Church and Human Sexuality by Arvind Theodore is the fourth book of the series “Re-imagining Church as Event: Perspectives from the Margins”.
Who defines desire, pleasure and love? Must sex and sexuality be defined by negations? How can the privileged audit themselves in order to practice respect, mutuality and just love? What role must the church play in eliminating sexual injustice? These questions not only shape this book but demand our attention.
In the continued effort to address the moral perplexities of today, and in recognition of the challenges the Indian Church and faith communities are confronted with, this book is a theo-ethical inquiry about sexuality. It is one of the many attempts to have taken place in recent years in carrying on the prophetic work of confronting the historical layers of scriptural and cultural meanings that have proven to be ruinous to peoples and communities, and in excavating new meanings and insights that have the potential to contribute to healing, freedom and sexual justice.
The book invites its readers to read with an open mind and as moral agents engage in self-reflective inquiry, critical thinking, and responsible and just living.
If, as Arvind Theodore proposes, God loves diversity and justice, what would God’s church look like? I find the proposals in this text self-critical, dialogical, and prayerful next steps to becoming a more faithful church following Jesus who made himself a scandal that the world might know God anew.
Winnie Varghese, Priest on
the Strategic Clergy Team, Trinity
Church Wall Street, New York, USA.
Theodore seeks to remove confusions and highlight patterns of interactions that lead to sexual injustice. The book serves as a reminder of our place on this planet, calling for an ethically motivated self-reflective examination of oneself, drawing our attention back to who we are—sexual beings created by the divine.
John Lalnuntluanga, Gossner Theological
College, Ranchi, Jharkhand.
Cover Design by Immanuel Paul Vivekananda.