, divorce and second marriage.
