Geering Lecturer Introduces "Indecent Theology"
Thursday, 28 July 2005,
Geering Lecturer Introduces "Indecent Theology"
Dr Marcella Althaus-Reid, the St Andrew's Trust for the Study of Religion and Society 2005 Geering Lecturer, has been as
influential as she has been controversial in insisting that all theology is sexual theology.
Drawing on the experiences of queers, the poor and Latin American spirituality, Dr Althaus-Reid will introduce "Indecent
Theology" as she explores "sexuality, poverty and God" in four addresses at St Andrew's on the Terrace in the first
fortnight of August.
"All theology is sexual theology. Indecent theology is sexier than most," she says.
"Heterosexuality informs ways of knowing, ways of relationship and even economic patterns and expectations. "I want to
explore different ways of love and knowing." In doing so indecent theology presents a stark challenge to the Church's
dominant, if unrecognized, sexual theology.
"My interest has been to consider how our theological understandings and church organisations depend on heterosexual
thinking, from dualist conceptions to ideas about reproduction, property and hierarchy. Sexual ideologies combined with
racial and class patterns produce oppression."
Dr Althaus-Reid is the Senior Lecturer in Christian Ethics, Practical Theology and Systematic Theology at the University
of Edinburgh. Her provocative and influential theology has been published in three books:
- Indecent Theology - Theological Per/versions in Sex, Gender and Politics (2000)
- The Queer God (2003)
- From Feminist Theology to Indecent Theology (2004)
The 2005 Geering Lectures
Liberation Theology in the 21st Century:
Reflections on Sexuality, Poverty and God
By Marcella Althaus-Reid
Tuesday 2 August, 12.15pm
Love and the Theologian
Thursday 4 August, 12.15pm
Graffiti and the Cathedrals of Buenos Aires
Tuesday 9 August, 12.15pm
A Theology from the Margins: Poor, Queer and Excluded
Thursday 11 August, 12.15pm
The Return of the Queer God
All lectures are at St Andrew's on the Terrace
Dr Althaus-Reid will also be speaking in Christchurch on August 14, Hamilton on August 18 and 19 and Auckland on August
21.
ENDS