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| author |
Elyse Ambrose
| | title |
Integrative Communality as Liberative Praxis of Christian Sexual Ethics: A Black Queer Ethic
| | abstract |
Black queer persons, as sources for moral and ethical reflection, offer strategies and ways of being to Christian sexual ethics that counter the disintegrating norms of Christian ethical traditionalism and the liberative ethics that center whiteness. Disintegration refers to the internal fragmentation that occurs as persons who do not reflect prescribed gender and sexual religious norms are forced to compartmentalize their sexuality, repress their desire, and practice relational patterns that may be more reflective of culture and social standards than of God's love-based desire for humanity. Disintegration also refers to the fracturing that happens to communities when persons who disrupt cis- and heteronormativity are harmed physically and mentally, ostracized and expelled from faith communities and homes, and even killed in the name of upholding "Christian values." This dissertation utilizes the particular contexts of black sexual and gender non-conformist communities in 1920s Harlem—blues environs, rent parties, and the Hamilton Lodge Ball—to signal counter-patterns of integration for all: communal belonging, individual and collective becoming, goodness, inspirited flesh/enfleshed spirit, and shared thriving. It also builds upon a tradition of black queer critique in religion that notes the particularity of sexuality at the intersections of race, gender, and class. Black queerness is of particular import to this project because of the challenges it poses to restrictive and essentialized norms, both gendered and sexual, as well as those centered in whiteness, that have long disintegrated persons from themselves, their God, and their communities. Emphases on both personal and social wellbeing mark a shift from Christian sexual ethics that are more rules-based, toward a communal relations-based ethics—a communosexual ethic. This black queer ethic responds to the call of a God who invites humanity to engage justice love through liberative wholeness and being in the love of God, self, and community.
| | school |
The Theological School, Drew University
| | degree |
Ph.D. (2019)
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| advisor |
Traci C West
James W. Pearsall
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| committee |
Kate M Ott
Elias Ortega-Aponte
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| full text | EAmbrose.pdf - requires Drew uLogin |
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