The history and tenets of queer theology will be explored this weekend in Philadelphia by an author with a wealth of experience in both queer and theological circles.
The Rev. Dr. Patrick Cheng will present on his book, “Radical Love: An Introduction to Queer Theology,” at 3 p.m. Feb. 11 at The Church of St. Luke and The Epiphany, 330 S. 13th St.
Cheng, an openly gay Metropolitan Community Church minister and a seminary professor at the Episcopal Divinity School in Massachusetts, said “Radical Love” stemmed from the presumption some people have that spirituality and an LGBT life are incompatible.
“I felt very acutely the tensions between spirituality and sexuality where oftentimes LGBT people feel like spirituality is opposed to our community and vice versa,” Cheng said. “I wrote this because I believe that radical love is at the heart of both Christian theology and the LGBT experience.”
Cheng defines “radical love” as the concept of challenging binaries, felt in both the queer and Christian worlds.
“In Christianity, there’s the idea of Jesus crossing this gulf between divinity and humanity, which is the same kind of dynamic that separates male and female; things that seem diametrically opposed are brought together by a love that is so powerful and so radical that it can collapse or dissolve boundaries.”
Considering the antigay stances that some Christian denominations practice, Cheng noted that his ideas are “more theoretical than practical.”
However, if LGBT and Christian communities can begin to understand their root commonalities, Cheng said, the chasm that sometimes separates these populations may become smaller.
“If people can start to see that connection, I hope it could be a bridge between this gulf that exists,” he said.
Cheng’s book traces the history and evolution of queer theology — a journey that he said includes the early stage where LGBTs worked to justify their inclusion in spiritual communities to the shift in which the population sought to free itself from oppression to the current academic-based approach that challenges gender constructions.
Cheng went through his own journey to become an openly gay theologian.
Raised a devout Roman Catholic, Cheng early on wanted to become a priest but abandoned that goal after realizing he was gay. He spent a number of years “secularized” and was a practicing attorney when his passion for theology was reignited.
“I just woke up one day and realized that I didn’t know what I stood for anymore,” he said. “So I took a class at Union Seminary in New York City and that helped me fall back in love with theology, led to my ordination and my finishing my Ph.D. It was a moving away and then back that I had to go through to get here.”
His messages, as well as his status as an openly gay minister, haven’t been well-received by all of his fellow theologians, yet he decided to “celebrate” any criticism, saving derogatory press clippings in which some religious leaders proffered that he needed a “reality check.”
The resistance he faced has made him even more appreciative of religious communities and audiences that are open to his ideas, Cheng said.
“A lot of mainstream folks, like the Episcopal Church, have been supportive, and that’s why I’m really excited to do the talk in Philly,” he said, noting that the event will have a wide applicability.
The program is sponsored by the Philadelphia Theological Institute, as well as Episcopal Divinity School, The Church of St. Luke and The Epiphany and Grace Epiphany Church.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].
