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Radical Celibacy: Towards a Christian Postmodern Sexual Ethic
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
Extract
As part of the broad project of reconceptualizing the world in theological as opposed to secular terms, some “radical orthodoxy” theologians have begun to address the issues surrounding gender, sexuality, and marriage. These include, most notably, Graham Ward, Eugene Rogers, and (perhaps better classified in the post-liberal “Yale School”) Miroslav Volf. These theologians, however, have made only limited (or poor) use of the extensive conceptual apparatus that has been built up over the last two decades by postmodern feminists and queer theorists. By using these tools in a Christian, orthodox manner in accord with the radical orthodoxy project, I will show that we are led to drastically different conclusions, to a sexual ethic that is no longer “sexual,” but rather refocuses on friendship and celibacy.
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- Copyright © 2003 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers
References
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30 Thanks are due to Julia Salzman of Stanford University, in dialogue with whom many of the ideas expressed here were begotten.