Orthodox-majority contexts, communities, and leaders often cause terrible harm to LGBTQ+ persons through homophobic violence, discourse, and policy. Sexual diversity is perhaps the most polarizing issue facing the modern Orthodox world—from the ecclesial discourse surrounding Pride parades and the conflict in Ukraine, to the Orthodox Church in America’s statement against discussing sexuality—and its real-life effects cannot be understated. Yet, international initiatives over the past decade as well as recent publications (Orthodox Tradition and Human Sexuality (Fordham, 2022) and Gender Essentialism and Orthodoxy: Beyond Male and Female (Fordham, 2023)) have argued Orthodox tradition has resources within it to address issues of gender and sexuality with greater openness and theological consistency. This session features three papers that engage traditional patristic sources to explore what a queering of Orthodoxy and an Orthodox engagement with Queer Studies might look like.
The paper poses the question of whether the traditional teaching on deification can provide avenues for expanding the idea of holy sexual desire beyond monogamous lifelong marriage. A case can be made from within the Greek tradition that physical desire is a consequence of the growth in holiness in general, opening the way for a consideration of the goodness of sexual expressions in many forms. Drawing from three touchstones, Origen’s Commentary on the Song of Songs, Dionysius the Areopagite’s Divine Names, and Symeon the New Theologian’s Discourses, I propose that desire that finds its object in God intensifies its pleasure in creatures. The final part of the paper reflects on what this means for expanding the Christian discussion of same-sex desire beyond the habitual channels of marriage parallelism.
Maximus the Confessor’s Ambigua 41 famously requires humanity to overcome sexual differentiation in order to reach God. When humanity fails, the God-made-human accomplishes the task in himself. But how exactly does the singular event of the incarnation direct the re-creation of all human persons, particularly when sexual differentiation remains very much in evidence? This paper advances conversations already underway by acknowledging that the incarnation depends upon collaboration between Mary and God. Drawing from recent scholarship on Mary as well as work on gender identities and sex development, the paper argues that in the incarnation, Mary and Christ partner to mediate sex difference. This collaboration opens mediation to all other bodies. Moreover, Christ’s dependence upon Mary demonstrates how the virtues of mediation undercut gender essentialism as well as other forms of oppression. Finally, Mary’s actions in the incarnation disclose how God heals all human divisions predicated upon sex difference.
This presentation will include reflections on recent developments and theological approaches towards sexuality from within an Orthodox Christian perspective. Special attention will be given to how these developments and approaches might help Orthodox Christianity better address LGBTQI+ lives and concerns.