Normativity, Citizenship, and Political Imagination: Keri Day’s Azusa Reimagined in Conversation with Queer Thought

Violence and marginalization are woven through U.S. political life. One critical conversation in recent years centers on normativity in U.S. citizenship, a thread that theologian Keri Day picks up in her 2022 publication, Azusa Reimagined: A Radical Vision of Religious and Democratic Belonging. In Azusa Reimagined, Day explores the Azusa Revival in the context of U.S. racial capitalism and uses queer scholarship to examine Azusa’s anti-normative vision and practice of citizenship. While queer theory and queer theology serve as important resources for the book, I argue that Day’s constructive proposal for political moodiness and a project of radical inclusion, belonging, and intimacy risks shoring up rather than effectively resisting the normativity paradigm it seeks to contest. Ultimately, the project would benefit from deeper engagement with negative theology of queer theologian, Marcella Althaus-Reid, to reframe its conclusions and enrich ongoing discussions around normativity, violence, and U.S. citizenship.